The deadly Kif want Tully badly enough to go to war to get him. While the human, Tully, proves his worth and earns a place in Pyanfar's small crew, the crisis with other species escalates. Only, by the end of the book, and again by the end of the series, Pyanfar changes her mind about what some of those things are. There are some things a decent Hani captain just can't do. It's also that same decency that makes Pyanfar refuse to return the human (a member of a never-before-seen seventh intelligent species) to the predatory Kif who had attacked his ship and tortured his crewmates to death. In fact it's that very decency, shown in the companionable laughter of crewwomen unloading cargo at dockside on a space station deep in alien territory, that makes a desperate human fugitive choose Pyanfar's ship to try to stow away on. Still, despite swagger and sharp dealings she's an honest, decent captain with a fine, honest crew of kinswomen. She's swashbuckling enough to thrive in the sometimes-deadly bluff and counter-bluff of trade and politics between six very distinct spacefaring species. Pyanfar Chanur is a shrewed space merchant captain. These species are thoroughly alien, and yet, when we consider them through Pyanfar Chanur's eyes, they make their own kind of sense. This is a remarkable book, with vivid, complex characters, well-built worlds, and alien species that are clear and memorable.
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