Hello and welcome to this week's edition of #NewTitleTuesday, where we take a brief look at a new title that's hitting the shelves at your local library! It's late July, summer is in full swing, and lines on new releases are long, so if you're looking for something great to read, always reach out to your friendly neighborhood library staff; we're always happy to help.
This week's selection is DRUNK ON ALL YOUR STRANGE NEW WORDS by Eddie Robson. Robson, a British writer who's been in the business for a while, working on radio plays, short stories, comic books, and television scripts, particurlary on Doctor Who, famous for it's quirky take on science fiction. He brings that sense of delightful weirdness to this novel, a sly near-future locked-room mystery (with a twist) which has the potential to appeal to readers who normally steer clear of science fiction.
In DRUNK ON ALL YOUR STRANGE NEW WORDS, humanity has made contact with aliens, called the Logi. The Logi don't use spoken language to communicate - they use telepathy. But only a small amount of humans have the ability to glean any sort of meaning from these alien thoughts, and the overwhelmed, fragile human mind suffers the effects of drunkenness afterward. In the novel, we begin with Lydia, who works with one of the Logi ambassadors in New York. One morning, this ambassador is found dead, with an intoxicated Lydia the only other person in the house who could have done it. Under heavy political pressure from the humans - and the Logi, she must prove her innocence.
Even though the setup might sound like the basis of a thriller, under Robson's light touch, this is an enjoyable offbeat locked-room mystery loaded with interesting soft sci-fi ideas with a pinch of British charm. Readers will enjoy the mystery and the near-future world as well as fall in love with Lydia, who despite her Logi translation skills isn't very confident in herself but finds her stride as the novel goes on.
I'm always interested in novels that introduce readers to different genres, taking elements of one type of story and gently mixing them in with another, producing cross-pollination that readers otherwise might not have access to. This might be one of those novels to take a chance on, so if this sounds like it might be in your wheelhouse, please place your holds. We hope you enjoy. (And if you like what you read, let us know, and we can point you towards more!)
Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next time!