The Kif Strike Back

Despite the Star Wars-like title, this is the third in the four-volume Chanur saga and it's basically more of the same, picking up immediately where _Chanur's Venture_ ended -- or stopped. (The division between the two is pretty artificial and may have been ordered by the publisher for budgetary reasons.) Again, Pyanfar Chanur and her intensely loyal crew, all of them her cousins, are trying desperately to survive in the midst of a far-ranging political struggle among half a dozen disparate races over vast distances. Pyanfar and her trading ship got sucked into the plans of her mahendo-sat allies (except maybe they're not such good allies after all) and now she finds herself hooked up with a very ambitious kif -- who, although unpredictable and extremely dangerous, is almost the only one who hasn't played her false. Even Tully, the semi-derelict human whom she rescuedin the first book, an action that largely set off this four-volume saga, seems to have withheld vital information regarding humanity's pending incursion into the volume of space governed by the Compact. Cherryh continues to explicate alien society and psychology without stinting on an action-filled plot. In fact, the last section, with two dockside battle scenes developing pell mell and in parallel and described in alternating chunks, will have you crouched on the edge of your chair. Again, the end of the book is merely a pause; you will want to have the concluding volume handy so you can segue to it immediately.

If you are an avid Sci-Fi reader and especially look forward to aliens and adventure, then you need this book, and all of the other Chanur books.

If you like space, aliens, and politics, this struggle will appeal to you. Pyanfar again attempts to protect her human friend and gets her family/crew spiraled into another political hurricane which could cost her family everything.