Resurgence by C.J. Cherryh

Do you ever pick up a book and realize it is 20th in a long series? That is how I ended up picking Resurgence. What the fuck.

It was almost impossible for me to understand the first 50 pages (and stayed impossible, as I continued, to discern the many, many names and clans and seaports). But overall I found this an intriguing concept. A scifi world with two different species & two different rates of technological advancement. The rail system! This ignited a passion for trains and appreciation for how much trains revolutionized our world. It reminds me of the paper I read in undergrad about the plow as a piece of technology. My perspective shifted so completely: a tool I thought was so simple, but actually changed the course of humanity for good. & I still remember ravenously reading that paper.

I have but a few complaints, chiefly: I don’t think a nine year old would be politicking like that. Yes, granted, he is an alien so maybe his development is different, but I think I would prefer him to be like 15. I have a soft and sensitive heart. It saddens me to think of kids not being kids and children being in danger. It broke my heart to think of Cajieri splitting with his pet & having his mom be mad at him, while he also worried about assassinations. I liked Brend’s sections but also….. was he with Jago?? I have some questions on the biology of that (bombastic side eye).

The felicitous nine and three were cute to me. It stuck out to me - a dangerous two and a felicitous three combine to be a risky but joyful five. I like luck associated with numbers in that way. I want to have more felicitous threes in my life.

Will I read the rest of these books? Probably not. But was it kind of fun? Yes 100%.