Precursor (Foreigner #4) by CJ Cherryh

The more I look at this series, the more I begin to realise how prescient Cherryh is in terms of socio-cultural world building – there are lessons for us that are relevant today. For the sake of those who're not invested in this gargantuan series, I'll keep my review short and sweet. 

Humans and the indigenous atevi are simply hardwired differently. But the humans are doing what humans in a post-colonial situation gone tits-up usually do – lean on their incredible sense of entitlement to make a fraught situation worse. And now, added to the mix, we have humans who've returned from an interstellar jaunt to lay claim to the atevi home world's natural resources and the space station orbiting the planet. Even worse, they're fleeing from a big bad from another solar system that may have followed them here.

The space station is a big point of contention. The humans abandoned it ages ago, and now the atevi want to lay claim to it – especially since they've seen the possibilities of space travel thanks to having been given access to the humans' technology. The big question is will everyone play nice (of course not!).

And we're once again walking in our interpreter/diplomat/spy's shoes as Bren, our intrepid paidhi, attempts to navigate this political minefield. As always, his loyalties are called into question – he's been working for the leader of the atevi's strongest political power for so long that he struggles to relate to humans. Yet he can never forget that he's not atevi. The lens with which he views his world is distorted, and at a time when the stakes couldn't be higher, this is a dangerous place to be.

As much as he'd like to remain impartial, he can't help but be drawn into the murky dealings, and things get dangerous, fast – especially when Bren thinks that he has a handle on things. He has some pretty nifty manoeuvrings to perform, and the tension in this instalment had me clawing at my seat. Nothing is ever easy, and everyone he knows – or thinks he knows – has a few spanners to throw at him. Trust, when it's most needed, is in short supply, which is a problem when each group suffers from the conviction that their way of doing things is the only way.

This is part political thriller, espionage, and good, old-fashioned space opera. Advice to any South Africans wanting to read Cherryh's books – they're hard to come by. Either listen to the audiobooks or visit Thriftbooks or Abe books.