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Book Details

Protector

71.4% complete
2013
Unknown
Never (or unknown...)
19 chapters
Book Cover
Has a genre Has an extract In my library In a series 
3138
Copyright © 2013 by C.J. Cherryh
To Jane and Lynn - above and beyond.
Lace was back in fashion this spring - starched and delicate at once, layers of it flowing from cuffs and neck.
May contain spoilers
"One very much wishes so."
No comments on file
Extract (may contain spoilers)
The train was in open country now, the city left behind.  Bren had been over this route so often he knew every turn of the track, every bump and swerve of the red-curtained car.

He was a little anxious in the outing - he was always a little anxious about well-publicized moves in this last year.  He and Geigi were both high-value targets, and the business Jago had handed him last night...

That was more than a little worrisome, but it was one not apt to become acute overnight.  Their enemies had taken a hammering down in the Marid, they were still being hunted out of holes down there, and it would take them time to reorganize and replot.  They might even reform, depending on how the local man'chi sorted out.

Dealing with atevi was not dealing with humans.  The sense of attachment, man'chi, that one could call loyalty, but which was so much more fundamental to the atevi instinct - was the emotion that held clans and associations together.  Man'chi was as intense as human love and just as subject to twists and turns, but man'chi was a network of attachments, not a simple one-on-one.  Sometimes, when the configuration of alliances changed, people changed.  One could always hope a reconfiguration of possibilities and objectives could allow some who had been enemies to reinvent themselves - and have it stick.

It did happen.  It was why atevi had feuds, but didn't often nurse grudges, and had no trouble shifting politics when situations changed.  The problems Geigi had handed him out on the peninsula... problems involving Geigi's estate... those he could certainly deal with.  He had a good major domo at Najida, Ramaso, who had connections to the tribal people of the area, and he trusted he had established a very good relationship in that district, with his handling of recent events.  Geigi, sitting across from him on the red velvet seat, sipping a little fruit-flavored tea, was heading back to space - from a world much better than the world he had landed on - and Geigi remained their ally in the sky, a powerful deterrent to complete idiocy on Earth.  That situation too, and the knowledge certain people had earned Geigi's wrath, might reconfigure a few alliances.

There was morning tea and there were breakfast sandwiches, courtesy of the staff - a few of whom might not have been to bed at all last night.  The staff party in the apartment had broken up to get Lord Geigi's last personal baggage and their breakfast down to the train in a secure condition - and not just Lord Geigi's own belongings, but baggage and breakfast for Lord Geigi's bodyguard, his several accompanying servants, and four more new staffers chosen from among the Edi people.  That little group had arrived from the peninsula last night.

 

Added: 10-Jun-2022
Last Updated: 21-Mar-2024

Publications

 01-Apr-2014
DAW Books
Mass Market Paperback
In my libraryOrder from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
Cir 01-Apr-2014
Format:
Mass Market Paperback
Cover Price:
$7.99
Pages*:
372
Pub Series #:
1619
Internal ID:
43505
Publisher:
ISBN:
0-756-40853-9
ISBN-13:
978-0-756-40853-4
Printing:
1
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Credits:
Stanley S Drate - Book Design
Inc. Folio Graphics Co. - Book Design
G-Force Design - Cover Design
Todd Lockwood  - Cover Artist
Civil war on the world of the atevi is finally over.  Even the complex shifts of power that inevitably follow any war are mostly sorted out.  Bren Cameron, brilliant human diplomat allied with the dominant Western Association, has finally returned to the capital from the southern coast, where he negotiated a daring redistribution of the atevi legislature - one that grants certain of the remaining rebel provinces political stature.  But Bren's official duties have undergone a critical change.

Since the War of the Landing, hundreds of years before, when the atevi nearly eradicated the humans on their planet and exiled those who survived to the island of Mospheira, Bren's post had been held by solitary translators between the endangered, but technologically advanced, human society and the atevi of the mainland.  But in the years that Bren has held that position, the world has changed.

Humans and atevi now interface daily on a shared space station and have traveled to the stars together.  But rather than becoming extraneous, Bren's stature in the atevi world has only increased.  He still wears the white ribbon that represents his office, but now he performs the duties of that office in the ancient manner originally intended, objectively negotiating between atevi adversaries.  It was in this capacity that he had achieved a reformation of congress that ended the bloodshed of civil war.

Now, back in his old apartments in the capital, Bren has settled into the home he knew prior to the war.  But life at the atevi court is never easy.  Though his position has changed, Bren's political affiliations remain - he is still allied with Tabini-aiji, head of the Western Association.  And Bren has also developed a close relationship with Tabini's young son Cajeiri, who was with Bren in space.

Cajeiri is within a few days of his fortunate ninth birthday, and his father has firmly promised that his son's young human associates from the space station can come down to the planet for his birthday celebration.

But things are not going well within the aiji's own household.  For Tabini's political marriage seems to be splintering, and Cajeiri's mother may be less than trustworthy.

Can Bren protect Cajeiri and the unsuspecting human children who are to be his guests in an atevi household that is on the brink of political explosion?
Cover:
Book CoverBook Back CoverBook Spine
Notes and Comments:
First Mass Market Printing, April 2014
First printing based on the number line
Canada: $9.99
Image File
01-Apr-2014
DAW Books
Mass Market Paperback

Related

Author(s)

 C J Cherryh
Birth: 01 Sep 1942 St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Awards

No awards found
*
  • I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
  • Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
  • When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
  • When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
  • Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.






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