Description
The tenth novel in Cherryh’s Foreigner space opera series, a groundbreaking tale of first contact and its consequences…
The civil war among the alien atevi has ended. Tabini-aiji, powerful ruler of the Western Association, along with Cajieri, his son and heir, and his human paidhi, Bren Cameron, have returned to the Bujavid, their seat of power.
But factions that remain loyal to the opposition are still present, and the danger these rebels pose is far from over. Since the rebellion, Bren Cameron's apartment in the capital has been occupied by an old noble family from the Southern district—the same district from which the coup was initiated. This family now claims loyalty to Tabini, but the aiji is dubious. To avoid additional conflict, Bren has decided to visit Najida, his country estate on the west coast.
Tabini-aiji has once again take over the job of training his young son in the traditional ways of the atevi, and has Cajieri under strict supervision. But after two years in space, surrounded by human children, Cajieri bristles in this highly controlled and boring environment. Desperate for freedom and adventure, Cajieri escapes the tightly guarded Bujavid with his young bodyguards and sets out secretly to join Bren on the coast.
Determined to ensure his son’s safety, Tabini recalls Ilisidi from her home in the East, asking her to find Cajieri and secure him at Bren’s estate. But it has been a long time since Bren has been to Najida, and the war has shifted allegiances in many quarters. A district that once was considered a safe haven might now be a trap. And with Bren, Cajieri, and Ilisidi all under one roof and separated from their allies, that trap is now baited.
About the Author
Currently resident in Spokane, Washington, C.J. Cherryh has won four Hugos and is one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed authors in the science fiction and fantasy field. She is the author of more than forty novels. Her hobbies include travel, photography, reef culture, Mariners baseball, and, a late passion, figure skating: she intends to compete in the adult USFSA track. She began with the modest ambition to learn to skate backwards and now is working on jumps. She sketches, occasionally, cooks fairly well, and hates house work; she loves the outdoors, animals wild and tame, is a hobbyist geologist, adores dinosaurs, and has academic specialties in Roman constitutional law and bronze age Greek ethnography. She has written science fiction since she was ten, spent ten years of her life teaching Latin and Ancient History on the high school level, before retiring to full time writing, and now does not have enough hours in the day to pursue all her interests. Her studies include planetary geology, weather systems, and natural and man-made catastrophes, civilizations, and cosmology…in fact, there's very little that doesn't interest her. A loom is gathering dust and needs rethreading, a wooden ship model awaits construction, and the cats demand their own time much more urgently. She works constantly, researches mostly on the internet, and has books stacked up and waiting to be written.
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