C.J. Cherryh

This is old news for some, I'm sure, but if you haven't read them and
you're a hard science fiction fan, get as many of C.J. Cherryh's novels
as
you can find...

I'm just starting the fifth 'Chanur' book - brilliant aliens, great
story,
and interesting tech. (In order: "The Pride of Chanur", "Chanur's
Venture", "The Kif Strike Back", "Chanur's Homecoming", "Chanur's
Legacy". The first three have been released together fairly recently as
one big paperback volume.)

My favourite part of the Chanur books is that the 'big enegmatic alien
threat from the dark beyond that threatens all the characters know and 
love'... is humanity...

She's also one of the only authors I've read who has an idea how BIG
space
is, and can communicate that in her writing. Really great spaceflight
descriptions - things like effect of FTL/time lag on comms & sensors,
near-FTL time dilation, etc.

As a bonus, Cherryh does some of the best alien societies I've read.
Really *alien*, and well presented.

Get down to your local library or bookstore and grab them.

ObGZG bit: There's a lot of inspiration for Stargrunt II or FMASk 
scenarios in these books, actually. Firefights on space station docks
and
corridors, mostly. FT stuff too, but you'd have to use houserules to
really get the flavour of Cherryh's books in FT.

Enjoy,

Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -
- http://warbard.iwarp.com/games.html -