Our heroine's name is Chivandoe. She is born about one third into the book. The first third of the  book sets the scene and introduces Chivandoe's two mothers and father, as well as other characters  who may possibly be important in future stories.
 The central section covers Chivandoe's childhood development, with some exciting adventures  demonstrating her general craziness and sharp wits, including the gruesomely realistic Grand Battle.
 In the last third of the book, Chivandoe has become a little more mature (but still somewhat  unstable); then momentous events occur which determine the future direction of her life.
 Although this first story contains some fighting, sex, death, and destruction; it is mainly a tale of  parenthood and childhood in a magically beautiful (and bizarrely alien) forest environment.
 Forget all you have ever seen of slobbering monsters; these characters are all truly wonderful  exhodon. Just the sort of urbane aliens you could meet at any good party, and to whom you would  even introduce your daughter.
 "Exhodon" is Book1 in a complex SF Saga, which covers millennia and 100's of lightyears of  spacetime. Each volume is written as a self-contained story; but only after reading the entire set will  the reader completely grasp the relationships between the diverse characters and events.
 The alien beings in this book, the Exhodon, are non-biologicals, hence theoretically immortal.
 An exhodon moves its brain (called a helm) from bodyform to bodyform as required. Bodies are  built out of Nutrient Fluid by molecular machinery in Makers. They are almost as complex in  structure and form as biological bodies, but are much more robust. Helms and bodies are powered  by internal molecular fusion power packs.
 The Exhodon live inside millions of gigantic rotating space habitats, which orbit the brown dwarf  called Glower. (See 'Images' and 'Factoids' for more info.)