Woman of the Iron People

This James Tiptree Jr. Award–winning anthropological science fiction novel about first contact with an alien culture is “fascinating” and “irresistible” (Ursula K. LeGuin).
 
Lixia and the members of her human crew are determined not to disturb the life on the planet circling the Star Sigma Draconis which they have begun exploring. But the factions on the mother ship hovering above the planet may ...