/lit/ - Literature

>>10067547
Ah, yeah. That was the other reason I hadn't yet responded. I'm not up on these new-fangled videogames, so I didn't know exactly what you were looking for. Perhaps another Cherryh will be relevant to your interests. One of the major themes is that appearances are deceiving and apparent similarities can lead to lethal misjudgments, so physically the aliens look like ebony skinned giants with night vision. The MC is a trained linguist and ambassador to the aliens. Series is ongoing, around 15 titles now, but the 3 book arcs generally wrap things up well.

>>9357970
>>9359550
Also, you didn't mention Foreigner, but it fits your description as well. It is her most fully realized alien society, but with the theme that the differences between deceptively similar cultures are what get you killed (the aliens look like tall, dusky elves with night vision). I believe that later on in the series it catapults into space opera, but haven't read all the books currently out (every time I want to read a new entry I have to start over from the beginning, and she's at 18 books and counting).