Bikerscum - Patrick St. Jean

On the way back from San Francisco I finished off Omega, by Jack McDevitt. Once again I've managed to jump in to the middle of a set of books. They're all set in the same universe and have some of the same characters, but it does stand alone just fine.

Humanity has encountered a primitive alien race which is threatened by certain extinction by a poorly understood artifact of unknown origin. Ultimately it's the story of a group of people's struggle to understand that race and save them.

I've really become a fan of Mr. McDevitt's work because he really knows how to craft a believable, consistent universe. While his books are science fiction through and through, they are also studies in human (and non-human) interaction.