Karen Traviss's City of Pearl is the first in a series about an ex Eco Hazards cop who gets picked to lead a mission to a distant planet where human colonists live in a sticky political situation.

You see, they're on a planet where the Wess'har (and can I tell you that I almost didn't read the book because I HATE HATE apostrophes in alien names) wiped out a different alien colony to protect an aquatic alien species called bezerji.

And they don't really think humans should be there either.

What drew me into the book, despite my prejudice against human colonist/alien species stories, is that the main alien character and the main human cop are GREAT characters. I LOVE how they interact, I love the philosophical and moral issues they struggle with as they decide how to deal with the political situation.

I love the fact that the human cop doesn't automatically put human life first over the good of alien flora or fauna.

I'm definitely going to keep reading this series.

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