Tannat

Series: Foreigner #1

This audiobook was a good way to revisit the Foreigner universe. I’m much further along in the series in my regular reading and I haven’t read this book since I was a teenager, so a lot of it felt new-ish. I mean, I remember roughly what happened in the series, but not necessarily what happened in each book. There were a lot of Bren’s internal ramblings, which could have gotten a bit tedious (some parts were a bit repetitive) but overall were amusing. I particularly liked it when he cursed himself for blocking country road improvements after he had to experience them for himself. I also found the image of the diminutive (compared to the atevi) Bren (he’s only about 6 feet tall) trying to keep up with the atevi while clutching his precious computer to be another amusing aspect.

Don’t let my rating fool you; I do think it’s an interesting book that delves into the different perspectives that different languages offer as well as trying to portray an alien worldview that’s just different enough from human to cause problems. That’s part of what Bren is always repeating to himself: not to attribute human emotions and feelings to atevi. Because whenever he does that, sooner or later he runs smack into a wall of incomprehension.