The Guild of Xenolinguists - Hardcover

Finch, Sheila

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1930846487 ISBN 13: 9781930846487

Publisher: Golden Gryphon Press, 2007

Synopsis

The galaxy-wide Guild of Xenolinguists handles all cross-cultural communications by sending agents abroad to learn new languages and program translation computers. The travails of novice linguists animate these 11 stories as they face much more than simple translation work, taking on alien parasites and viruses, a mysterious and violent star-faring race, dolphin instructors, and large tyrant ants. As cultures and languages collide, first contact quickly becomes a matter of morality, galactic politics, death, and war.

About this title

About the Author:

Sheila Finch is the author of eight novels, 30 short stories, and several articles about science fiction. She lives in Long Beach, California.

From Publishers Weekly:

Nebula-winner Finch's many fans as well as SF readers who have yet to encounter her work will welcome this collection of 10 short stories and a novella that showcase her unique contribution to the genre. Making excellent use of her graduate work in linguistics, Finch creates the Guild of Xenolinguists (later called lingsters), a formal organization devoted to translating the languages of other worlds. Much as Asimov did with the Three Laws of Robotics, Finch creatively examines the conflicts stemming from adherence to the guild's strict rules. The stories span a wide range, from First Was the Word, a brief tale setting the stage for the development of the guild, to the moving A World Waiting and A Flight of Words, which present their protagonists with morally difficult situations—tortured prisoners, conflicting religious beliefs, abortion—that hold significant contemporary resonance. A thoughtful foreword by New Wave luminary Ian Watson and an engaging afterword by Finch (Birds) discuss the linguistic theories that underlie the fiction. (Sept.)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Golden Gryphon Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1930846487
• ISBN 13: 9781930846487
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 300