Illegal Alien

Excellent book. The sciency parts (xenobiology and celestial mechanics) were intriguing and sounded possible to me. The legal parts were often dull (real trials are very dull compared to TV ones).
Can beings be perfectly normal in their own culture but insane (in a legal sense) in ours?
That's one of the questions discussed in the book along with how physiology is related to cultural values.

The aliens and alien technology portrayed in this book were no disappointment, compared to Sawyer's other books. The book was the story of the trial of an alien who is arrested for committing murder. While I wish the story had more aliens and their technology in it, the legal proceedings in the LA court system were well written and made me reflect a lot on human civil rights.