Hestia

Rating:
Summary: A dress rehearsal for her later successes
Review: This is a very early Cherryh novel about colonists on an alien world and their interactions with the catlike natives, centering on a young engineer sent to solve the colonists' problems, and his relationship with the young native cat-woman in scanty clothing on the cover. In this book you can see the beginnings of many of Cherryh's recurring themes, but the worldbuilding and character psychology in this novel lack the depth seen in other early works such as Gate of Ivrel, Faded Sun, and the Chanur novels. All in all I would only recommend this book if (like me) you absolutely have to read everything Cherryh has written.