I will always use the themes of first-contact, intergalactic civilizations, and video games to plug the excellent scifi novel <i>Constellation Games</i>, by Leonard Richardson:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;boingboing.net&#x2F;2013&#x2F;02&#x2F;20&#x2F;constellation-games-debut-sf.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;boingboing.net&#x2F;2013&#x2F;02&#x2F;20&#x2F;constellation-games-debut-s...</a><p>You may also know Richardson&#x27;s other writing, such as the O&#x27;Reilly books <i>RESTful Web APIs</i> and <i>RESTful Web Services</i>, or the Python HTML-processing library <i>Beautiful Soup</i>.<p>Comparatively, <i>Constellation Games</i> has more action and satire.