A "gone native" swamp rat of a man on a colony planet, is trying to sell sculptures done by an sentient indigent lifeform- something akin to an otter. The central focus of the story concerns transporting a large statue done of himself by one of these otters whom he has befriended, downriver to the city for an art dealer to have a look at with an eye to purchase. This coincides with a planet wide vote on inviting major industries to the planet to completely transform it into a cosmopolitan,industrialized planet, and so the simple act of acknowledging these creatures as sentient becomes a threat to vested interests. But the story mostly concerns itself with the physical aspects of the transport of the statue through wild terrain.
The novel has a slightly hokey TV Movie of the Week feeling about it - it even reads like a teleplay its so sparse - like one of those "Mr Big Inc. is tearing down the old Landis farm to build a golf course" kind of things, but it's nicely done, and it's heart is in the right place. A minor effort, but a good little character yarn.
*** Three and a half stars. ( )