This will finish this Foreigner arc. Or start another. Maybe both.
One of these days I’m going to do a different thing, but right now, this arc has been so long, covering the last year since their return—I just have to do this one.
Strange things flit through my mind, after going through the genealogy thing—it’d be interesting to do Clan of the Cave Bear MY way, vignettes of certain ancestors…
The trouble is, there are so many, once the Visigoths get going…
Ah, well, that one will likely never get done.
I did leave Ari in a bit of a quandary.
I have quite a few stories I could pick up.
One thing that I have always liked about your books is that they are never “cookie-cutter” clones of past successes. Except for direct sequels, there was a lot of difference between one Cherryh novel and the next. I liked that and still do.
I’ve made some series suggestions in the past, but the one I most strongly suggest is this:
Surprise us.
May I vote for more Foreigner? Long, short and/or anything in between.
There is only one new CJ Cherryh book I want to read next: what Marik and Walker found on that planet they were asked to explore. 🙂
What everyone above this one said. And, to speak a name (or two) not yet mentioned, a short check-in on Procyon and Marak would be just delightful!
How nice to come back to the blog after a few weeks away to see “new book started”! Re. the greed of readers wanting both a new Foreigner and new everything else — what happens after Tripoint and can it intersect somehow with Mallory is my secret desire. I really like exploring the human and understandable motivations and actions of hard-bitten, not-nice characters.
On a personal note, the last few weeks I’ve been a) madly prepping to start teaching Intro Geology (not my field at all but I did take a course in it oh a few decades ago) and perhaps a bit too lackadaisically prepping my Linguistic Anthropology course. That’s the evening, college job. On the day side, it’s bill-filing season here in Massachusetts and I’ve been working with legislators and coalitions on low-income, public policy work. On the fun side, last weekend was the Arisia Sci-Fi convention and, for the first time, I went in elaborate, multiple bustles, petticoats and floofy blouse & capelet Edwardian garb. I’m normally not a fancy dresser: oh was it gratifying and fun to get requests to take my picture.
Now back to reading geology.
Almost all the old series have been left so they’re open for updates. As it happens, I’m on a Cherryh kick at the moment, rereading everything except Foreigner (still waiting for the publisher to get around to paperback versions of the latest, mumble, mumble) and am currently about halfway through Regenesis. I know there’s a whole lot more to be told in that tale.
Mostly, I think we need you cloned, so you’d have enough time to pursue all the interesting trains of thought you come up with, as well as being able to actually write them down. While, of course, having an actual, you know, real life 🙂
It occurs to me that, no matter how you date things, Pyanfar Chanur is almost certainly dying (or feeling mortality close in) by the time Ari II has the reins, and it’s proven that psychogenesis works. What better lever for Union in negotiating with Earth than the ability to guarantee safety from a resurgence of those lovable kifish scamps meddling with Earth’s ships… without a shot being fired?
Alpha-azi enfant-terrible Grant ALX has the required skillset to run a psychogenesis project, and has also expressed a professional interest in alien contact…
…Also, we haven’t heard anything of quintessential mama-bear Elene Quen in quite a while, not since Finity’s End. Something tells me Earth-Union rapprochement wasn’t on her Christmas list.
Lol—in Quen’s case, you’re quite right. And Grant and Justin? Perfectly capable.
Ma’am, if you write it, I’ll do the cover.
Or as the bard says -“Kkkt. A weapon in my hand is a weapon in yours.”
<3
Lol!
Do you require care, hakkikt? These noises are unsettling.
…man. With skku like me, who needs enemies?
ROTFL
No wonder Pyanfar’s dying. This must be every Friday night for her.
She’s not dying–she’s still on slow time, flitting about on the interface. Rhean, now, she retired to the Estate and Hilfy has some of her crew. She’s on fast time. She may well be.
Imagining a couple like Grant and Justin trying to keep on top of a baby-either-of-them is about as good, though.
It takes a village just to keep up with a child called Pyanfar? Ditto Cajieri…
@ Tommie — Probably why one young Hilfy was hurried to Aunt Pyanfar’s ship, so Aunt could have the joy of dealing with Niece’s talent for landing in difficult situations, questions, enthusiasms, etc. Or for some in their clan, that Hilfy notably missed her cousin Dahan and might have been vocal about that too. … Even though one notes Chanur as a whole has a talent for difficulties and notions about how things ought to be versus how they are. (Pyanfar and Kohan and Hilfy being only three examples.)
Any mention of Chanur, hani, and the Compact species grabs my interest. — I wonder, of course, about the hani, but I’m very curious what else the mahendo’sat, stishovite, kif, and methane breathers would do.
Mini Grant and/or Justin? Oh my. Curious idea, there. And how would any of us turn out, cloned and raised in a new generation?
It took me most of the way through the first Cyteen book, back when it was a trilogy, to dawn on me Grant and Justin became more than friends. This probably said something about my self-acceptance at the time.
It’s a source of mystery to me why those books aren’t better loved in the Age of the Lolcat.
CAN HAS PAN-SPECIES CULT’RAL HEGEMONY PLZ?
I’d sure have had my Zoloft by the time I was four and made my first attempt! Inborn, not situational, severe depression runs in my bloodline. Had I known that, I might also have had myself sterilized earlier. Though I adore my children, I caused at least half of them unknowable grief by bearing them.
Hilfy, co-wives, and spouse coping with younglings shipboard and station side. Golly gosh gee whilliker whiz! Having reared four, I’m not sure I want to know!
Head of my list of books I’d love to see is a direct sequel to Finity’s End. The book wrapped up well and satisfying, but there’s something about Fletcher Neihart that has always made me want to see more of his story.
Next on the list is Morgaine. It’s been more than 20 years since Exile’s Gate, and I’d love to see at least what goes on with Skarrin on the far side of the gate they crossed.
I had a childhood very similar to Fletch’s and I share your interest.
I always saw him signing on to the new Quen ship eventually. Man needs space, room to grow, and even a Family ship full of ghosts and PTSD isn’t going to be home to someone like that for long. And Alicia Quen probably has some Family issues of her own to work out.