Dragon's egg (1980)

The cheela inhabit a neutron star, where physical conditions and the pace of life are radically different from human experience. Forward uses that disparity to make contact a problem of time as well as distance: a helpful exchange can mean very different things to its participants. Choose it for carefully developed physical speculation and an unusually large change of perspective. The explanatory passages and brisk treatment of whole societies make it more idea-led than intimate.