From Publishers Weekly
Set on an alien world where the descendants of humans marooned in a long-ago starship accident live segregated from the indigenous atevi on a remote island, this polished and sophisticated tale from the popular author of Hestia addresses the complicated issue of how humans might have to compromise to survive on a planet where they are barely tolerated by the original, humanoid inhabitants. When Bren Cameron, given the name paidhi because he is the only human allowed to mingle with the atevi , survives an assault by an atevi assassin, the shaky detente between the human enclave and the alien society is threatened. Subjected to kidnapping, imprisonment and psychological torture, Cameron finds himself caught between rival factions of atevi as he must grapple with both human and alien xenophobia and with the insidious influence of human technology and culture on an extraterrestrial society. Three-time Hugo-winner Cherryh's gift for conjuring believable alien cultures is in full force here, and her characters, including the fascinatingly unpredictable atevi , are brought to life with a sure and convincing hand. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Exiled to the island of Mospheira, a colony of stranded humans relies on one man, their "paidhi" (liaison), to explain their ways to the dominant species of their adopted world. When Bren Cameron, the current paidhi, becomes the target for assassination in a culture where licensed murder is a recognized political solution, the conflict between species becomes a life-and-death struggle for survival and understanding. Veteran sf/fantasy author Cherryh plays her strongest suit in this exploration of human/alien contact, producing an incisive study-in-contrast of what it means to be human in a world where trust is nonexistent. A good purchase for most sf collections.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
A large new novel from C. J. Cherryh is always a pleasure. When it marks her return to the anthropological sf in which she has made such a name for herself (most notably the Chanur novels), it is doubly so. Foreigner proceeds from the venerable premise of the lost starship whose crew had to land the ship wherever possible. It ended up on a planet whose native race, the atevi, practice--among other interesting habits--registered assassinations. Two centuries after the landing, only one human, the paidhi, is allowed out of the human enclave--and at the opening of the book, he is the object of an unregistered assassination attempt. The subsequent tale is one of those Cherryh novels that is longer on world building, exotic aliens, and characterization than on action, although it is not short on that. Well up to Cherryh's usual high standard. Roland Green

From Kirkus Reviews
Far-future alien-contact yarn from the author of Chanur's Legacy, The Goblin Mirror, etc., where, in a stuttering, episodic liftoff, we learn that a human colony ship, lost in space, luckily comes near a planet inhabited by humanoid ``atevi.'' Later, the two species fight a war in which the humans' technological superiority barely compensates for their physical inferiority and lack of numbers. So the humans are confined to the island of Mospheira, and only their paidhi, or translator/technical liaison, is permitted to enter atevi society--the latter a complex of warring factions, loyalty codes, and assassination. The paidhi, Bren Cameron, is caught up in a factional struggle and, after narrowly avoiding assassination, is spirited away by Tabini, leader of the pro-human faction, to an isolated estate. Here, surrounded by potential enemies, again threatened with assassination, Bren ponders the loyalties of his hosts as an antihuman faction comes close to provoking another war--a process exacerbated by the humans' own factional split into the planetbound and the spacefaring. Things improve after that bumpy start, though the frequent dull interior monologues don't help. These matters aside: a seriously probing, thoughtful, intelligent piece of work, with more insight in half a dozen pages than most authors manage in half a thousand. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly, starred review
...serious space opera at its very best.

Book Description
With a new introduction by the author

The first book in C.J.Cherryh's eponymous series, Foreigner begins an epic tale of the survivors of a lost spacecraft who crash-land on a planet inhabited by a hostile, sentient alien race.

From its beginnings as a human-alien story of first contact, the Foreigner series has become a true science fiction odyssey, following a civilization from the age of steam through early space flight to confrontations with other alien species in distant sectors of space. It is the masterwork of a truly remarkable author.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner, originally published in 1994, is the first novel in what has become the three-time Hugo Award winner's most popular saga to date -- an in-depth exploration of human/alien interaction and of what it means to be human.

A great deal has changed in the five centuries since a lost colonial starship running desperately low on fuel fatefully found sanctuary on a nearby G5 star. After a small group of humans landed and learned that the world was already populated with an aggressive race of aliens known as atevi -- giant black-skinned, yellow-eyed warriors -- a short but fierce war ensued. Impossibly outnumbered, the technologically superior humans ended the bloodshed by agreeing to share their scientific advances in return for their own sovereign land. They are exiled to a large but remote island, and the only human who is allowed interaction with the atevi is known as the paidhi -- a moderator of sorts who must be a master diplomat as well as a dedicated student of the very complex atevi culture. As the paidhi, Bren Cameron must deal with a society that has 14 different words for betrayal and none for friendship. In a civilization where assassination is an "ordinary and legal social adjustment," Cameron learns quickly how to stay alive.

Cherryh's Foreigner sequence (Foreigner, Invader, Inheritor, et. al.) is arguably one of the best-known sagas dealing with the interplay of humanity and alien cultures. Mixing adventure and intrigue with an almost sociological look at her characters, Cherryh's Foreigner series is comparable to Alan Dean Foster's Commonwealth novels -- energetic, insightful, and wildly entertaining. Paul Goat Allen

FROM THE PUBLISHER