(ETA: I've posted a new and very relevant comment about this book, *here* --- the review is not complete without it. ty)
I am the kind of person who watches the Olympics, on pins and needles the whole time. not because I am eager to find out who wins; no. because I am thinking how very very hard some of those events are, and how long and hard the athletes practiced and trained for this, and how this could be the emotional and professional culmination of their lives to-date, and how very easily every hope and dream they'd ever had could be dashed. I especially like to watch the figure skating, and I know that I'm probably more entertaining to watch at some points than the actual event. me, leaning this way and then that on the couch; me, suddenly leaping into the air; me, dropping to my knees and clenching my hands... yep. well, Jase does that (much more moderately) while on aircraft, and Bren does that with space craft. They try to help the machines fly, bodily, through the air, and I try to help the athlete do a triple Salchow or a flawless gymnastic floor routine. (and no I am not at all as graceful!)
I can't help it. if something goes wrong for that athlete, I feel it. I feel so embarassed or ashamed or completely overwhelmed it's like it happened to me personally. it's just how I am... about certain things.
for instance: when Bren Cameron says or does something that seems to me to be clueless (and/or possibly having dramatic social consequences). I feel it. several times (too many to count, really, if I can say that about a Foreigner book and not be a heretic) I found myself closing Pretender, tossing it to the other side of the table/couch/etc, and then covering my face---as if that could stop anything from happening. I haven't tended to do that with the other books in this series, so it really bothered me this time around. in Foreigner (meaning #1), one has ample ocassion to think Bren, you fool!, but he's an honest fool; it's all ignorance. how is he supposed to know? by Pretender, you think he's probably supposed to know.
and it's like something Gary Larson (The Far Side) once said... in a cartoon, the mouse can drop an anvil on the cat's head and pull out all his whiskers, and then the cat can tie the mouse to the tracks of the model train set, aiming the engine at him, but they instantly recover and you can see they're all right. in a comic, you can put the paper down and then three hours later pick it back up, and, yep, those dogs are still playing tethercat. does it never end?
so I pick up Pretender, and, yes, Bren-ji is still stuck in that same awkward place I left him. there's nothing for it but just be brave and read. the hard part is... he doesn't seem to think he's in an awkward place. I feel like he's making a monumental fool of himself in some instances, or just that he's not with the program, and he apparently doesn't pick up on this at all. it about kills me. it seems especially bad for this to happen in Pretender, because by now he really should know better... right?
when I first read Pretender (this is my second read), I was so thrown off by Bren's apparent continuing mistakes and/or misinterpretations that I couldn't enjoy the book at all. I was mad as hell, really, because I didn't enjoy the book one iota. I spent the whole time thinking (and ocassionaly saying aloud): Bren Cameron, you fool, you fool! What are you thinking? Get it together! and I couldn't focus on the plot or anything else going on in the book because of this.
I know he's a human and he always will be the outsider and he will never understand it all, but it seems he slips and forgets things he already knew... ok, he's been out of the loop, out saving the galaxy, for two years, and he's been preoccupied with surving several battles and attempts on his life more recently, and he's terminally short on sleep. so there is plausible excuse. I have to give him (&Cherryh) that. still, it is acutely painful for me to see Bren's mistakes when I know how good he can be, when I have previously known him to get it right. this is what Pretender was for me: Bren, from cover to cover, seriously off his stride, still reeling from the guilt he assigns himself for the upset at home, and therefore not being able to follow the plot. yes, you read that right; and how familiar it sounds: Bren takes the circumstances very personally and it throws him off quite profoundly. see, I can fugue just almost as badly as he can lol. I knew there was a point in there somewhere--- it took me until just now to see it clearly: I'm so much like Bren that, on the first read, I did *exactly* what Bren did. I was thrown off so much by Bren's mistakes (albeit different ones than what threw him off) that I couldn't follow anything else that was going on.
(except for Algini... I can always follow Algini ;) ).
well, enough for that irony. back to the specifics:
at the beginning of Destroyer (#7), the ship captains et al wonder at the thinking behind the aiji-dowager, the aiji-meni, AND the paidhi-aiji all getting on a space shuttle and making themselves a very tempting target, much less all of them heading straight for the heart of the fray. Bren explains to them, in a matter-of-fact way, that the aiji-dowagers follwers would never respect her (or follow her) if she sat up on the station, safe and protected. atevi only follow leaders who actually, physicaly, at the place and in the moment, lead.
so why is it that he keeps thinking, once they're on the planet, that the best course of action is to lay low and hide? especially all his internal postulations involving hiding the heir out of harm's way until everything has been taken care of and decided? Bren does seem to have problems (still) thinking in atevi terms---unless he's explaining the atevi culture to someone else. then, he has little problem. when he is just thinking to himself, however, he doesn't seem to engage that regulatory check, that but-they're-not-human catch, as often as he should. Cajeiri is not a human child, not even a "regular" atevi child. Cajeiri is aijiin, and as such, especially since he is coming into his majority in a tangible way, and can no longer completely hide behind his nonage, he must be present and seen.
but Bren thinks himself to death about how to get Cajeiri out of there, etc. and later he has even convinced himself they should all go back to the station (173)! what the heck, Bren? eh anyway.
and on 52, Bren even says to himself that Tabini has everything in hand and knows what he's doing, and yet Bren goes on for still most of the book about trying to get the report to Tabini, knowing that is not in Tabini's plans... ? sheesh Bren! and Bren has always been forward, and almost without shame, but temerity indeed on 54. I had to take a break at that point. he really talks himself into it, and out of sense, on 90. Jago has to spell it out for him on 145. Bren is always outmaneuvered by Tabini, and yet he never seems to be able to fathom that Tabini-aiji is the absolute paradigm of a quick-thinking, quick-moving leader of absolute action and absolute power.
(mia stops to sigh over Tabini-aiji. esp Tabini-aiji on 307. sigh. sigh.)
Bren has never quite looked ahead to what Tabini-aiji would, predictably, ask him to do. Bren doesn't seem to have that knack. not that anyone can get one up on Tabini, hah, I laugh at such a foolish thought, but Bren should be able to at least keep up on what Tabini would ask the paidhi-aiji to do... and know that Tabini would not leave his followers and go kiting off in an airplane.
ok I'll move on.
problems within the Assassin's Guild itself... very troubling. this idea is especially alarming. great idea for a story and well carried-out. ;)
Murdi. very important theme, almost as much so if not moreso than man'chi. explored more here, and given to Bren at the end. this hopefully is good, since it is *within* man'chi, but it still seems a bit ominous, because man'chi can sometimes change. gratitude and favors are discussed much, as on 167.
in Explorer we had a fight on a space station. in Pretender we have a fight in a train station.
in Foreigner, innocent Bren was schooled in the mortal realities of assassins and military engagements (get away from the window, Bren). In Pretender, innocent Cajeiri is schooled in the mortal realities of assassins and military engagements (get away from the window, Cajeiri).
extraordinary quotes:
"I shall try to deserve you..." (29)
(which reminds me of the Sound of Music/Foreigner dream I had: "I might have had a wicked childhood..." ;) )
Algini nodded. "A point of certainty. You are stability in these matters. More than the dowager herself, you represent a sure, simple number in all calculations. This reassures even your enemies, nandi." (115)
indeed ;D
"One is very tired, Banichi-ji. One is ever so tired, and Bren-ji is an ever so much warmer blanket."
"Is it?" Banichi was amused. An eyebrow moved.
"Than nandi, yes, it is." He managed a smile. "One appreciates a warm blanket, now and again, Nichi-ji."(266)
(and might I add, if Bren-ji is a warm blanket, then Lord of the Heavens is a bucket of cold water. I positively cringe any time I read that title. one can never tell if it is a matter of high regard or just a bad joke on Tabini-aiji's part. cringe, I say.)
not just man'chi, but specificially aijiin, pg. 82.
Algini, 111-116. 123. 177. ah, I have always loved Algini, and now you start to see why. tall, dark, handsome, unreachable, unknowable. and he's an assassin (or should I say, the assassin?) to boot. 221. 259.
one of the best parts of the Foreigner series occurs when Bren knocks Tabini to the floor because of an attempted assassination--- and Cenedi just *stands* in front of Ilisidi, and stares down the entire joint session. I don't talk about Cenedi overmuch, but he's such an amazing character.
and we finally do have more Banichi (and not just Jago, whom I also venerate). 29 and 267 especially. ah. Bren has a staff of Genies. and I mean that rather magically, but in the English sense of the word, which is not derived from djinn but actually from the word Genius. they are all such wonderful characters.
Cajeiri & Tristen (Lord of Ynafel etc)... one sees abundant similarities.
bugs:
we know Banichi is from Talidi province... I guess we might not know which district of Talidi province? (271)
the matter of the apartments, on 259. hmmm... what happened to Bren's own apartments, given to him by Tabini? he wasn't staying in the Ategeini apartments recently... unless the other apartments had been reappropriated for some reason while he was in space. who knows? you'd think they would at least have been mentioned though.
possible spoilers of sorts:
regarding Cajeiri having rooms of his own, my conjecture is that Cajeiri might be staying in Ilisidi's apartments while she is not in residence. I first thought the Atageini apts, since they are next door to Tabini's, but not with that midland staff they wouldn't. they shouldn't. I hope they don't! Ilisidi's apts would be better, and I hope they mean that she is just going to Malguri etc, and that this is not Tabini's way of trying to break Ilisidi's pending mortality to his son... I greatly fear this may be the case.
also, Bren thinks that bringing Algini down from the station changed something in the Guild/ the status of the upheaval in the Guild somehow. but he doesn't seem to put together that it wasn't only Algini that just got back from the heavens... Tano, Algini, Banichi, Jago, and... Cenedi. Cenedi, I tell you. and didn't Tano and Algini go with the aiji-dowager (and therefore with Cenedi) when they were retaking the Bu-javid? and didn't Banichi and Algini coordinate with Cenedi when they took out the other Guild agents at Tirnamardi? well, I still say that it would take a damn lot to beat Algini, but Cenedi is senior at least in age, and there is a very good chance that one or the other is the Guildmaster himself. and if Cenedi is, then probably only Algini knows for sure. I'd guess Cenedi... just from the seniority of age and experience. but Algini would not surprise me in the least either. he's very high up there, if not at the tippy top.
(mia sighs over them all, especially Algini, but all of them really, once again.)
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