Spacepaw.

By Gordon Dickson.

Synopsis:
Bill Waltham, an engineer, is disappointed to discover that he's been assigned to a primative colony planet, Dilbia. He has been told that his job is to teach the natives agricultural skills, but when he arrives, he finds the other members of the team missing, and the communications equipment sabotaged.

Review:
A very good book, on the whole. The blurb claims that it's a comedy (The quote below calls it "One of the happier five-finger exercises." No, I'm not sure what they're on about either) but it didn't strike me as being particularly funny. It is very engaging, with a strong and interesting storyline. I liked the way the author has created an entire political structure for the Dilbians, and subtly reveals it throughout the story, mainly through the way the Dilbian characters behave, rather than through direct explanation. The book contains a great deal of gender equality messages (bearing in mind it was first published in 1969), but despite this, I found the only (human) female character irritating. Also Bill manages to fall in love with her, although they spent a total of maybe fifteen minutes together over the course of the story. The ending seemed to be trying a little too hard to fit everything into a larger picture, but overall provided a satisfactory conclusion.