Interesting take on the first contact with a non-human intelligence. Niven and Pournelle have tried to retell English Napoleonic sailing stories of first contacts with south Pacific peoples in a 3000 thousand year leap into the future. This story would have trouble finding a publisher today with it's misogynists take on the female half of humanity, but see my comment above out the cultural period they seem to be trying to recreate. The characters are all very human in their depictions, if a bit thin as there are so many spread throughout the book. The "Moties" as the story assigns the new species name, while very different in thought and structure, are revealed as not so very different from humans . The way they use this idea in how the Mediators assigned to the human characters eventually become their humans is striking as the story nears it's end. I can't say this would ever be a book I'd re-read or even necessarily recommend, but it's a good touchstone for some of the writing of the period.