On the planet Oleaaka, Ranger Sgt. Heyoka Blackeagle, a lupinoid hrinn who was raised in the Restored Oglala Nation on Earth, is struggling to make a going concern of the first integrated human-hrinn Ranger unit. The hrinn are fierce fighters, but they have absolutely no concept of chain of command and hate sitting around and waiting to get in on the fight they've been promised against the insectoid flek. Heyoka's second and longtime partner, Cpl. Mitsu Jensen, is still recovering from the brainwashing she endured as a flek POW. And Oleaaka has what everyone assumes to be a native species of its own, the laka, who supposedly--nobody yet understands how--drove the flek off 48 years ago. Entirely -we get the chance to see through the eyes of just about everyone, from Heyoka and his kinsman Kei to assorted laka. But what makes the book work, like its predecessor, is Wentworth's amazing ability to put herself into the skins and minds of her nonhuman characters and portray them as true aliens, with their own cultures, concerns, and convoluted ways of thinking. In the end there's an opening left for yet another book in the series, as Heyoka's unit literally saves the day (it's been two years since the book was published; I can only hope that the author is putting the finishing touches on the final conquest of the flek!). Of course, I knew very early on that Heyoka was going about his program the wrong way, but given his raising that may be inevitable, and at least he realizes eventually that he can't, and shouldn't try to, make hrinn into carbon copies of humans. At the same time, his weirdly assorted group wouldn't survive if it hadn't had *all* the beings in it that it does; each plays an important role in the final triumph. Excellent military sf and a vivid portrayal of an alien, yet ultimately comprehensible, people.

Aliens are usually giant bears with human personalities...or giant cockroaches with human personalities, or giant somethingorothers with human personalities. In Black On Black and Stars over Stars, Kathy Wentworth has done something that few SF writers can: she creates two races of highly believable aliens, the Hrinn and the Flek...and she explores the issues of the differences in the minds of humans and aliens. Using Heyoka Blackeagle, the ultimate outsider, the Black on Black of Hrinn legend, who is raised as a Sioux warrior, and Mitsu, the human who is transformed against her will into a Flek hivemember, she explores what it is like to be human...and what it is like to be "other." The Hrinn are neither giant wolves or giant bears or giant wolverines...they are simply Hrinn. Their culture and their personalities are clearly and carefully drawn. So are the Flek, which Wentworth transforms from a faceless and remorseless enemy into a people, worthy of protection and defense. This is a great read, as well as a deep well.