I just wanted to do a quick review of C.J. Cherryh’s Resurgence, just because three books ago I said I wouldn’t review any more of her Foreigner novels; I didn’t want to keep bagging on them, how tedious I thought they’d gotten, how much exposition was crammed in them, and how there were just too many damn humans.
So, fast forward to now, and rather than skim the book like I’ve done for the last three, I made the effort to actually read all of Resurgence from cover to cover. (Mostly because pandemic. But also because I don’t think it’s fair to judge a book if you haven’t read the whole thing.) And I can say two things about it. One: I didn’t dislike this one nearly as much as the previous three, and two: I no longer think these are bad books, I just think they’re mostly not for me.
The biggest and most important discussion that happens in this book is: whether or not a new rail line should be built and who’s territory it goes through. I’m not kidding, the discussion goes on for chapters. It is an absolute wade.
But here’s the thing: it’s meticulously well thought out. It goes into the history of the rulers of various territories, their families, what the terrain’s like, what their import/exports are, the works. Cherryh must have one of those rooms with hundreds of post it notes and diagrams on the walls and everything’s tied together with bits of string to keep track of it all.
So no, I didn’t enjoy those parts, but I can’t say they were badly written. They’re just not for me.
What is for me is that for the first time in several books we got some kind of acknowledgement that Bren and Jago are in a relationship. A sexual relationship. The sex happened in between the chapters of course, but it’s explicitly mentioned, and there’s this one bit where Jago (tall, competent, insanely dangerous Jago) has a lock of Bren’s hair wrapped around her finger while they talked. It’s freaking adorable.
Plus we had little bits here and there where Bren’s bodyguard got to do something other than agree with what he was saying, which is mostly what they did for the last few books. Their interactions have always been my favorite part of this series, I’m glad we’re seeing them again.
And four-fifths of the way through the book there was a nice bit of danger; rooms full of black-suited Atevi assassins suddenly moving into action, code words whispered into comms, golden eyes flashing in the dark, weapons drawn, and people shouting “Stay down!” The way it’s described you can just see them, how fast they move despite being so huge, how completely intimidating and terrifyingly competent they are at taking down an enemy. More of that please!
Meanwhile young Cajeiri is back at the palace/stronghold of Shejidan, and he’s been tasked with building a real household for himself: appropriating new rooms for all his bodyguards, hiring staff to handle everything, getting the paperwork filled out, that kind of thing. And you know what? I loved it. I don’t care, I will take a young Atevi being domestic over anyone in these books sitting down with a cup of tea and mentally recapping the last 9 trilogies. (I’m not kidding. Just about any time someone sits down for a breather, prepare yourself for half a dozen pages of exposition, it’s exhausting.)
And, no spoilers, but they’ve finally figured out what to do with his pet parid’ja. We’ve had at least four books of Cajeiri saying “I wish I hadn’t adopted that monkey thing even though I wanted it very much and now it’s just a hassle for everyone.” Finally, someone’s had an idea, and it’s a good one too.
And best of all? Barely any humans! We hear about Cajeiri’s ship-friends (I never mind them, they’re young enough to be interesting) and get a brief glimpse of Toby and Barb, and that’s it for the humans this book. It’s not that I hate the humans, I really don’t. But I loved these books for the aliens, and for a while now it seemed like everything was about the humans. And when you get right down to it, most of the annoying bad guys in these books tend to be humans. I’m much happier focusing on the Atevi.
So, in the end, I was glad I really buckled down and read the whole book, the reward was a lot of nice moments that felt like a return to the first trilogy. I didn’t enjoy having to wade through a hundred pages that could’ve been summed up with “no one knows exactly why Ilisidi invited both Machigi and Nomari on this trip, hopefully she won’t kill them” but I think it was almost worth it.