Looking for a sci-fi novel that featured a slave species called spacules (I think)

[Ogre Magi]

It was set in the distant future, on a world humans had settled such a long time ago that Earth is never mentioned. Humanity enslaved a native species called spacules (or maybe spicules).These were hobbit sized creatures that were green and lumpy did not have discernible facial features. They communicated through honking and booming.They were seen as only semi-sapient and there seemed to be some factor that was holding their intelligence back. The humans had some sort of noble class that ruled the planet. There were other sapient species that had immigrated from other worlds.They lived in slum like areas and once lizard like race was not happy about the situation. Any idea what novel this is? I think it may have come out between 1994-1998

A few other details that I remember.

There was a young woman with red hair from the lower classes that worked as a servant. She was fond of a spacule kitchen slave name Sugar. At one point Sugar is making some pastries and the humans observes the was the light catches off the transparent membrane between the spacule's fingers make it look like she is folding rainbows into the dough.

There is also a warrior of the reptilian race from off world who is disgusted at how humanized his people have become,-right down to keeping the same pet animals that humans do such as dogs and jade-wing lizards.At one point he gets in a dominance fight with a young member of his race.The fight ends with the young one's neck in his jaws.He spares him and says something like "Your throat tastes like piss"

IIRC the human woman encounters what seems to be a sapient hologram at one point

 

[tinkerdan]

This sounds like one of S.L. Viehl's Stardoc series though not any that I read; but she writes a lot of strange alien things so I wouldn't be surprised if any of the ones beyond the first five diverted this far.

http://www.amazon.com/S.L.-Viehl/e/B001IU2JVE/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

I don't think they are that old though.

 

[Ogre Magi]

I FOUND IT

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Palace
Katharine Kerr and
Mark Kreighbaum
Bantam Spectra $5.99
If you define “cyberpunk” as that subset
of SF featuring people who hard-wire
themselves into enormous and exotic
virtual-reality manifestations of cyber
space, then Palace conceivably qualifies.
But while this new novel from Katharine
Kerr and Mark Kreighbaum is chock-full
of “cyber,” it isn’t “punk” in the slightest.
Instead, Kerr and Kreighbaum have
blended their cybertech with a healthy
dose of space opera and a setting that
might reasonably be summarized as
“the French Revolution on drugs.”
There are nuns and cardinals, an influential
network of guilds, a Versailles-sized
palace complex,, hidden assassins, and
decadent nobility. But though the power
struggles and intrigues would be entirely
at home in eighteenth-century France,
the novel takes place on a remote colony
world in a part of space referred to as “the
Pinch.” Humans are the dominant
species, but there are other races as well.
The subservient saccules are bought and
sold as slave labor, though they may in
fact be sentient, and the more advanced
reptilian Lep are tolerated — more or
less — despite previous conflicts with
humanity.
Kerr and Kreighbaum — who make it
clear up front that theirs is a full-bore collaboration
— develop their multifaceted
setting with impressive vividness. We get
a vibrant picture of Palace, the city in
which the action takes place, from dangerous
low-class neighborhoods to busy
entertainment districts to the baroque
elegance of its wealthiest citizens’ homes.
The virtual realm called the Map is no
less detailed if substantially less crowded,
and in fact Kreighbaum and Kerr give the
Map a rich texture and flavor unlike most
of the cyberspace-environments found in
typical cyberpunk adventures.
But though Palace gets much of its
energy from its densely atmospheric
scenery, its more than a tourist guidebook.
Three characters out of a substantial
cast share the lead roles: Vida, a
young woman plucked from impoverished
obscurity to assume a position of
considerable influence; Rico, a juniorgrade
map technician who comes across
dangerous knowledge; and Vi-Kata, a
Lep assassin whose mysterious sponsors
want both Vida and Rico out of the way.
Of this trio, Vida is the prime mover,
quickly proving more adept at games of
diplomacy than her own supporters
have anticipated. While the plot is
impressively convoluted — to the extent
that even at novel’s end, the reader
knows more than most of the characters
about what’s going on — its never so
baroque that the reader feels lost

 

[tinkerdan]

I've read Katherine Kerr's Freeze Frames and that's about all I've read of hers.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BWZ9XWI/?tag=brite-21