Drunk on All Your Strange New Words, by Eddie
Robson (Tordotcom)
I loved this fresh and wonderful take on human-alien
cultural clashes! This alien race, the Logi, are approximately humanoid in
appearance and possess valuable technology. They’re fascinated by human
culture, especially the arts and printed books. The catch is that they communicate
telepathically through specially trained “Thought Language” translators. One
such is our heroine, Lydia, from a poor British background. She loves her work,
the only thing she’s ever been really good at, not to mention her generous
salary and her sensitive, thoughtful boss, the Logi cultural attaché. All this
makes it worth feeling drunk from translating between Thought Language and
English. It all goes to hell when her boss is murdered and she’s the prime
suspect. Both her freedom and her ability to solve the mystery depend on her
remaining at the Embassy, and the Logi is charge has never liked her.
Drunk on All Your Strange New Words combines alien
contact science fiction, a sympathetic heroine, weird maybe-supernatural stuff,
and a highly complex mystery filled with surprises and reversals. I found
Lydia, with all her insecurities, bravura, and gullibility, deeply sympathetic.
I fell for the same deceptions and cheered her on as the pieces of the puzzle
fell into place. This is a smart science fictional mystery and a
wonderful take on how even truly weird aliens and humans can find understanding
and common ground. Best of all, a deeply flawed character prevails at the end.
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