Precursor (Foreigner)

C.J. Cherryh creates thought-provoking stories of cultures in collision featuring well-drawn characters and plenty of intrigue. Precursor directly follows Inheritor in the Foreigner series (which includes Foreigner and Invader). The series introduces the atevi, aliens with a culture based on loyalty, legal assassination, and inborn mathematical gifts.

Two hundred years ago humans crash-landed on the atevi homeworld. The two races are nearly incompatible; peace is maintained by limiting contact to a single human diplomat, the paidhi. His name is Bren Cameron.

In the first trilogy, the starship Phoenix (the same ship that brought the human colonists) returned, fleeing alien attack in another sector. The Phoenix asked both atevi and human communities to help reopen the orbital station and rearm the ship. Bren coordinated an atevi shuttle-building program and trained the Phoenix representative, Jase Graham, in living on a planet and dealing with aliens. Now he faces family crises while ensuring that the atevi remain equal partners in the space effort. He must deal with the very different culture of the Phoenix crew and the alien space station environment while maintaining cooperation with the colonists and representing atevi interests.

Precursor ends abruptly. Are the aliens coming? Will the Phoenix crew, colonists, and atevi be able to protect their system together? Will Bren be able to retain any of his humanity? If you enjoy stories that make you think about how space travel and contact with aliens would really play out, treat yourself to this meaty SF series. --Nona Vero