Strangers

Hundreds of years in the future, Earthmen have moved out into the galaxy - but they don't particularly shine among other races both older and wiser. In fact Earth travellers are second-class citizens, able to offer little to the incomprehensibly alien cultures of outer space. Joseph Farber is an artist living uncomfortably and despondently among the alien Cian - though moved by their strange and powerful rituals. Then he meets Liraun, a humanoid Cian, and they fall in love. But love between the races is forbidden... "An intricate and melancholy tale of love and biological mystery on a distant world." --Robert Silverberg