Glaice: An Arbiter Tale

Rating:
Summary: Above average sci-fi
Review: This is the only one of the Arbiter tales I have thus far found and read. However, it is good enough that I'm on the hunt for more of them. The tale itself, a physical and legal hunt for which of two subspecies of humans have first claim on the planet Glaice, is gripping in and of itself. Underlying the tale though, and I would suspect the rest of the series, is the difficult question: How do you have equality, mutual respect, and fairness under the law when there are very real biological differences between the groups being adjucated? Humanity has split into several subspecies (genetically created), and each has it's own culture and needs, sometimes mutually exclusive. Mostly this is dealt with by simply having the various groups live on different planets, but sometimes this doesn't work, and what do you do then? Simple good will won't work, and the races keep having this nasty tendancy to forget that the others are sapient too. Enter the Arbiter, whose job it is to deal with these issues before they could explode. Only the Arbiter has a little problem, his weapons are gone, and he can't afford to let the warring parties know. A very enjoyable read.