to make things even harder, she inadvertently gets pulled into a big mess of a situation and ends up as the only human interpreter / translator for an alien race that’s been hanging around on earth for god knows how long. specifically, for one particular alien: the elusive ampersand, who plays his cards very close to his chest. Obelus threatens to unleash a pandemic on Earth to slow humanity's technological development; this would presumably be a Class 1 or Class 2.

She felt the injection just beneath her left jawbone before she even saw the syringe… She reached into her memory, trying to recall what only a couple of minutes ago had her so concerned. Something to do with a family, perhaps, a family whose names she couldn’t recall. What Axiom’s End Does Right Historical Domain Character: Secretary of Defense Robert Gates , whom George W. Bush named as Donald Rumsfeld's successor, appears for a chapter, but is not directly named until a later epistolary segment concerning " ET-Gate". This is true of all alien proper nouns. Ampersand, Obelus, and Pequod are all CIA codewords, while Amigdaline, Fremda, Esperas, and the other aliens' names were all names given them by ROSA employees. The aliens use them as a functional Sure, Let's Go with That translation of proper nouns that have no native human vocabulary. I thought that was one of the main ways in which your book subverts sci-fi conventions. It’s not as heavy on the violence, but rather on the question of language, how an alien language and communication might be different from ours. i finally felt the scope, weight, and weirdness of being humans in such a vast galaxy that i always love so much about the sci-fi genre, and at the same time they also had many hilarious moments of genuine confusion between them.Sabino!” It was Eli Gerrard, one of the only people at Kaiser she knew by name. Eli was not a temp but a college graduate who worked in IT. “You okay?” Sol, interrogating Cora on her Entertainingly Wrong understanding of the universe, marvels, " Oh, you sweet summer child".

Ampersand is genuinely scared of Cora and finds humans terrifying. And that goes both ways. From the reader’s point of view, it’s extremely one way. In earlier drafts, I was very low-key about it. I buried the lede so much that at the end you had this relationship where there was no real connection. It was only after The Shape of Water came out that I was like, “Oh, I guess people are here for this.” The Heavy: "Similars" like Obelus are huge amygdalines who specialize in combat and other dangerous tasks. They're usually employed as soldiers or explorers.i’ll be the first to come out and admit that i bought this book because i’ve been a longtime fan of lindsay ellis’ work as a film critic and youtuber. i genuinely believe her videos are insightful, and i love her brand of humor. Note: I received a copy of Axiom’s End through a Goodreads Giveaway. This did not influence the content of my review, but did influence me to write a review. Vague spoilers throughout, but significant spoilers are marked. Overwritten and obtuse, Lindsay Ellis' first novel is in desperate need of a complete editorial overhaul. From the amateurish insistence on passive voice...