Foreigner
And now you are all thinking, did she forget it's a book day?
Nope. Foreigner is a series by CJ Cherryh. It's amazing.
So here is what you need to know. This books is set in the distant future. A ship is headed out to a planet they are to colonize. But they get lost. Very lost. THe ship builds a station around a very nice planet then goes off. Eventually, the humans end up (it was a one way trip) on that very nice planet and start interacting with the locals, the Atevi. Atevi don't think like humans. Atevi don't act like humans. When humans and atevi first started interacting, the lack of understanding between the two led to a war. At the end, the humans got an island, and one human was allowed on the mainland to interact with the atevi, the padhi. The padhi is the interpreter and the one who controls the release of concepts and technology to the atevi (the atevi's technology had been equivalent to the 17th-18th century).
The padhi is a very tough position to get. Years of study of the language and the culture. And after you do all of that, the job might open up in time for you to go for it. And on the mainland, the padhi is a fairly small position. Stays mostly out of the way. Well he was. Then [Spoiler (click to open)]the ship comes back. And everyone freaks out.
Politics on the island. Politics on the mainland. Politics on the ship. Not to mention all sorts of groups not understand the others.
Why I like it:
The atevi are not just green humans. They have different mental and emotional processes. Numbers a huge part of their mental processes (which I like also), they form very different emotional bonds. And I like that.
Also, we get almost everything from Brent (the padhi)'s perspective. Brent is that one treaty allowed human. He's feeling all of these human emotions for those that CANNOT feel them for him. Not only that, but they cannot understand what he feels for them, and he cannot truly understand what they feel. He lives with the atevi. He's got a pretty good grasp of how things work (which improves as the series goes), but it's never much of a surprise to find out when he's wrong.
Nope. Foreigner is a series by CJ Cherryh. It's amazing.
So here is what you need to know. This books is set in the distant future. A ship is headed out to a planet they are to colonize. But they get lost. Very lost. THe ship builds a station around a very nice planet then goes off. Eventually, the humans end up (it was a one way trip) on that very nice planet and start interacting with the locals, the Atevi. Atevi don't think like humans. Atevi don't act like humans. When humans and atevi first started interacting, the lack of understanding between the two led to a war. At the end, the humans got an island, and one human was allowed on the mainland to interact with the atevi, the padhi. The padhi is the interpreter and the one who controls the release of concepts and technology to the atevi (the atevi's technology had been equivalent to the 17th-18th century).
The padhi is a very tough position to get. Years of study of the language and the culture. And after you do all of that, the job might open up in time for you to go for it. And on the mainland, the padhi is a fairly small position. Stays mostly out of the way. Well he was. Then [Spoiler (click to open)]the ship comes back. And everyone freaks out.
Politics on the island. Politics on the mainland. Politics on the ship. Not to mention all sorts of groups not understand the others.
Why I like it:
The atevi are not just green humans. They have different mental and emotional processes. Numbers a huge part of their mental processes (which I like also), they form very different emotional bonds. And I like that.
Also, we get almost everything from Brent (the padhi)'s perspective. Brent is that one treaty allowed human. He's feeling all of these human emotions for those that CANNOT feel them for him. Not only that, but they cannot understand what he feels for them, and he cannot truly understand what they feel. He lives with the atevi. He's got a pretty good grasp of how things work (which improves as the series goes), but it's never much of a surprise to find out when he's wrong.