There’s a wonderful short story on Tor.com – Our Human, by Adam-Troy Castro.

I’d not heard of Castro before now, but I definitely want to read more of his work; apparently there are a couple of novels set in the same universe.

This novella is slightly reminiscent of the dark side of Banks’ Culture novels: ugly, flawed, populated by creatures and races with very different moral codes to our own, but all of the same worst characteristics.

Great sci-fi.