I really liked this one, with fewer slow points than the others. We do, thank goodness, get to skip ahead almost a year from the last book. Arriving at Reunion Station, things start to get complicated, really quickly.The story is great, when things get rolling, and I'm so invested in so many of the characters I jumping into the next right away.This is book six in a long-running science fiction series that began with Foreigner (1994) and currently numbers twenty-one books. I've greatly enjoyed the first six books and will begin with general remarks that apply to them collectively, before progressing to comments on book six in particular. Spoilers ahead.The series, at least thus far, centers on Bren Cameron, a human translator and mediator living among aliens. Bren's thoughts are shown in a depth that I found fascinating and highly immersive. This careful meticulous detail reminds me of reading L. E. Modesitt, Jr., though Cherryh's themes are not Modesitt's. I note that some readers find the level of detail an annoyance and the pace slow. I do not.Through Bren, the books conjure an intricate alien civilization, one in which words such as "friend" and "love" have no close equivalent, and in which there is an official, highly-respected Assassins Guild. Bren is a very sympathetic character, who finds himself in difficult situations where the stakes are high. I'm also very fond of several of the supporting characters, especially the assassins Banichi and Jago, and the elderly grande dame, Ilisidi. The plot builds from book to book, with developments from the small and personal to those of sweeping impact.In as much as I have a general gripe, it's that the books' openings are comparatively weak. In the case of the first book, there are two introductory sections that I found less compelling than Bren's storyline. In the case of book two onward, the beginnings mix in new material with an extensive recap of what's happened so far in the series.Book six begins with Bren en route to a spacestation in another star system, contending with hidden information, a human captain who doesn't trust him, the aliens he knows, and the threat of unknown aliens ahead. In the course of the book, they reach the spacestation, where they confront a multiplicity of difficulties. I particularly loved meeting the second alien species, the kyo. And I appreciated the scenes featuring Cajieri, the young heir apparent, which lighten a largely serious book. But the main attraction for me continues to be Bren. I'm addicted to following his adventures, the detailed unfolding of his thoughts, his perspective on aliens, his essential integrity.Four out of five felicitous stars.About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).Good itemn this final volume of the current Foreigner trilogy, the Phoenix returns to the "scene of the crime" to tie up loose ends. A contingent of humans were left on a space station in a distant star system after their peregrine wanderings violated the territory of mysterious aliens who then apparently attacked the outpost. Why the aliens attacked is unclear. Even more unclear is why the captains of the Phoenix, including the deceased Rodriguez, left humans on the space station when they fled to the atevi world ten years earlier. The possibility that most worries the atevi and the Mosphiera humans is that the hostile aliens might attack the atevi home world after locating it from data on the station or captured humans. As the Phoenix nears the foreign star system, three overlapping but distinct agendas are clear: the atevi, the Mosphiera humans and the ship humans. The situation becomes even more complex when the Phoenix arrives to find that both the humans on the space station and the mysterious aliens have additional agendas. The autocratic Pilot's Guild is firmly in control of the station and clearly wants control of the Phoenix and later the atevi home world. The aliens lurk mysteriously. The question is who can negotiate the treacherous waters and avoid interstellar war? For fans of the series, Bren Cameron is the obvious answer. Peeling the complexity of the situation reveals layers of deception, including mischief by the late captain Rodriguez, that make a peaceful solution seem a near impossibility.The good news for Foreigner fans is that after the dreary "Defender" novel, Cherryh returns to the strength of the series. Namely, the protagonist must get inside the minds of people about whom he knows virtually nothing. Success or death are the alternatives. The bad news is that the first three chapters are terribly tedious dialogue filling pages that lack any discernible action. Cherryh does shake the lethargy and finishes in fine fashion. Just plow through those first chapters and you'll find a worthwhile story.As always, this one of C.J. Cherryh's "Foreigner" series novels keeps you intrigued from beginning to end, wondering what on (or off!) earth is going on.The starship Phoenix has returned to the atevi planet. Jase, the man born out of Taylor's Legacy is recalled aboard and finds the senior Captain, Ramirez, dying. At the same time, word gets around that Reunion Station, built by the Phoenix crew somewhere far off in space, was not totally destroyed, but was abandoned by Phoenix. This sparks a near mutiny by those of the Phoenix crew who were descended from stationers and Phoenix is tasked with going back to Reunion and finding out exactly what had happened to the station.Bren, 'Sidi-ji (Tabini's grandmother) and Cajeiri (Tabini's 7-year old son and heir) join Phoenix on the journey and it is Bren's skill in dealing with non-human cultures which averts an outright war with the alien Kyo, who consider Reunion to be an infiltration into their territory and who want one of their own, taken prisoner by the Reunion crew years before, returned.There might not be a series of deep space battles or gun battles everywhere, but the aliens are totaly believable and there is plenty of suspense just from wondering 'who is doing what to whom?'All of the Foreigner series are highly enjoyable reads developing understanding of the characters and also the cultures of colonist human, ship based human and the indiginous ateva. The ateva have a highly structured society with such profound differences from human that only one human interpreter has historically been allowed to mediate to reduce the liklihood of conflict.Yes there is 'action' but always the main driver of the story is the characters and the interaction between them as individuals and representatives of their cultural backgroundsIn this book Bren and of course Banichi, Jago, Sidi-ji etc combine to join with 'the Ship' to journey to the Reunion station to rescue the 4000 survivors of an alien attack.Fascinating negotiations with 'Pilots Guild' running Reunion and also the besieging 'Kyo' aliens lead into a satisfying conclusionI am looking forward to Destroyer!Took it time getting here but finally correctI like all CJ Cherryh books pity they are unobtainable in this country in e formatGreat why are the earlier books not available on Kindle?