Looking Through Lace

, #1

by

eBook, 98 pages

English language

Published Aug. 24, 2016 by Red Dragon Books.

ISBN:
978-1-5365-3932-5
Copied ISBN!
5 stars (1 review)

As the only woman on the first contact team, xenolinguist Toni Donato expected her assignment on Christmas would be to analyze the secret women's language -- but then the chief linguist begins to sabotage her work. What is behind it? Why do the men and women have separate languages in the first place? What Toni learns turns everything she thought they knew on its head.

Originally published in Asimov's in 2003, "Looking Through Lace" was a finalist for the Tiptree and Sturgeon awards. The Italian translation won the Premio Italia for best work of speculative fiction in translation in 2007.

1 edition

reviewed Looking Through Lace by Ruth Nestvold (Looking Through Lace, #1)

Masterful writing

5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Ruth Nestvold is a masterful writer, and I have absolutely nothing negative to say about this story. The plot was fantastic, the pacing was impeccable, and the editing was without fault.

It's definitely a refreshing take: a female exolinguist gets sent to a new planet where the men and women speak different languages. Being a woman, she ends up being the only one the females of the species trust, and it turns out that language isn't the only difference between men and women. The worldbuilding's very good, and I learnt that Nestvold actually invented a whole new language -- think Tolkein's Elvish or Star Trek's Klingon -- for this story. That's impressive!

Subjects

  • Science Fiction
  • Short Stories