The Faded Sun Trilogy

This omnibus gathers C. J. Cherryh's three Faded Sun novels -- Kesrith, Shon'jir and Kutath (1978-79) -- following the last mri, a proud warrior people whose alien patrons, the regul, betray them to genocide after a forty-year war against humanity ends in defeat. Niun, one of the few mri left, and his priestess sister Melein flee across the stars with a disillusioned human soldier, Sten Duncan, retracing an ancient migration route toward the mri's forgotten homeworld in search of both sanctuary and the truth about their own people's origins. Set in Cherryh's Alliance-Union universe, one of her earliest and most acclaimed studies of an alien culture from the inside.