A very nicely-written story of first contact. Good world-building, well-developed characters, interesting plot. As another reviewer noted, despite the co-authorship, the parts are blended together into a single authorial "voice."The book reminded me very much of Ursula LeGuin's "The Left Hand of Darkness," in terms of style, plot structure, and its thinking about what first contact means and how to overcome its challenges.The animals were somewhat hard for me to visualize from within the book,so some readers may like to know that there is an animal-and-plant glossary at the end of the Kindle version of the book - I would like to have seen that extended to the aliens too.Highly recommended - a book that left me wanting to read more in this Universe.