C.J. Cherryh, Deliverer

Deliverer

C.J. Cherryh

Daw, Feb 2007, $25.95, 368 pp

ISBN: 0756404147

Bren Cameron is a paidhi, a facilitator and interpreter between the Atevi and the humans as he tries to prevent any crisis from blowing up between the two wary species. After two years in space with the world leader's heir, Cajeiri and his powerful-grandmother llisidi, the aiji-dowager, they come back to a world in the middle of a civil war. Cajeiri's father has triumphed over the usurper Murini who is on the run in the south and everyone is working on the infra structure to bring it back together.

Although Bren is fond of Cajeiri, he has to cut his ties with the boy so that he can broker relationships with his own kind. However, the boy is stubborn and doesn't want to conform to his parents' demands; he eludes his bodyguards at every turn and shows how untraditional he is to various factions. Cajeiri is kidnapped by a faction in the east. The heir's father sends Bren, the only person he trusts, to find his son and take him away from the kidnappers; if they fail the whole world will destabilize and be ripe for a violent revolution.

DELIVERER, the direct sequel to PRETENDER, is classic science fiction focusing on a character that is human but is so immersed in an alien culture that he is more Atevi than human. His love for the leader's heir humanizes him by making him vulnerable and willing to die if it means saving the child. C.J. Cherryh has created an alien culture so structured that readers will believe the Atevi actually exist.

Harriet Klausner