Serpent's Reach

Blurb

Serpent's Reach is a 1980 science fiction novel by the United States science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. The book was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Novel in 1981 and is set in the author's Alliance-Union universe. Specific placement of the novel within the Alliance-Union timeline is difficult because two of Cherryh's works provide contradictory dates. Most likely, the events in the novel begin in the year 3141.
The work was first published as a Science Fiction Book Club edition through Nelson Doubleday in May 1980, followed by a DAW Books paperback edition in August of that year.