Learning the World by Ken MacCleod

This was a Hugo nominee in 1005 (I think) and I wasn't able to read it at the time because it was only in hardback in the States or it was super hard to get ahold of or something like that.

The generation ship The Sky! My Lady, the Sky! has reached Destiny II with great anticipation. The generation kids are raised, trained and ready to get the hell off the ship. Only, as the occupants of the ship quickly discover, the target planet is already occupied! For a ship that comes from a system with no wars, it is quickly divided into two fractions: those who feel they should go ahead and colonize the system anyway and those who feel they should not. We follow most of the action through the eyes of Atomic Discource Gale, a young gal who is truly, "learning the world".

Meanwhile, planetside, the bat-people have come to realize they are not alone in the universe. Devrin, an astronomy and his freind Orro recognize and identify the new object in space and are quickly recruited into the "military" for security purposes. While they are a somewhat technologically advanced species, they do not have flight or spacefaring capabilities. They do discover advanced technology (unbeknowst to them it's nano-techonology) in the the shittles - a dung beetle - and later in the menial labor they call trudges. They and their warring neighbors start gearing up for war with the newly arrived aliens, surmising they must want their planet.

It's was an interesting look at humanity from two sides - an "aliens" point of view and from a generational ship environs point of view. However, I did find the story to be a bit slow and, well, too much of a soap box lecture at some points. Often the bat-people were too human, and I found that a bit improbable. MacCleod did try and make the aliens, well, alien, but many of their mannerisms were still to humanized.

It was an okay story that moved along pretty quick and wasn't overly long.