FOREIGNER: Discussion Post #2

[krait]

Welcome to chapters 1 & 2!

Commence discussion, now that we've met our Actual Protagonist(s?) for this trip!

1. Impressions of Bren so far? (If you can make such quick judgments on only two chapters?)

2. Thoughts about or observations on what we've suddenly been introduced to regarding the aiji's court and (now technologically further advanced) atevi society? Unlike Ian, Bren's right in the middle of it; what stands out to him, what stands out to you, and how much overlap is there? :D


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Regarding spoilers: how far along is everyone? I've read either all, or all but one, book; someone mentioned they were only as far as the third book; and I think one of us has never read any Cherryh before...? So far I've been trying to avoid spoilers for absolutely everything beyond our current reading point, so the "Spoiler Edition" post will follow this one.

Comments

Re: Thoughts so far!

[krait]

he's definitely pretty awesome in the reacting-with-firearms department

Thanks for that explanation -- nice to have some more informed input than my own guesses, since my experience with handguns is near nonexistent.

Interesting point about Bren's competence coming strongest when he's purely reacting! He really is, isn't he... And then he spends the rest of the night thinking and shaking; and then he spends the next day thinking and getting angry and confused.

He does seem to put it together afterward, though, about Tabini: "Tabini had felt something in the wind, and armed him", he thinks while daydreaming through his meeting on transport. And he seems to know that the problem with the mail isn't adding up, either, even if he doesn't acknowledge it directly; when Banichi doesn't answer his radio call from Jago, Bren thinks that "the matter of the mail diminished in importance, but not, he feared, significance".

Plus, despite falling over his feet verbally and upsetting or insulting Jago at every other sentence, he's able to read her when she's inviting touch afterward...

re: humans not hunting, why they don't raise animals

I thought about this, and my best guess is that the island is mostly mountains: Bren goes skiing, back home, and (does a two-paragraph spoiler count?) remembers the "white beaches of Mospheira, and tall mountains" ... and we're told that the atevi of the island who gave up their lands for the humans got "much richer" land from the aiji's coastal estates -- so maybe Mospheira's pretty much all mountainous?

In which case they probably raise chickens (or the nearest atevi equivalent) and small, hardy meat animals like rabbits or goats, but if you want a good steak or something beyond the basic poultry-or-rabbit option you've got to either do extensive, un-kabiu land-carving to produce pasture or silage, and we've just seen the aiji ojbect to something as (relatively) minor as buying un-kabiu meat from those willing to sell it... In which case, I doubt he'd tolerate bulldozing the mountains to make cow pastures. :D

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Hey, that's neat: I never knew there was a difference between cover and concealment! Awesome. I will Use The Right Words Like A Smart Person from now on!

Re: Thoughts so far!

[cheyinka]

I think you're right about Mospheira being either beaches or mountains; that makes a lot of sense why they wouldn't have herds, especially if the local animals can't be domesticated or won't stay put in relatively small areas.