Search - Call to Arms (The Damned, Book 1)

It's always wonderful to find a new author you really like. This book could be just another first contact book, but it manages to break the mold. For once, mankind is not shown as some kind of weak race, easily overcome by aliens. Instead, we are portrayed as actually stronger in many ways (not all of them positive) than our newfound allies and enemies. The main character is likeable, if almost a parody of pacifism. My favorite character is Caldaq, the Massood with a conscience, who is torn between the need for any alliance that might help defeat the Amplitur and his fears that the violence of mankind might tear the Weave apart.

----This is the initial book of another neat series by the author of the Pip and Flinx books. Pretty good!---
For eons, the Ampliture had searched space for intelligent species, each of which was joyously welcomed to take part in the fulfillment of the Ampliture Purpose . . . whether it wanted to or not. When the Ampliture and their allies stumbled upon the union of races called the Weave, the Purpose seemed poised for a great leap forward But the Weave's surprising unity also gave it the ability to fight the Amplitur and their cause. And fight it did---for thousands of years.
Will Dulac was a New Orleans composer who thought the tiny reef off Belize would be the perfect spot to drop anchor and finish his latest symphony in solitude. What he found instead was a group of alien visitors--a scouting party for the Weave, looking for allies among what they believed to be a uniquely warlike race: Humans.
Will tried to convince the aliens that Man was fundamentally peaceful, for he understood that Human involvement would destroy the race, but all too soon it didn't matter. The Ampliture had discovered Earth!