FOREIGNER: Discussion Post #1

[krait]

Welcome to the first sixty-one pages, everybody! :D Anyone have anything to discuss?

Some ideas, since this is a reread for me (I will try to walk the delicate line between "discussion topics" and "spoilers") and thus certain details stand out to me:

1. This is the only time in the whole novel where we get an ateva's POV; before and after Manadgi, it's through-human-eyes all the way. Thoughts? (Why do it that way? What do we gain, or what is hidden, by Cherryh presenting the first contact through a nonhuman perspective? What do you get out of it, or wish had been included?)

2. While "Books" within books are certainly something I've seen before, the setup in Foreigner has always felt a little odd to me, with two very short "books" -- almost prologues -- prefacing a third, novel-length story. I'm genuinely curious about why it was set up this way! Anyone have any theories?

3. Personal reactions so far? First impressions of the atevi, or the humans of either/both Phoenix and the station?


I'll be back in a little while to post my own reactions; must run a couple of errands first, but I wanted to get the post out there in case anyone else has finished their reading!


Edit To Add: If you wish to take the discussion down a spoilery path, make any spoilery replies here and then link to them, so anyone wishing to avoid spoilers can do so!

Comments

[krait]

Although, to be honest? I'd give a kidney for an entire novel about Ian and Manadgi making first contact and building the first dictionary and wearing silly (to Ian) lacy outfits and going to court and drinking lots and lots of tea and while Ian going YOUR LANGUAGE HAS SO MUCH MATHS, MAKE IT STOP and Manadgi is appalled by his infelicitous use of plurals and they are totally BFFs 4eva despite Manadgi having not the slightest clue what that even means.

Erm. I have a weakness a MILE DEEP for alien-POV first contact stories, so. Yeah. I was so upset when those two just vanished and suddenly we were in Bren's very different day and age. D: I wanted first-contact shenanigans and Manadgi ruminating on the strange things humans say! And Ian's equivalent of he followed me home "Hi, guys, I'm back! I followed him home, can I keep him?" (Hopefully with not too much foreshadowing; but it would be interesting to see the earliest signs of nonalignment of minds, and how the humans managed to miss, or misinterpret, them.)

[cheyinka]

Yesssssssss I would read the hell out of an Ian and Manadgi novel! Building the very first dictionary! Going to court! Tea! Lace! Plurals! The difference between being BFFs and having man'chi! <3 <3

Alas, we got Bren instead. ;)

[krait]

Alas, we got Bren instead. ;)

Weeeeell, okay, I guess I can deal with that.

(Hahahaha, I ♥ Bren so much! I'm a fangirl, I admit it. He's just... so awesome!)

[pebblerocker]

I would love that too! The time when everyone thought "Hey, they're just another type of human like us, everything's going so well and this new association/friendship is going to be awesome!" and the more they discover about each other the more it seems that it really is going to be that way. And then. Well, not exactly a happy ending to that one, but I'd still love it.

[blnchflr]

I have a weakness a MILE DEEP for alien-POV first contact stories
I'd love some recs of that!

[krait]

Alas, I have very few! Here's what I can name offhand. (Though some of that's cheating -- only the first Chanur novel technically contains first contact, though the entire series deals with the repercussions of it, one way and another.)

It is hard to find!

[blnchflr]

Nor Crystal Tears sounds very interesting!

[krait]

I love it. Embarrassingly much. :D (Honestly, it's probably my favourite of all his Commonwealth novels, even more than the other ones that deal with first contact.)