This was a fantastic (albeit surprising) science fiction novel. Generally I'm not a fan of the whole new worlds, alien creatures type of scifi-a lot of times I feel inundated with extraneous technical information, which bores me, frankly. However, Cherryh has done an outstanding job of creating a believable "new" world, while keeping the techy stuff to a minimum. What I loved most, apart from her created language, was the obvious tension and conflict felt between the atevi and human races. Bren Cameron, a sort of human diplomat to the atevi race, simply CANNOT make himself understood and in turn has an impossible time coming to terms with the motivations of this alien race. It was an incredibly fascinating read, and I can't wait to continue the trilogy (story arc? here's another reason I don't normally like books like this-it branches off into different story arcs and simply confuses me).