Humans join galactic society; go into debt from library database look-ups?

Posted on behalf of one of my book groups. Another member thinks it may be Alan Dean Foster or David Gerrold, but that is unconfirmed.

"...do you remember us reading a book a few years back about humanity finally joining galactic society, but getting ourselves in trouble from going into debt by looking up too much information in the Galactic Library. One of the main races that we interacted with were giant mantids that had a habit of tricking underlings saying "you too will be served" when they meant served as dinner instead of being served by the group as a reward for their work. Turns out letting new races get all they want from the library on credit for a while is the way new races are enslaved into the system as galactic society revolves around debts to each other. The only other mammalian race of prominence looks like rats. They have made their niche acting as information brokers, being spies, rather than search engines. Sound familiar?"

Thanks in advance!

Oh, is this possibly Chess with a Dragon?

>2 LibraryPerilous:

Yes, that's it! And I own it!

Thank you. :-)

You're welcome! It's been on my TBR list since it was mentioned somewhere on LT.

**Harumph!** Not in my library system. **pout**

Ask your library if they can Inter-Library Loan it from a different library in your library system. In my area, you can get those books for free. If they have to go out of the library system, there may be a fee. Good luck!

That's what I meant. The entire Ohio system lacks a copy.

What a bummer! When that happens to me, usually eBay or amazon.com get lucky, as I buy it and probably the whole series. I hate it when I can't find a book that I want to read.

That makes me think of one of my favorite sci-fi seris by Vonda McIntyre called Starfarers. They are linked to a kind of global internet in their minds and can access anything they want when they want it. That sounds kind of cool, but then I think of the other things that happen in the series and realize, maybe it wouldn't be that cool. Have you read the series? If not, I highly recommend it.

BTW, now I have added the original book Chess with a Dragon to *my* wishlist. Amazon has a kindle version for $5 and change, or used versions with $3.99 s/h. I may just break down over the holiday and get the kindle version for me and my husband.

>7 2wonderY: shouldn't ILL still cover that? Most ILL programs cover the entire country, some cover international.

>8 rgrainer:

Just FYI, I read it ... and didn't much like it. It sounds like a great concept but I didn't like the way it was handled.

>9 lesmel: My library charges for shipping on out of state titles. It usually is less expensive to buy the cheapest used copy on Amazon.