"HMSS" and "Learning the World"

January seems to have been my month for first-contact novels. I have been reading other books, but none I feel like reviewing.

His Majesty's Starship by Ben Jeapes (published in America as The Ark)

( Spoilers for His Majesty's Starship )

Learning the World: A Novel of First Contact by Ken McLeod


( Spoilers for Learning the World )

I'm also reading Singularity Sky by Charles Stross, but I keep being interrupted and losing the thread of the story, so I have to backtrack a few scenes.