Precursor by CJ Cherryh

This series of books seems to be composed of trilogies so far. So, according to CJ Cherryh, pick any third book and if you like it, continue with that trilogy. This book starts the second arc.

As a space plane carries atevi to the stars for the first time, they dock at an abandoned space station and begin to negotiate directly with Phoenix, the recently returned excession-spaceship. Three factions attempt to negotiate for what they need and want, while Bren, the interpreter and the person who understands the most about all three factions, tries to find a position that is best for all three. Conspiracy, complex political maneuvering, and watching how different technology levels and environments has affected different cultures differently.

Nonchalance was a position from which, if wrong, there was very little chance of recovery.

The story structure here fascinates me. Outside of a paragraph or two, no intro-info-dump afflicts the opening chapters. Rather, Bren leaves his family and Mospheira, heading back to say goodbye to Jase, who has been invited upstairs. When he boards the plane, surprised by the presence of a Mospheiran delegation to the station, he screws up initial contact with them. He fails to anticipate his own participation in the trip. Then he says goodbye to Jase and dines with Ilsidi. Only then does Tabini order him to go to the station. Alienating part of the Mospheiran delegation starts looking like a screw-up, instead of the warning he had intended. He realizes he enters this situation half-cocked, not having had time or foresight to debrief Jase first. And then opening negotiations with Ramirez go well, very well. Ramirez and Ogun see the reason of Bren’s arguments, the Mospheiran delegation overcomes their resentment and agree in principle, and everything goes better than expected. At that point, two-thirds of the book remains to be read. This tension of everything going well but so much book left to read crushes the hope Bren feels⁠—the reader knows some shoe is about to drop. But this setup brilliantly establishes the scene, what the reader needs to know for the next two-thirds of the book to work, shows Cherryh in control of the story and deftly maneuvering the reader’s experience to draw them into the story. With just one main character and point of view, she creates a complex situation and context that the rest of the story naturally and rationally falls out of.

And a great deal that was human wasn’t within his power to choose anymore. He’d already lost everyone on the island; he was about to lose his only human companion on the mainland. He wasn’t happy about it, but that was the choice far higher powers made.

And this tactic is a tendency for Cherryh. Or, as she puts it, “Anticipated consequences have to really happen, and have to be dealt with… no 'it was all a dream.'” Here, Bren anticipates struggles of negotiation on the station, with both Phoenix crew and Mospheirans. When things go swimmingly, the reader knows a catch is coming, because Cherryh has already built that expectation in. Looking at her characters the reader easily knows where the catch is coming from⁠—the captains have mostly failed to clearly communicate in good faith, and one hasn’t communicated at all. Turns out that one betrays the others. In short, she builds a complex situation, and watches what unfolds. She doesn’t plan, she lets the characters carry the story. Another Cherryh quote about writing, “The whole book, for me, is character.” In other words, her books come from her characters: they build the situations, their environment defines the worldbuilding, and their personalities provide the solutions and moral dilemmas. This strong writing tactic allows the book’s meaning and depth, even when the main character is weaker than Bren. Or, in Cherry’s words, “So 'well-drawn' and 'morally strong' adult characters of whatever gender carry swords and banners only for local color. More importantly, they carry principles or hypotheses of behavior as the useful and significant tools of their trade, and they test those principles for validity constantly against the situation posed… doing it in fiction so that people who read the story can gain the life experience not by a lecture but by deep analysis and integration of that character's experiences and reactions.” Yes please, I want to read more of this.

It wasn’t humanly possible. If atevi hadn’t been a continent-spanning civilization and a constitutional monarchy to boot, with rocketry already in progress, they couldn’t possibly have done it. . . certainly not in his lifetime.

Okay, enough about the structure. The best structure doesn’t conceal boring story, and this story supports the structure. Talking about stakes, these stakes put the species at risk, but that risk comes at an unknown point in the future, whenever the alien murderers get around to maybe attacking. So, due to distance, that tension feels distant. The tension on the characters rests on personal and political will, as well as their cultural goals.
⁠—Tabini wants to push atevi to FTL-levels of technology, because he believes in technological progress. Tabini thinks of knowledge as good, and sees giving labor to Phoenix as gaining immense knowledge and experience.
⁠—Mopheirans want to define a safe, stable economic footing they can operate from in the future, natural for a people whose neighbors technologically match them but control all the natural resources. Mospheirans also want to limit their risks, having history with Phoenix using them to do the dirty, dangerous work.
⁠—Phoenix wants fuel, labor, resources to continue their way of life⁠—wandering through the stars trying to establish new colonies. Being stuck in space, they must deal with the planet’s residents. They fear the atevi and Mospheirans, though the Mospheirans less so because they know that evil, the atevi are still unknowns to them. They also really want some help fighting the aliens that murdered the residents of the last station they built.
Within those cultural desires, each character also wills their own good. Whether it’s Kroger and her lifelong obsession with robots, Tamum and his desire for power, Ramirez and his need for speed and compromise, or Bren and his goal of peace and understanding, even a little segregation if it will help. These personal intentions wrinkle the cultural ones, giving complexity to the story. But I also see how these personal goals do not contradict the culture of the character: Kroger wants safety for Mospheiran lives, and her robot obsession roots in that desire; Tabini wants knowledge and experience in a place no atevi has gone, so his compromise secures that at some risk to atevi life; Tamum wants personal power, perverting the Phoenix desire for a safe haven to refuel at and trade with.

“One certainly does ask,” Bren said. “Kaplan, what are these people scared of?”
“The aliens, sir.” “Banichi and Jago aren’t aliens. You and I are. That below is their planet.”

With these desires in mind, the story makes perfect sense. Where then does mystery come from? It comes directly from a lack of information. The story shows some good negotiations breaking down as one side quits communicating. Bren doesn’t know what occurs, neither does anybody who talks to him. As a reader, I’m just as in the dark as Bren⁠—again, Cherryh’s tightly focused, third person narrative ties the reader directly to the character deftly. Tension also arrises from this not knowing. Bren has an agreement between Tabini and Phoenix secured. But when the Phoenix principle leaves the picture, he’s left stranded, trying to understand what the range of possibilities are. This mystery clears up when more information floods the reader. Rather like Asimov’s writing tactics, though Cherryh does it better by relying on characters.

He couldn’t beg off from his job or ask why in hell human beings couldn’t use good sense. He’d asked that until he knew there was no plain and simple answer.

One consistent and astounding strength of Cherryh is creating cultures. Above, I listed the main three cultures here and their general goals. These goals come directly from the worldbuilding, from the environment. Phoenix crew, stuck on a spaceship for years, relies on rigid discipline and schedules to survive psychologically, because they relied on that physically for so long. Any outside input puts them off. Atevi ruled their planet alone for thousands of years before humans came, and still do. Therefore, their desire to catch up with this excession-spaceship shows a desire to retain their place of dominance in their own affairs. Mospheiran’s descend from people who ran from Phoenix crew’s nastier behaviors, therefore their desire for protection. Also, their lack of natural resources compared to Atevi leave them desperate to find any niche they may fit in the future. Through these environmental, historical concerns, the cultures Cherryh builds make sense, feel realistic, despite being full of aliens and unlikely technology. She writes, worldbuilds, storytells, and entertains brilliantly.

Foremost of Mospheiran hazards, the Human Heritage Party had not the least idea how strange humans could get, on a world, on an island; on a ship, locked in close contact, communicating only on things everyone already knew. They thought “original humans” were their salvation; and there were no longer any “original humans.” Both sides had changed.

The one question, as always, in a series concerns the nature of sequels versus stand-alone works. I said in my notes on the last book, “I’m feeling that this series should have books that build on each other, not stand-alone novels, and that she's torn between the two strategies.” What I meant is that series books will often try to bring the reader up-to-speed with intro-info-dumps, or they’ll assume the reader has read the earlier books and leave new readers at a loss for understanding. Both dangerous tactics to me. Here, she clearly wants this one to stand-alone. I think this book perfectly deals with the issue⁠—a couple of paragraphs establishing context of the other books spread through the fist chapter, then trust the readers will understand and get on with the story. I don’t feel I need to have read the first three to get this one. Yet, the first three exist as context to this one, so maybe I found more to like in this one because I read the others. It would be interesting to find somebody who read this one first and discuss with them.

“So the paidhi, too, doesn’t trust implicitly.”
“I don’t trust. I find out.”

The theme here shows Bren keeping his head under fire, being flexible and humble, but also flexing his power when he needs to. Again, he has a hard job, and his regrets at what that does to his family life cause questions, but not wavering. It's a theme shot through the entire novel, that every character supports, while each add to the discussion. Loyalty to the ship, to Tabini, to Bren, to safety⁠—these all come into play as the situation changes dramatically and rapidly. But Bren's job here shows the old adage about war⁠—two seconds of terror and hours of waiting. Cherryh focuses in on the terror instead of letting the waiting drag the novel down. Bren wonders what he can do, then he does that, instead of wringing his hands at being unable to do anything. It's a theme that rings true in my life too.

“You, nadi,” he said to Banichi, “ought to be asleep.”
“A superfluous habit,” Banichi said. “Conducive to ignorance.”

I love this great book. Cherryh writes to her strengths without relying on her experience⁠—she writes a strong story and world that doesn’t offer fan-service. For me, this book exists in the same sentences as her best work. This exciting tale engages adventure, physical danger, complex political conspiracy, technology and environment providing vastly different characters and cultures, and deep personal insight to carry me away. I read the third third in a single sitting, last night, until 1 AM. I look forward to starting the next book tonight. This tour de force creates a book I intend to constantly refer to for my views of how to write well. Perhaps some small concession to showing the routine of the Phoenix crew would help new Cherryh readers, but I doubt it is necessary.