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"The lani are discovered on a distant planet in the far future; they look human, save that they have tails. A lani with her tail removed is indistinguishable from human. The law says, however, that the key is interfertility; anything that humans can breed with is human, and anything they can't breed with is just an animal. The lani, therefore, are animals, and the story follows the adventures of the young veterinarian hired to tend a lani herd as he gradually discovers the history and true nature of the species. It's got adventure, romance, excitement, and a dose of thought-provoking questions as well. Worth reading, definitely." The setup is 1950's standard-SF: the Brotherhood of Man loosely governs the 6,000 human-settled worlds, which are linked by hyperspace (spindizzy) FTL spaceships and Dirac communicators. Humans have been in space for 5,000 years, but their culture is (surprise!) *just like* the USA in 1960.... Note that Bone's moral-philosophy lectures are pretty damn tedious. And you are likely to question whether a 4,000 year-old abandoned spaceship could really be fixed up (in secret, on nights and weekends) by the vet and his girlfriend....
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