Status Updates From Foreigner (Foreigner, #1)

Giving up and turning to Octavia Butler, who knows how to write *alien* aliens.

Maybe I'll come back when I'm more in the mood for political intrigue with a vague sci-fi flavor.

I'm still hung up on how un-alien these aliens are in both biology history and culture. Which is fine! It's Star Trek/Wars aliens! A common sci-fi setting for exploring relatively minor cultural differences! I just was for some reason expecting something grander. I'll get over it eventually (or I'll give up on the book). It all feels subtly but distinctly dated. 1994 was another era in SFF. I'll try to love Bren.

The other thing is that all the early focus on people doing science led me to believe this would be a more interested in scientific plausibility than it is. So I'm struggling to get over the aliens being very humanoid, and basically another culture only mildly unintelligible to humans. Not an evolutionary distinct planet.
Again, if I'd only looked at the cover lol.
This story about cultures instead. I'll get there.

It's interesting, it's just not where I thought it was going when I started. That's what I get for not only not reading the synopsis, but not even looking at the cover illustration very closely.
It just that I kept getting invested in characters and then CJC would whisk me forward in time several hundred years. So I still miss Taylor. And don't feel ready for Bren. Though evidence suggests I'll be with him awhile.

I'm confused about this book's approach to science, but I'm enjoying this alien encounter.

Maybe my adhd addled brain will be able concentrate on THIS one.

Outer space! Capitalism! Dune-esque pilots? I know very little about this book other than that I've seen Cherryh recommended by people whose taste I'm inclined to trust.