(no subject)
Cross-posted to whatwasthatbook
It would be great if someone could ID this book I want to re-read that keeps niggling at me. (Don't you hate when that happens?)
There were two alien species. One was very aggressive and drafted skilled workers from a more peaceful species onto large spaceships. The ships also had a population of the second species that called themselves ship bred or ship born. The POV is mostly a ship born female. They used implants for inter-species communications. The very aggressive species set aside sections of the ship for raising their own young and were unpredictable and explosively violent near that area. The female overlord-type running one ship drafted a technician, implanted him, paired him with the POV female of his species. Then she bought a human spacer out of lot of wild humans and added him to the group and ordered the other two to see if they could come to understand him. Along the way, there was a planetary destruction, because the humans had resisted the demands of the overlord-types. And the implanted human insisted on rescuing a human child. The POV female discovered she was unable to function under an open sky. There was a rival ship, run by a male overlord-type, that picked up some humans too and wound up putting a mother and her child in the nesting area because they didn't have any of their own. The two ships came together and established some sort of alliance/relationship.
The book had a Cherryh feel in that it threw you into alien cultures without much explanation, but it isn't one of hers. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
It would be great if someone could ID this book I want to re-read that keeps niggling at me. (Don't you hate when that happens?)
There were two alien species. One was very aggressive and drafted skilled workers from a more peaceful species onto large spaceships. The ships also had a population of the second species that called themselves ship bred or ship born. The POV is mostly a ship born female. They used implants for inter-species communications. The very aggressive species set aside sections of the ship for raising their own young and were unpredictable and explosively violent near that area. The female overlord-type running one ship drafted a technician, implanted him, paired him with the POV female of his species. Then she bought a human spacer out of lot of wild humans and added him to the group and ordered the other two to see if they could come to understand him. Along the way, there was a planetary destruction, because the humans had resisted the demands of the overlord-types. And the implanted human insisted on rescuing a human child. The POV female discovered she was unable to function under an open sky. There was a rival ship, run by a male overlord-type, that picked up some humans too and wound up putting a mother and her child in the nesting area because they didn't have any of their own. The two ships came together and established some sort of alliance/relationship.
The book had a Cherryh feel in that it threw you into alien cultures without much explanation, but it isn't one of hers. Any suggestions would be appreciated.