New Order — Edward M. Lerner

The next chapter in Edward M. Lerner's InterstellarNet saga is a startling adventure of Second Contact, up-front and in-person. Humanity is about to discover that meeting aliens face to face is very different and a lot more dangerous than sending and receiving messages.

Good fences, said the poet, make good neighbors... and interstellar distances made very good fences. Or so we thought. Earth and its interstellar neighbors have been in radio contact for a century and a half. A vigorous commerce in intellectual property has accelerated technical progress for all the species involved. Ideas, riding on radio waves, routinely cross interstellar space almost like neighbors chatting over the interstellar back fence. But there is a way over, or under, or around, almost any fence. Sooner or later, when we least expect it, the neighbors, friendly or otherwise, are going to pay a call....