Lynne Emmerson

C J Cherryh is my favourite SF author and the Foreigner series is an amazing feat of world building (akin to JRR Tolkien in scale though a different genre - ish), with believable aliens, who are probably a lot nicer than humans. Human advisor to the Atevi, Bren Cameron, is one of my favourite ever characters. He is not a super-hero, just an ordinary guy and linguist, who struggles to cope with the responsibility of keeping two races apart yet friendly - whilst segragated from his fellow humans. He mostly pulls it out of the bag. My second two fave aliens ever, are the dowager Ilisidi - an elderly and very strong, independent, female with a soft spot for Bren; and the grandson of Tabini, the overlord of the Atevi - who is a brilliant character - still a child - mischievous but quickly learning statecraft (needs must) and who, I expect, will be the key to resolving all issues between humans and Atevi, bringing peace to the planet in which humans are, in effect, squatters - I hope, and soon! My only gripe is it is now book 21 (1st book published 1994) - and each book covers about 2 weeks at a time. I'm a pensioner and do not want to leave this life without some conclusion to this wonderful story. Publisher - can we speed it up, a bit, please, there is always about 1/3 of the book devoted to catching us up - so unnecessary - move it on a bit faster, for heaven's sake.