A book I should have liked more than I did; so much interesting stuff here that’s right up my alley about the use and genesis of language, linguistic and cultural contact, how species think and how we process the world, alien intelligence, the self, language as a tool for cognition, how colonization changes a community, etc, etc, etc. But for all of its gifts, I wanted it to be more gripping than it was! Excellent worldbuilding and use of terminology both new and old, a detailed setting, and lots of other wonderful things going for it; a worthy read nonetheless.