Foreigner Reread: Explorer

[krait]

I was diverted for a bit from my Foreigner reread, but I'm back at it now and just finished Explorer

I continue to be amazed at how fast this series moves; I always misrember just how few books it takes to cover so many major plot changes; by book 5 we were in space and by book 6 Reunion Station has been emptied!



There are so many wonderful bits in Explorer that I love - worldbuilding moments, like the atevi perspective on Reunion's actions, and also character moments, like Bren's intense joy and focus when he's doing the job he loves best, preparing for contact and building verbal bridges between species. (Not to mention moments that are both, such as Bren essentially filing Intent on someone for the first time in his life, and having ~feelings~ about it.) Bren pretending to be a crewman during the would-be invasion of the ship is another standout, with the ways it reflects his differing identity. Among atevi he stands out, and among ship-crew he can blend in, but he's a part of neither, and Bren affecting ship-speech is explicitly called out as 'another accent he can put on,' no different than speaking Ragi.

Ilisidi powers through everybody like a battle axe, as usual. :D

Cajeiri's toy car racing hobby proves useful in the end! That was a delight. I'd forgotten about Banichi & Jago appropriating some of the cars for their trip onto the station, so I got to enjoy the 'reveal' all over again.

This is also the book where Captain Sabin takes a turn into sympathetic protagonist status, which I love a lot. It's interesting to me that her admirable qualities become clearer even as Captain Ramirez's actions, posthumously suspected, make him less so: an inversion from the Good Wise Ramirez vs. Angry Unreasonable Sabin situation we were initially presented with. (Since it sometimes feels that sympathetic female characters are thin on the ground in this series, I appreciate Sabin's shift from angry unreasonable Guild foil for wise understanding rogue Ramirez all the more.) Sabin is now in the running with Ginny Kroger for 'my most unexpected faves' in this series.


Onward to Destroyer next!

Comments

[feuervogel]

Is that the one where Ilisidi poisons Sabin at dinner and Sabin calls her a bastard? I love that scene.

[krait]

That was the book before this one! I loved it, too.

[viridian5]

At this point, Bren doesn't really belong on or is part of Mospheira either.

[krait]

Yes! There's a lot of great stuff in this book that plays up Bren's perpetual fish-out-of-water position: his pain over the separation from his brother, his observations on the differences between ship culture and Mospheiran culture, his own experiences explaining atevi to ship's crew and crew to atevi, the moments where he recognises that his and Jase's loyalties are splitting, and the times where he tries to grapple with his own elevation to atevi lordship - he's now literally a part of atevi society, will or nil he, at its most fundamental level instead of as a mere tacked-on modern appendage.

[meteordust]

Explorer is probably my favourite! I love the first contact scene with the blinking lights.

It's interesting to me that her admirable qualities become clearer even as Captain Ramirez's actions, posthumously suspected, make him less so

I love that the narrative allows Sabin to be brusque and hard and unlikeable, and still be right and on the side of the heroes.

[krait]

The first contact scene stood out to me, too. ♥ "Blink the lights back at them" becoming "let's make cartoons for each other" is such a charming but deeply practical means of tackling the unknown presence.

the narrative allows Sabin to be brusque and hard and unlikeable, and still be right

Absolutely. It still seems rare for female characters to get roles like this, so it really stood out for me that Sabin has this arc of being an unpleasant person wrongfully opposed to the heroes... then gradually coming to respect and support them, but without losing her personality or personal feelings? She doesn't like Bren or the atevi, and she never stops being abrasive (to the heroes OR to her own people), but she's willing to accept the evidence that they do have skills she needs and can be trusted to use them in ways that help her, and gives them her support as a result.

Meanwhile there's Ramirez, the Heroic Farsighted Manly Captain Man With A Plan Whom Everyone Loves, who (it turns out) bungled multiple attempts at first contact, ruthlessly lied to his people about the state of the station and their relatives on it, and may have been looking for planets to start his own colonial efforts on.