Eddie Robson was inspired to write Drunk on All Your Strange New Words the night thatBong Joon Hoacceptedhis Oscars for Parasite . As he watch the music director on stage , he detect Sharon Choi , Ho’stranslator , as she sour . In a public that is constantly push towards automation , even automatic rendering , what would the act of in - person , immediate , interpretation and transformation expect like in the futurity ? inebriated on All Your Strange New Words is Robson ’s indelibly unique answer .
The Bible star Lydia , who was identified as a person with a talent for translation when she was in high school . A graduate of the London School of Thought Language , she now service as the interpreter for Fitzwilliam , the cultural attaché of the Logi , an exotic species that made contact with the earth about 30 or 40 years ago . The Logi have difficulty with digital technology and ask an in - person interpreter , which is where Lydia comes in , communicating telepathically with the Logi and grant them to interact with human society .
That is , she was a translator for the ethnical attaché before he was find dead in their apartment . guess Knives Out meetsA Memory Called Empire , and you have a practiced idea of how this investigation goes as the police , radical anti - Logi groups , and artist with personal grudges try on to trap Fitzwilliam ’s slaying on Lydia , despite the fact that she was far too drunk at the end of the keynote speech / feast to have done much more than pass out . That ’s the catch here — translating for the Logi gives humans the tactile sensation of being drunk .
Image: Tor Books
So when Lydia hear a representative inside her head after the execution , she ’s sure it ’s just an sound reflection of Fitz … until she starts to feel drunk . Convinced that she ’s not experiencing a nervous crack-up , Lydia set in motion her own investigation into Fitz ’s murder , running all over Manhattan to prove to find some logical reason for her employer ’s death .
What pass off is a dense unraveling of the nature of truth and understanding between cultures . ensnarl in futurism that is both fascinatingly like and unlike our own , Lydia ’s search for the truth is an elusive and alien thing in a world where accuracy is rate via social medium algorithms , and anything that needs to survive can be faked , implant , or re - recorded . A lot of this Koran trust on Lydia trusting herself , and not what she ’s being recite , resisting the urge to verify things , else something gets picked up via the algorithm , and content begins to churn itself to the top of her feed .
There ’s an indistinct prescience to the world of this rule book , where we explore a near - future that has evolve from the modern - day politicization of “ truthiness ” and the blurring of the communication channel between on-line and offline . There are slim critiques of capitalist economy and middle - direction , the kind that pull in you realize with a gut - punch that nothing ever really changes , does it ? There is always going to be someone sell with the busywork , no matter how advanced the tech bring forth ; when there is work to do and when all that work just posture around it make more study no matter how much work you get done .
Image: Tor Books
hold turns in between absurdly gruesome and piano nascent , Drunk on All Your Strange New Words observe societal media , public journalism , academia , and obsession while enmeshing the audience in Lydia ’s voice . Sarcastic , mistily annoyed at everything , and dire to come up the accuracy , Lydia is a charitable fuckup who ’s just try her best in an impossible post .
Robson has done a remarkable chore get to Lydia feel like your good , messiest Libra friend , full of smart - ass comment and sorry decisions , but who really wants to do the right affair at the end of the day . With recognizable slang that seamlessly incorporate into the fast - forward futurity of the novel , the blood line writing feels lived - in . We get term like clouded , idee , facerec , inkout , and enpeecees , which are easily graspable , translate from our contemporary experiences into something that feels possible .
As the closed - room murder probe go on , the script picks up its pace markedly by the second half . When the walls are close up in , Lydia does n’t get the self - driving cable car of the future tense just take her for a drive . Her practical , impossibly determined search for accuracy , promote her onward . judge and righteousness take a backseat to the simple desire to know what happened — to objectively , without any kind of truth filter or digital filter , understand why Fitz was killed and who is behind the murder .
With a darkly natural language - in - cheek drollery and soft science - fabrication premise , Drunk on All Your Strange New Words is a conspiracy theory gift wrapped up as an exploration of our own civilization ’s fixation with ourselves . As Robson develops the enigma , honing in on the whodunnit at the center of the book , he also expand outwards , translating small the true about our own world through Lydia ’s filters . And , in some cases , without any filters at all .
Drunk on All Your Strange New Wordsis usable now for preorder , and will be published on June 28 .
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