The Measure of the Universe

by Ellen Larson, Robert Gutowski (Illustrations)

A wide-eyed paleographer from Antares arrives on the Greek isles to study ancient inscriptions with a sharp-tongued communications professor. Blundering through the lexical labyrinth, they discover love among the runes, until one gloss too many uncovers a thread of deception thatleads straight to disaster for both their planets. Will the amiable alien save the day by revealing his semantic secrets, or will the censorious Antarans throw the book at him? Will the professor of pictographs see the light? Fire up your universal translators, it's Prometheus, Bloodied but Unbound! "Studded with clever double entendres and puns, this makes an engaging read for language lovers." -Booklist

Genres: Science Fiction

ebook

First published June 1, 2002

Reviews

[Isis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an entertaining book, though it took a little bit for me to get into the story, or should I say to discern the true story as it was unfolding. Very creative blending of fact & fiction, history & science fiction, and a fascinating approach to both human history as we know it, and one potential path for humanity to travel over the coming centuries.

I found the proposed parallels interesting, up to, and including, the concept of the physical manifestation of love. There is a truly impressive concept explained at the end of this story - a concept which I have no proof of, yet suspect that the author has gotten absolutely correct. And I would love to see the day when humanity reached the point where they were no longer restrained by themselves, and achieve that which is spoken of/demonstrated so well at the close of this story.

Definitely an entertaining read & well worth the time. Particularly if you are a fan of the history of human language.

[F.T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a neat story. It's intriguing, thoughtful and beautifully written. What struck me most is the author's reverence for all things language: writing, words, communication and perception. It expands on these concepts in a fascinating way, through the interaction -- and romance -- between a human woman and a highly advanced alien. Awesome. It made me think about things.

[Terri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I attended a reading (from this book) by the author and instantly fell in love with the light, frothy, comedic feel of the book, so I snapped up a (SIGNED!) copy. I swallowed this book down in a few hours and now I don't know what to say except, "Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!"

This book is sweet, funny, thoughtful, moving, sad, and thought-provoking. Larson does a phenomenal job making the visiting aliens both alien and advanced (beyond humans). Too often I get impatient with the "you're too dumb to understand our tech" argument, but here, Larson couches the aliens' beliefs/reasoning in both persuasive and believable terms.

This book doesn't strike a wrong note - everything about it was unexpected. I didn't know where it was going, how it was going to end. It was real, believable, and human. The problems each character grappled with were real and were serious, without being overly dramatic (no one was kidnapped or molested, there weren't any explosions or car chases) and there was no Deus Ex Machine swooping in to set all right. This book reminded me of The Sparrow or Contact - moving, engrossing literary fiction that happens to have SciFi elements.

[Liz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wildly creative and intelligent, this is a stretch-your-preconcieved ideas kind of book. So much of what we assume is evolution is questioned. It begs the questions, "What is higher thinking? And, if we had a chance to engage an otherworldly person, would we be able to open our minds to understand a different kind of rationale?" I will also add that for all the scientific jargon used, it is a warmly human and humane story. I loved it, loved being in Greece, loved the well-rounded characters.

[Barb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Consider what it would be like to work with a scientist from an inconceivably advanced culture. This book presents just such a scenario. That the science is paleography and there is also the enjoyment of playing with language in all sorts of ways. Very enjoyable.

[Lkai · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is going on my top best reads list.

A story about words; crafted with precise language and entendre. A love story. A philosophical debate about superior and inferior vs advanced and primitive. Fanatisism. Commonality between disparate cultures.

[Susan Larson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a witty, many-layered story that manages to be light-hearted and profound at the same time. I've read it twice with pleasure.

[मैं एक बकवास Lania]

It was amazing

[J.L. Dobias · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Measure of the Universe by Ellen Larson

This novel is a well written and well rounded piece that stands alone as a great addition to any Science Fiction lovers collection. But, if you are interested there is a bit of story behind the story that can be obtained by following the web links to the author's apology.

The novel itself is short but filled with a lot of thoughtful information. The nub of the story boils down to some basic things. In the world of R.H. Herman and Dr. Aisha Thanau aliens have landed and they have far superior technology, which they do not plan on sharing. They have come to study us while attempting to not interfere or change our present culture and level of existence. Whatever reasons they might have, Mr. Herman must convince Dr. Thanau to assist the alien Titek in his pursuit of the studying ancient human language in order that Mr. Herman's government might use this time and her insights to discover anything about the hidden knowledge of the aliens. In several small ways Aisha can't refuse and they move forward swiftly. The author compares this work brilliantly with the Prometheus myth and as the story plays out the comparison becomes more evident.

Personally, right out of the box, I began comparing this to a certain science fiction franchise and their prime directive. This time the directive is aimed again at mankind, but there seems less of a likelihood the aliens are setting up camp to wait for us to meet some magical bar that will take us over the top to the next level. No; to them we are the primitives, although we are advanced enough for them to reveal themselves. As it turns out that is just barely advanced enough. The aliens also exhibit a bit of Xenophobia mixed with an unhealthy dose of Xeno-superiority. Overall it was interesting for me to think about Prometheus and the Prime Directive together.

Titek, who might be compared to Prometheus in this story, is here because he's an archaeologist who in particular is looking to study the development of language. In this story these aliens have advanced far beyond us in that their normal method of communication looks like magic to us. Along with that advancement they have, at some point in their history, destroyed all evidence as to how language developed. That destruction has led some among them to believe they were born with their present language skills. Titek believes otherwise and is now on Earth to study our development of language in order to draw comparison between that and what might be his own people's true development. In this way the aliens do seem truly alien since it seems they did not develop language as a means of passing on history or at least they have abandoned history at some level.

Ellen Larson adds a wrinkle to the story as the reader discovers that Aisha is blind; a condition that Titek finds appalling, although he is not at liberty to offer her any help from the superior technology he has available to him. The remainder of the story might be considered the setup for making this a Promethean type story.

There are some very clever and laugh worthy moments in the examination of the use of language. Titek seems quite versed in English; but there are many idioms and some few metaphors tossed around by him, some of which are slight massacred, that began to confuse me about whether he was confused about the application of idioms or if he was showing his mastery by being deliberately obtuse.

The entire premise of the story with each different aspect of the alien culture neatly stack up creates an excellent reason for the alien's to be compelled to come all the way out here to visit us. I'm not at all certain whether it's helpful or necessary to make the Prometheus connection before or while reading this, but in reading the author's apology the reader should get a good sense of how thing are logically worked out.

Overall the great prose and intelligent story create something that all SF and SFF fans should greatly enjoy.

J.L. Dobias

[Ellen Larson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Studded with clever double entendres and puns, this makes an engaging read for language lovers" -Booklist (click to read complete review)click to read complete review)

"Bookstore workers will hate trying to figure out where to shelve The Measure of the Universe, which cleverly weaves mystery, romance, and wordplay into a twenty-first century tale." -Strange Horizons (click to read complete review)

"Enthusiastically recommended" -MWBR" (click to read complete review)

Dr. Thanau is an interesting heroine, one I wouldn't mind reading more about" -SFReader (click to read complete review)

[Echo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had a few issues with the story, but it was well written and I did like it. I was unprepared for the abrupt ending, especially after all the revelations that were given to earth (like other planets/worlds confirmed and implied threat of future invasion) despite saying they wouldn't/couldn't. Also, how is it going against the "no technology" rules to say "like telepathy", I mean, really? Yet the zealots don't "believe" language evolved... ok.