The Language of Liars

Hardcover, 176 pages

Published April 21, 2026 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom..

ISBN:: 978-1-250-40533-3
Goodreads:: 231126905

"Pitch-perfect science fiction about linguistics and consequences. This book destroyed me."—Yoon Ha Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Ninefox Gambit

A New Scientist Best of 2026 Pick and a Most Anticipated Pick for Literary Hub | Book Riot | Shelf Reflection

Speak another people's language. Know them. Become them. And discover you've destroyed them.

In his training as a spy, Ro was warned: you will always be living a lie.

Jumping into a Star Eater's mind in the first place requires a moment of perfect psychic connection, and he has studied all his life to comprehend their species. Admires them, respects them, is reverent at the idea of being one of them—the only species physiologically capable of mining the element needed for lightyear-spanning space travel. The species all others crave to know more of, but who have notoriously shared so very …

"Pitch-perfect science fiction about linguistics and consequences. This book destroyed me."—Yoon Ha Lee, New York Times bestselling author of Ninefox Gambit

A New Scientist Best of 2026 Pick and a Most Anticipated Pick for Literary Hub | Book Riot | Shelf Reflection

Speak another people's language. Know them. Become them. And discover you've destroyed them.

In his training as a spy, Ro was warned: you will always be living a lie.

Jumping into a Star Eater's mind in the first place requires a moment of perfect psychic connection, and he has studied all his life to comprehend their species. Admires them, respects them, is reverent at the idea of being one of them—the only species physiologically capable of mining the element needed for lightyear-spanning space travel. The species all others crave to know more of, but who have notoriously shared so very little. The species Ro's own small civilization, with its dwindling resources and withering reach, needs to know more about.

It will feel real, his elders impressed upon him. It will never be real.

But Ro's certainty runs deep: he will be different. Ro will not be an imposter hiding the truth of his past, because his heart will be one of them. He will be one of them.

To understand is to become. It never occurs to him that the mere act of understanding can destroy.

2 editions

enne📚 reviewed The Language of Liars by S. L. Huang

4 stars

Yoon Ha Lee blurbs this as a book about "linguistics and consequences" and it's hard to find a better phrase to describe this novella.

The brief plot setup: Ro is a linguist who is training to sync up and jump into the body of a Star Eater, the only biological beings that can harvest the meridian element used for interstellar travel. He manages to do it against all odds, but things are not quite as he expects in his new body.

"It gives you no hesitation, the theft of another's self?"

Ro paused. That was the part he tried not to think about. As far as anyone knew from reports of the jumped Linguists, the leap took over the original Star Eater completely. At least for the Ponto lifetime.

What's interesting to me is that this is a story about learning that you're partially …

Yoon Ha Lee blurbs this as a book about "linguistics and consequences" and it's hard to find a better phrase to describe this novella.

The brief plot setup: Ro is a linguist who is training to sync up and jump into the body of a Star Eater, the only biological beings that can harvest the meridian element used for interstellar travel. He manages to do it against all odds, but things are not quite as he expects in his new body.

"It gives you no hesitation, the theft of another's self?"

Ro paused. That was the part he tried not to think about. As far as anyone knew from reports of the jumped Linguists, the leap took over the original Star Eater completely. At least for the Ponto lifetime.

What's interesting to me is that this is a story about learning that you're partially complicit in larger atrocities that are now your responsibility, even if the source of them is not (entirely) your fault. It's about the lies you repeat enough until they become true. It's about language and colonialism. I also don't think the book has any easy or pat answers here.