Maybe not exactly a must-read, but if you like grand scale space adventures this is not one to miss. 2000 Paperback amazon.co.uk Hardcover amazon.co.uk Long awaited prequel to A Fire Upon the Deep. The stories are taking place in the same universe, but are otherwise not connected. I don't think that it matter what order you read them in the important thing is that you read them. A planet inhabited by the first hi-tech alien civilisation that humanity has meet.
Immense riches wait for the group what get to trade with the aliens.
The Qeng Ho and the Emergents has a small clash when they arrive at nearly the same time, won by the Emergents, but damaging both groups so much that they are forced to co-operate. A lot of the book is about the fight between the two different ways of life, as represented by the Emergents and the Qeng Ho. I enjoyed this part of the book a lot. Lot's of interesting surprises and plot twists. The other part of the book is about the aliens, which I'm sorry to say, kind of bored me.