Tracker (Foreigner)

The sixteenth novel in Cherryh s Foreigner space opera series, a groundbreaking tale of first contact and its consequences

It s been a year of upheaval, since Bren Cameron s return from space a year when he and the aiji-dowager, one of his most powerful atevi allies, returned home from their two-year interstellar mission to find the government over thrown and their world in chaos.

Now, at last, things are calming down; the Assassins Guild is functioning again, working out its internal difficulties, and Bren is settling back into his routine: not as Lord of the Heavens; not to his regret as Lord of Najida peninsula, where his leisure estate is located; but as paidhi-aiji, an official in the atevi court.

His current ambition is to keep himself and his bodyguard out of harm s way, and to shepherd the aiji-dowager s daring new trade agreement through the appropriate legislative committees. Combined with Tabini-aiji s recent appointment of his young son Cajeiri as his official heir, Bren s workload is challenging, but at least things on the atevi world seem to be on the right track.

Something is coming, however, quietly, stealthily, just the first ominous twinkle of a new star in the heavens .