Drunk on All Your Strange New Words

January 1, 2022

Lydia, who works diligently if not brilliantly as a translator for the Logi cultural attach� to Earth, suddenly finds herself amid an intergalactic dustup with nowhere to turn. British sf/comedy writer Robson has honed his skills on the sitcomWelcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully and various Doctor Who spinoffs; with a 40,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 7, 2022
Robson (Hearts of Oak) spins a murder mystery into a memorable exploration of the power of language and technology in a post first-contact world. Human Lydia serves as the translator for Fitz, the Logi cultural attaché to Earth. While Lydia’s not the best translator at her agency, she and Fitz work well together. Communicating in the telepathic Logisi language leaves humans effectively drunk, a side effect Fitz is sympathetic to, even standing up for Lydia after a few public debacles. Then Fitz turns up murdered in the home the two share, leaving Lydia a suspect. To clear her name, she plunges into an ever-thickening web of intrigue around Logisi language and technology—and humanity’s extraterrestrial xenophobia. Robson mines the situation for both tension and humor, and Lydia owns her story, coming across as a brash, compassionate, and incredibly persistent heroine readers will root for. Robson has a subtle touch with the futuristic technology, steering clear of excessive exposition to focus instead on how the presence of the Logi effects life on Earth. Readers looking for thoughtful, fast-paced sci-fi should check this out.

May 1, 2022
Lydia is translator for Fitzwilliam, the Logi cultural attach�. The fact that translating the telepathic Logi language makes humans feel drunk isn't generally too much trouble; they test for that in the training program. When Lydia punches an overly pushy young man at an after-theater gathering, Fitz suggests that she take a vacation back home while the dust settles. She returns to Manhattan, does a particularly grueling event, and wakes up with a nasty hangover to find Fitz murdered in his office. She calls the police and is whisked away for questioning, and when she returns, she hears Fitz's ghost. The voice in her head sends her on a wild, independent investigation to find his killer, which leads to a web of conspiracy, bizarre plots, misinformation, red herrings, and exploration of this future version of New York. The truth in this story is both far simpler and far more interesting than the many lies people would like to believe, and Lydia is just the right kind of inquisitive character to keep the narrative entertaining.

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Starred review from May 6, 2022

In the latest from Robson (following Hearts of Oak), Lydia works as the resident telepathic translator for the alien Logi in near-future, post-First Contact New York City. The presence of her boss and his people are providing economic uplift after climate change cataclysms, which gives them outsized influence on human culture--at least according to the traditionalists who fear change and the conspiracy theory adherents looking for someone else to blame. When her boss is killed inside their secure, locked embassy, Lydia is the obvious suspect. In her amateur investigation to clear her name, she is drawn into a cat-and-mouse game of faked evidence, wild-eyed academic theories, selectively incompetent police, and the ghost of her boss giving her clues from beyond. VERDICT Fans of John Scalzi's Lock In and Brandon Sanderson's Legion will be enthralled with this deft blend of murder mystery and science fiction. In the end, the motives for the crime are all too human, while the means, methods, and opportunities are all firmly part of this futuristic setting. Highly recommended.--Marlene Harris

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.