S.L. Huang’s new novella, The Language of Liars, is very different from her previous book, The Water Outlaws. Where The Water Outlaws reimagined a classic of Chinese literature, The Language of Liars takes us into the far future and deep into space. Ro, a young linguist, has been training all his life so that he can “jump” and merge with one of the mysterious Star Eaters. Ro is the kind of protagonist I love to watch: they’re a naive scholar who cannot stop asking questions when they discover that things aren’t adding up.
Ro believes that he can make a jump—something few others of his kind have ever managed—even though all of his teachers agree that the little wastrel is too undisciplined. He puts off meditation and parts of his training that he doesn’t care for; he’d much rather be learning something new about the many languages spoken across the galaxy. It’s absolutely astounding that, just when he least expects it, Ro manages to make a jump. He leaves his body behind on his little moon and merges with a Star Eater on a distant mining vessel.
The excerpts from media and documents at the beginning of each chapter fill in some of the history of this galaxy and the Star Eaters. The Star Eaters are the only creature that can sense and mine meridian, the substance that fuels all travel and most industry. A devasting war started when two civilizations tried to corner the market on meridian, leading to the near extinction of the Star Eaters. Everything about the Star Eaters is now heavily regulated, though they have some nominal rights. In theory, the Star Eaters could leave the mining vessels. In theory, Star Eaters are not harmed if they don’t meet their undefined quotas. All anyone will tell Ro about these mysterious beings is that they live to work. After Ro merges with a Star Eater and actually experiences life on one of the mining vessels, under the “care” of the sinister Overseers, Ro starts to have questions.
It’s incredible how much Huang is able to cram into less than 200 pages without making the book feel overstuffed. The Star Eaters are a marvel of imagination, as they possess an entirely different set of senses that most of the sentient beings in the galaxy. (Ro is fascinated by the Star Eaters’ prepositions.) That said, I wish there was a little more meat on these bones. Although I worked out fairly early in the book what was going on, I wanted to know more about the other Star Eaters on the mining ship. I wanted to know more about the Overseers and what they do when a Star Eater is declared “ill.” The Language of Liars is a good snack, but not quite enough of a meal for me.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.