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Looking Through Lace
by
Ruth Nestvold (Goodreads Author)
As the only woman on the first contact team, xenolinguist Toni Donato expected her assignment on Christmas would be to analyze the secret women's language -- but then the chief linguist begins to sabotage her work. What is behind it? Why do the men and women have separate languages in the first place? What Toni learns turns everything she thought they knew on its head.
Ori...more
Ori...more
Kindle Edition, 2 edition, 55 pages
Published
February 23rd 2011
by Ruth Nestvold
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I like how much easier it has gotten for me to read novellas. Yay for ebooks, because I never read Asimov's.
I thought this highly polished story was a perfect example of how to work through one's own expectations. At first, our viewpoint character arrives on the planet Christmas, expecting pretty much what people told her. She got invited because she is the only female xenolinguist available, and it appears that the women have a second language that the men don't use.
She does all the things a s...more
I thought this highly polished story was a perfect example of how to work through one's own expectations. At first, our viewpoint character arrives on the planet Christmas, expecting pretty much what people told her. She got invited because she is the only female xenolinguist available, and it appears that the women have a second language that the men don't use.
She does all the things a s...more
So how interesting can it be to read about a woman learning a new language? Well, with the expert grammar skills of the author (she is an English professor), it's as interesting as humanly possible. This novella length science fiction story started out fairly slow. Its short length is a positive, as I'm not sure I could handle a novel on this topic. That said, it was fasinating watch Toni defragment an alien language using skills that linguistics use in a way that a non linguist can understand a...more
Author: Ruth Nestvold
Published By: R.N.
Age Recommend: 16
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Raven Rating: 5
Blog Review For: GMTA
Review:
"Looking Through Lace" by Ruth Nestvold was a wonderful fascinating short Sci-Fi read. This author did a wonderfuljob with the main character, Toni Donato who was female xenolinguist.. her assignment was with the first contact teamon the alien planet 'Christmas to analyze the secret women's language' ... studying the Mejan culture. The women spoke a different language that t...more
Published By: R.N.
Age Recommend: 16
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Raven Rating: 5
Blog Review For: GMTA
Review:
"Looking Through Lace" by Ruth Nestvold was a wonderful fascinating short Sci-Fi read. This author did a wonderfuljob with the main character, Toni Donato who was female xenolinguist.. her assignment was with the first contact teamon the alien planet 'Christmas to analyze the secret women's language' ... studying the Mejan culture. The women spoke a different language that t...more
I won this novella from a member giveaway on librarything in exchange for an honest review.
Looking through Lace is a book about discovering alien languages, and how a language is set up can reveal so much about a culture.
I really liked the protagonist. She was strong, not to be bullied by the antagonist. I will not reveal the secrets of this book, but as a woman, I really enjoyed how things turned out. I thought the book was well written, and written by someone who loves and understands languag...more
Looking through Lace is a book about discovering alien languages, and how a language is set up can reveal so much about a culture.
I really liked the protagonist. She was strong, not to be bullied by the antagonist. I will not reveal the secrets of this book, but as a woman, I really enjoyed how things turned out. I thought the book was well written, and written by someone who loves and understands languag...more
Toni Donato is a xenolinguist, normally working behind the scenes, cataloging inflection, grammar, and structure of alien languages in massive databases, but she’s finally gotten her big break to do field research. On the planet, Christmas, the women appear to have a distinct, secret language from the men, and as the only female xenolinguist available, Toni is chosen for the research job. She’s excited to be a part of the first contact team, but that enthusiasm takes a hit when the chief linguis...more
Not at all what I expected - and very pleasantly surprised! I downloaded this some time ago, but because it was short and the name didn't really sound all that appealing, I held off.
Starting off, the linguistics focus kept my attention because I couldn't guess where it would lead. It turned out to have a very interesting twist which the author explored well in such a short tale. I almost don't want to read the next book because I enjoyed the scope of this one just as it is!
Starting off, the linguistics focus kept my attention because I couldn't guess where it would lead. It turned out to have a very interesting twist which the author explored well in such a short tale. I almost don't want to read the next book because I enjoyed the scope of this one just as it is!
A nice, quick read. I wasn't surprised by anything in the story and I'm not sure it was all just because it was too simple. It was a little predictable, yes, but I also think the author gave a lot of hints so when the reveal came, I wasn't left feeling like it was too easy, just that things played out as expected. The writing was fresh if the ideas weren't and it was an enjoyable read.
One of the things I've enjoyed most about the advent of e-readers is the return of short fiction. This novella is listed at 55 pages and was slightly over 100 page turns on a Kindle. While SciFi is not my main reading interest and my preferred form of SciFi is near future, realistic Scifi, this was an interesting story dealing with contact with another human culture and the complexities of the difference in societies and language. This is a fairly low cost offering on Amazon but well worth the p...more
The plot of this novella centers around Toni, a xenolinguist who finally gets her big break being assigned to a first contact team exploring an alien planet. After landing on the planet, we see the team struggle to understand both different languages and cultures and even gender roles in society. I loved this novella, I wish there was more of it! Highly recommended!...more
This is an unusual book by Ruth Nestvold. The topic concerns a woman who studies languages and who is working on a distant planet to learn the languages spoken there. The topic is not one high on my list of interests, but she makes that topic interesting for me, so she did a good job. An interesting b ook.
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"
J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"
A very nice novella that may be read in one day (or less). It has an interesting take on things with a couple of nice twists to keep it interesting. I would read more of Nestvold's works.
A very satisfying novella. I hope Nestvold writes more about this world because she's created such a fascinating world and culture.
Didn't love the ending, but otherwise a complex, thought-provoking story. The writing is simple, clear and polished.
Well written novella. Interesting commentary on culture. A quick read, highly recommend for a lazy afternoon reading.
The kind of puzzle story I like in sf.
technical but understandable.
Kindle freebie.
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