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Omnilingual
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52 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1957
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400 people want to read
About the author
H. Beam Piper
304 books243 followersHenry Beam Piper was an American science fiction author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 82 reviews
July 7, 2015
Oh The Golden Age of Science Fiction!
Oh - the first humans on Mars will be... archaeologists! working with the military but genuinely respecting each other! and the archaeologists' needs actually come first! oh! such a wonderful Golden Age!
Oh - a novella all about language and discovery! writing that is clean and straightforward! no battles no twist endings no nefarious villains no nonsense! not that i have anything against nonsense!
Oh! Gender Equality in the future! no Golden Age chauvinism! none of that nonsense!
Oh they really smoke a lot in the future!
Oh, in case you are wondering, 3 stars for me means I Liked It! it is not a bad thing! i may not reread this one but it is lovely and perfect! a classic!
Oh! you can read it for free! thank you, awesome Project Gutenberg!
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19445
Oh - the first humans on Mars will be... archaeologists! working with the military but genuinely respecting each other! and the archaeologists' needs actually come first! oh! such a wonderful Golden Age!
Oh - a novella all about language and discovery! writing that is clean and straightforward! no battles no twist endings no nefarious villains no nonsense! not that i have anything against nonsense!
Oh! Gender Equality in the future! no Golden Age chauvinism! none of that nonsense!
Oh they really smoke a lot in the future!
Oh, in case you are wondering, 3 stars for me means I Liked It! it is not a bad thing! i may not reread this one but it is lovely and perfect! a classic!
Oh! you can read it for free! thank you, awesome Project Gutenberg!
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19445
January 1, 2020
Oldie sci-fi. Mars and the Martian linguisstic quagmire.
So, science is the lingua franca of the universe? Or is it?
Q:
She sat for a moment, looking at it. It was readable, in the sense that she had set up a purely arbitrary but consistently pronounceable system of phonetic values for the letters. The long vertical symbols were vowels. There were only ten of them; not too many, allowing separate characters for long and short sounds. There were twenty of the short horizontal letters, which meant that sounds like -ng or -ch or -sh were single letters. The odds were millions to one against her system being anything like the original sound of the language, but she had listed several thousand Martian words, and she could pronounce all of them.
And that was as far as it went. She could pronounce between three and four thousand Martian words, and she couldn't assign a meaning to one of them. (c)
Q:
The letters on the page in front of her began squirming and dancing, slender vowels with fat little consonants. They did that, now, every night in her dreams. And there were other dreams, in which she read them as easily as English; waking, she would try desperately and vainly to remember. (c)
Q:
There were three words at the top of the page, over-and-underlined, which seemed to be the Martian method of capitalization. Mastharnorvod Tadavas Sornhulva. She pronounced them mentally, leafing through her notebooks to see if she had encountered them before, and in what contexts. All three were listed. In addition, masthar was a fairly common word, and so was norvod, and so was nor, but -vod was a suffix and nothing but a suffix. Davas, was a word, too, and ta- was a common prefix; sorn and hulva were both common words. This language, she had long ago decided, must be something like German; when the Martians had needed a new word, they had just pasted a couple of existing words together. It would probably turn out to be a grammatical horror. Well, they had published magazines, and one of them had been called Mastharnorvod Tadavas Sornhulva. She wondered if it had been something like the Quarterly Archaeological Review, or something more on the order of Sexy Stories. (c)
Q:
"Meaning isn't something that evaporates with time," she argued. "It has just as much meaning now as it ever had. We just haven't learned how to decipher it." (с)
Q:
Lectures. The organization of a Society of Martian Archaeology, with Anthony Lattimer, Ph.D., the logical candidate for the chair. Degrees, honors; the deference of the learned, and the adulation of the lay public. Positions, with impressive titles and salaries. Sweet are the uses of publicity. (с)
So, science is the lingua franca of the universe? Or is it?
Q:
She sat for a moment, looking at it. It was readable, in the sense that she had set up a purely arbitrary but consistently pronounceable system of phonetic values for the letters. The long vertical symbols were vowels. There were only ten of them; not too many, allowing separate characters for long and short sounds. There were twenty of the short horizontal letters, which meant that sounds like -ng or -ch or -sh were single letters. The odds were millions to one against her system being anything like the original sound of the language, but she had listed several thousand Martian words, and she could pronounce all of them.
And that was as far as it went. She could pronounce between three and four thousand Martian words, and she couldn't assign a meaning to one of them. (c)
Q:
The letters on the page in front of her began squirming and dancing, slender vowels with fat little consonants. They did that, now, every night in her dreams. And there were other dreams, in which she read them as easily as English; waking, she would try desperately and vainly to remember. (c)
Q:
There were three words at the top of the page, over-and-underlined, which seemed to be the Martian method of capitalization. Mastharnorvod Tadavas Sornhulva. She pronounced them mentally, leafing through her notebooks to see if she had encountered them before, and in what contexts. All three were listed. In addition, masthar was a fairly common word, and so was norvod, and so was nor, but -vod was a suffix and nothing but a suffix. Davas, was a word, too, and ta- was a common prefix; sorn and hulva were both common words. This language, she had long ago decided, must be something like German; when the Martians had needed a new word, they had just pasted a couple of existing words together. It would probably turn out to be a grammatical horror. Well, they had published magazines, and one of them had been called Mastharnorvod Tadavas Sornhulva. She wondered if it had been something like the Quarterly Archaeological Review, or something more on the order of Sexy Stories. (c)
Q:
"Meaning isn't something that evaporates with time," she argued. "It has just as much meaning now as it ever had. We just haven't learned how to decipher it." (с)
Q:
Lectures. The organization of a Society of Martian Archaeology, with Anthony Lattimer, Ph.D., the logical candidate for the chair. Degrees, honors; the deference of the learned, and the adulation of the lay public. Positions, with impressive titles and salaries. Sweet are the uses of publicity. (с)
January 1, 2020
Silly, old-time fun.
There's no point in pretending the science is anything other than dated, the sexism isn't appalling, and the "scientists" are at all credible. These yahoos would be tossed out of a real university when they leaped to their first unsupported conclusion with the focus and intensity of an impala pursued by lions.
But the "girl" scientists get proper credit and support from the male bosses, which makes a nice change from the reality we live in.
There's no point in pretending the science is anything other than dated, the sexism isn't appalling, and the "scientists" are at all credible. These yahoos would be tossed out of a real university when they leaped to their first unsupported conclusion with the focus and intensity of an impala pursued by lions.
But the "girl" scientists get proper credit and support from the male bosses, which makes a nice change from the reality we live in.
August 10, 2012
I'm not familiar with the works of H Beam Piper, but when I saw this recommended as the best SF short story EVER! , it made me curious. Luckily, it is available from Project Gutenberg and Feedbooks, so it was easy to put it on my ereader.
I liked it, and I understand the hyperbole - it's more about the message than actual writing or clever plot twists. For me Omnilingual is part of the Golden Age in SF - when everything seemed possible and science was trusted to provide all the answers Man needs in order to reach for the stars.
Back to the short story: Omnilingual makes a smooth transition from my previous one (Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge With Earbuds ) by the common theme of a team of archeologists trying to discern the nature of a lost civilization from the ruins they left behind. In H Beam Piper work, the archeologists are the first human expedition to Mars in 1996 (talk about optimistic SF writers in 1957), and the ruins are from the Martians who have been gone for fifty thousand years.
Things I liked about the story :
- character interactions - team dynamics, ambition, rivalry, dedication, passion, a bit of politics
- general archeological info : the parralells drawn to the search for lost civilizations on Earth (Hittites, Egyptians, Minoan, etc)
- language structures and problems in translating dead languages in the absence of a Rosetta Stone. This is the backbone of the story, and it holds the whole structure up very well.
- a sense of wonder, of exploring Astounding new worlds. (that's the iconic magazine that first published the story)
- impact : this was the Golden Age of SF also because writers were having Big Ideas, and some of the concepts proposed by them have been since adopted into standard scientific methods .
Things that felt a bit dated:
- actual living conditions on Mars, like oxygen content, atmospheric pressure, gravitation differences, wildlife adaptations, etc. This cannot be honestly held against the author, as I've read he was a bit of an autodidact in matters of science, and the general knowledge about the Red Planet at the time was limited. His Martian landscape feels more like Earth, rather than another planet
- hand held atomic jackhammers? Hmm ...
- everybody's smoking in the story. Maybe the author was sponsored by the Big Tobacco Industries
- biohazards : they are generally ignored, and the team is wandering about the ancient buildings without a care or a respiratory filter.
Conclusion: good story, I would include it in a SF Hall of Fame.
I would also check out more from H Beam Piper, maybe Little Fuzzy or Uller Uprising.
I liked it, and I understand the hyperbole - it's more about the message than actual writing or clever plot twists. For me Omnilingual is part of the Golden Age in SF - when everything seemed possible and science was trusted to provide all the answers Man needs in order to reach for the stars.
Back to the short story: Omnilingual makes a smooth transition from my previous one (Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge With Earbuds ) by the common theme of a team of archeologists trying to discern the nature of a lost civilization from the ruins they left behind. In H Beam Piper work, the archeologists are the first human expedition to Mars in 1996 (talk about optimistic SF writers in 1957), and the ruins are from the Martians who have been gone for fifty thousand years.
Things I liked about the story :
- character interactions - team dynamics, ambition, rivalry, dedication, passion, a bit of politics
- general archeological info : the parralells drawn to the search for lost civilizations on Earth (Hittites, Egyptians, Minoan, etc)
- language structures and problems in translating dead languages in the absence of a Rosetta Stone. This is the backbone of the story, and it holds the whole structure up very well.
- a sense of wonder, of exploring Astounding new worlds. (that's the iconic magazine that first published the story)
- impact : this was the Golden Age of SF also because writers were having Big Ideas, and some of the concepts proposed by them have been since adopted into standard scientific methods .
Things that felt a bit dated:
- actual living conditions on Mars, like oxygen content, atmospheric pressure, gravitation differences, wildlife adaptations, etc. This cannot be honestly held against the author, as I've read he was a bit of an autodidact in matters of science, and the general knowledge about the Red Planet at the time was limited. His Martian landscape feels more like Earth, rather than another planet
- hand held atomic jackhammers? Hmm ...
- everybody's smoking in the story. Maybe the author was sponsored by the Big Tobacco Industries
- biohazards : they are generally ignored, and the team is wandering about the ancient buildings without a care or a respiratory filter.
Conclusion: good story, I would include it in a SF Hall of Fame.
I would also check out more from H Beam Piper, maybe Little Fuzzy or Uller Uprising.
January 22, 2011
Somehow this quiet story remains a personal favourite, after many re-reads years apart.
Sure, it's got that 50's feel with everybody smoking and cocktail hour before dinner, but despite that the characters are real and likeable, and the basic premise and it's conclusion stands. Any communication with aliens past or present requires a starting point, and there's only one thing we all really share.
Read this one - freely available these days from gutenburg if you like.
Sure, it's got that 50's feel with everybody smoking and cocktail hour before dinner, but despite that the characters are real and likeable, and the basic premise and it's conclusion stands. Any communication with aliens past or present requires a starting point, and there's only one thing we all really share.
Read this one - freely available these days from gutenburg if you like.
April 22, 2013
Translating a completely unknown dead language is nearly impossible without the discovery of some bilingual text - the Rosetta Stone being the most famous example. What if humanity encountered an unknown text and attempts to decipher it failed but then a key was found ... but this key was in science, not language? What if the key were the periodic table, for example?
Okay, that's a good after-dinner thought experiment to have with your friends, I suppose.
Piper's novella was a disastrous interpretation of this experiment. Human explorers encounter a civilization on Mars that was so similar to ours that it's ridiculous. Human-sized buildings, doors, chairs, aggregation of spaces into dining rooms and sleeping areas and even classrooms: all these are things that the explorers found and no mention is given to how incredibly improbable this would be. One of the first objects that helps the linguist (whose name is irrelevant as all players in the novella are disposable versions of professional offices) is a calendar. A calendar! Of course an alien civilization would create something almost identical to our wall calendar with little boxes marked off and the name of the month up top. Of course their schoolroom is a series of chairs set facing the front where a large banner and blackboard-like teaching area is set up. Of course their department of chemistry has a big sign in their language that says "DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY" across the top of the hall.
Piper sets up a situation that is basically a word scramble. This alien language is not even as far removed from English as Basque is, and the whole illogical premise is a lead-up to the discovery, in the DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY, of a periodic table of the elements, laid out exactly as we lay ours out on Earth, and this serves as their Rosetta Stone and allows the linguist to crack the code.
I get that the underlying idea is "Science is Universal Truth, Kids!" but jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez.
Okay, that's a good after-dinner thought experiment to have with your friends, I suppose.
Piper's novella was a disastrous interpretation of this experiment. Human explorers encounter a civilization on Mars that was so similar to ours that it's ridiculous. Human-sized buildings, doors, chairs, aggregation of spaces into dining rooms and sleeping areas and even classrooms: all these are things that the explorers found and no mention is given to how incredibly improbable this would be. One of the first objects that helps the linguist (whose name is irrelevant as all players in the novella are disposable versions of professional offices) is a calendar. A calendar! Of course an alien civilization would create something almost identical to our wall calendar with little boxes marked off and the name of the month up top. Of course their schoolroom is a series of chairs set facing the front where a large banner and blackboard-like teaching area is set up. Of course their department of chemistry has a big sign in their language that says "DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY" across the top of the hall.
Piper sets up a situation that is basically a word scramble. This alien language is not even as far removed from English as Basque is, and the whole illogical premise is a lead-up to the discovery, in the DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY, of a periodic table of the elements, laid out exactly as we lay ours out on Earth, and this serves as their Rosetta Stone and allows the linguist to crack the code.
I get that the underlying idea is "Science is Universal Truth, Kids!" but jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2012
Reviews of this book almost never get to the entire point of the story. What does Piper mean by OMNILINGUAL? Many reviews say the story is about linguistics. It is really about the universality of science. Or more precisely the universality of how reality works and science is about understanding reality. That is what makes cracking the language possible. It is also somewhat similar to The Cold Equations in what it describes happening to the Martians. It tells that reality does not care just like Tom Godwin's short story.
This story is not about the writing. The Servant Problem by Robert F. Young has better writing but it does not have nearly as much scientific impact.
Too much so called sci-fi is not about science.
This story is not about the writing. The Servant Problem by Robert F. Young has better writing but it does not have nearly as much scientific impact.
Too much so called sci-fi is not about science.
Read
June 16, 2010While H. Beam Piper is probably more famous for his Paratime series (and his suicide), his "Omnilingual" is also highly regarded or at least much re-printed--although now it is out of copyright, so maybe it's just cheap (i.e., free). (Some of his works have fallen out of copyright, or rather, someone let copyright lapse on these works.)
"Omnilingual" is an unusual story, concerned with translation from a dead language--that is, the language of the extinct Martians. The whole story is about this one expedition and this one person who painstakingly goes through all the written records to try to piece together a language that has no relation to any existing language. It's kind of a quiet story with not much tension--there's no Martian bomb that's going to explode unless they can learn the language fast enough to find out which button means "off" in time--and the answer to the puzzle requires that the Martians be pretty much like us in everything but language (nearly the first word the investigator learns is "journal" because she's looking at scientific journals and of course the Martians have scientific journals). But the story still remains oddly satisfying, perhaps because it's so quiet and low-stakes.
"Omnilingual" is an unusual story, concerned with translation from a dead language--that is, the language of the extinct Martians. The whole story is about this one expedition and this one person who painstakingly goes through all the written records to try to piece together a language that has no relation to any existing language. It's kind of a quiet story with not much tension--there's no Martian bomb that's going to explode unless they can learn the language fast enough to find out which button means "off" in time--and the answer to the puzzle requires that the Martians be pretty much like us in everything but language (nearly the first word the investigator learns is "journal" because she's looking at scientific journals and of course the Martians have scientific journals). But the story still remains oddly satisfying, perhaps because it's so quiet and low-stakes.
September 23, 2020
Omnilingual is a brilliant short story, dealing with the difficulties of translating an alien (as in space alien) language if you have no living member of that alien species to help you out. It adds a layer of conflict among the human explorers, mainly along professional rivalries and jealousies.
While some of the science hasn't aged too well, especially when it comes to the matter of Martian planetology, and parts of the story might be seen as a tad naive by modern audiences (written in 2020, the scientists and military guys would hate each other, and there would probably also be an ancient Martian who kills everybody), it still holds up really well. It's a fairly unique premise, and I appreciate that it's a generally positive look at space exploration. If I were to make a list of "must read Mars stories" this one would probably be near the top.
Considering you can get this for free, either from Project Gutenberg or an audiobook version from Librivox, this is a story I highly recommend. Unless you can't sit still for ten minutes and think any story without gunplay is not worth your while, in which case this clearly isn't the right story for you.
I was unsure if I should rate it 4/5 "I really liked it" or 5/5 "it was amazing", it's probably a good 4.5er, but in the end I decided to round up because of the original premise.
While some of the science hasn't aged too well, especially when it comes to the matter of Martian planetology, and parts of the story might be seen as a tad naive by modern audiences (written in 2020, the scientists and military guys would hate each other, and there would probably also be an ancient Martian who kills everybody), it still holds up really well. It's a fairly unique premise, and I appreciate that it's a generally positive look at space exploration. If I were to make a list of "must read Mars stories" this one would probably be near the top.
Considering you can get this for free, either from Project Gutenberg or an audiobook version from Librivox, this is a story I highly recommend. Unless you can't sit still for ten minutes and think any story without gunplay is not worth your while, in which case this clearly isn't the right story for you.
I was unsure if I should rate it 4/5 "I really liked it" or 5/5 "it was amazing", it's probably a good 4.5er, but in the end I decided to round up because of the original premise.
March 20, 2020
A different kind of sci-fi story, where the aliens are all dead, and the scientists are primarily doing archaeology - though this involves blasting a hole in a sealed building in order to enter, which is hard to imagine archaelogists doing. With my interest in languages, I found it interesting how the story focuses on whether it would be possible to discover the key to an unknown language. A lot of the details about Martians are pretty unrealistic, but since when is science fiction about being realistic? It's interesting to see the interplay of the different personalities, and the contrast between those primarily motivated by the desire to learn and those motivated by the desire for fame.
November 16, 2011
I loved the story - as an engineer, this is right up my alley and makes perfect sense! The writing, I didn't particularly like. Seemed like it could have used a better editor and some expansion. Nice quick read, and if we were to find dead civilizations that were at least as advanced as ours, this would be a plausible way of deciphering things without a Rosetta Stone.
April 12, 2011
An interesting look at additional challenges with extra-terrestrial life, and potential solutions. Even though there wasn't a huge amount of action, I still enjoyed this story.
September 14, 2022
2 to 3 stars.
Reading updates.
Reading updates.
April 20, 2023
I really enjoyed this story and I wish there was more of it. Actually that’s the reason I gave it four stars rather than five. I want more!
It’s unusual to have a female protagonist in a science fiction story from the 1950’s, especially one that is treated respectfully by the author.
It’s unusual to have a female protagonist in a science fiction story from the 1950’s, especially one that is treated respectfully by the author.
Read
April 22, 2024Just ask love if have gravity to me
just wish the night can go far at time
to make my adv at mars time of life
to search yr languge there
to count my breath in y there
to stady yr hergulif
just y in my mind and dream
all the libreary and mousem there make y remmber me
just dont lost in cound
just if y love the love day
y will discover maney elment betwen us
many anchint life cant forget y
flower letter i send y
maybe can y read it betwen litter
lether ailins died just y come to my soul
y my lover traveler
just bird go and set at his shoulder
tell him how much i miss him
just wish the night can go far at time
to make my adv at mars time of life
to search yr languge there
to count my breath in y there
to stady yr hergulif
just y in my mind and dream
all the libreary and mousem there make y remmber me
just dont lost in cound
just if y love the love day
y will discover maney elment betwen us
many anchint life cant forget y
flower letter i send y
maybe can y read it betwen litter
lether ailins died just y come to my soul
y my lover traveler
just bird go and set at his shoulder
tell him how much i miss him
November 3, 2021
Amid much smoking of cigarettes (who cares about contamination of artifacts), scientists, specialista, and their military escorts study an ancient city of mars.
A Linguist pieces together a "Rosetta stone," by studying what appears to be a periodic table in an auditorium.
Very short, but enjoyable, for the author's Viewpoint of what an ancient Mars University looks like.
A Linguist pieces together a "Rosetta stone," by studying what appears to be a periodic table in an auditorium.
Very short, but enjoyable, for the author's Viewpoint of what an ancient Mars University looks like.
January 25, 2020
The kind of book you are forgetting while you reading it. Not to mention absolutely ridiculous idea of deciphering Martian language. Did they have only one language? Let's imagine Martians trying to decipher Terranian language. What if they find scroll with characters written on them? Oh, that must be Chinese someone might say... but no. Japanese, Vietnamese, Koreans used Chinese characters for a long time (Japanese still use them, Koreans still use them in science and jurisprudence) so these characters looks almost the same (let's suppose they are all traditional characters because they from the past) and here we have the first problem - although they look the same they have different meaning, different pronunciation and used in different order.
Spoilers ahead.
Why do they have periodic table absolutely identical to ours? That sounds far-fetched to say the least.
I have another question - do author really think the will be any kind of food left on the table after 50 thousand years? Well, color me dubious. I also find it strange that Martians are humanoid-like, bipedal creatures. I think the "Story of my life" by Ted Chiang (there was a movie "Arrival" based on it) is a much better (but of course aliens were alive in that one).
As for writing it's a mix of prose and somewhat academic writing and I didn't find that very much refreshing. At least it was short.
Spoilers ahead.
Why do they have periodic table absolutely identical to ours? That sounds far-fetched to say the least.
I have another question - do author really think the will be any kind of food left on the table after 50 thousand years? Well, color me dubious. I also find it strange that Martians are humanoid-like, bipedal creatures. I think the "Story of my life" by Ted Chiang (there was a movie "Arrival" based on it) is a much better (but of course aliens were alive in that one).
As for writing it's a mix of prose and somewhat academic writing and I didn't find that very much refreshing. At least it was short.
March 29, 2014
I love the story lines around long dead Martian civilizations, reminds me of my early readings of Ray Bradbury. The Martian world described in this short story is something I would really enjoy reading more about, maybe Scalzi could take it further like he did with the little fuzzy.
Piper's world still has everyone smoking and drinking liquor like their lives depended on it. A weird reflection of the writer's own times.
Big bonus is that this is the first of Piper's stories where the women are not background objects, the lead character is female and I actually felt like I wanted to know more about her and her choices. Makes me wonder what caused the change in Piper's world to make him actually have a strong female character.
My biggest complaint is the story ended too soon.
Piper's world still has everyone smoking and drinking liquor like their lives depended on it. A weird reflection of the writer's own times.
Big bonus is that this is the first of Piper's stories where the women are not background objects, the lead character is female and I actually felt like I wanted to know more about her and her choices. Makes me wonder what caused the change in Piper's world to make him actually have a strong female character.
My biggest complaint is the story ended too soon.
November 7, 2011
Scientists excavate the ruins on mars to find the key to the missing language for a martian civilization dated to be 50,000 years missing. The story provides the reader insight into what is the role of information to science.
What biases might a scientist have that will prohibit them from finding truth out of ruin? What is the role of history to a modern society? H. Piper Beam was a progressive thinker who utilized science fiction to pose questions and state answers for the 21st century.
What biases might a scientist have that will prohibit them from finding truth out of ruin? What is the role of history to a modern society? H. Piper Beam was a progressive thinker who utilized science fiction to pose questions and state answers for the 21st century.
January 27, 2024
The year is 1996 and the first expedition to Mars discovers a highly advanced technological civilisation. The only problem is, the Martians have been dead for half a million years and all that is left are their crumbling cities buried under hundreds of feet of ever-settling dust. Martha Dane, is one of the expedition's tiny archaeology team and she's in trouble with her ambitious superior because she's spending too much time trying to decipher the Martian language.
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October 25, 2012
Omnilingual is more a novella or even long-ish short story. But it's simply great. The idea is that some archeologists are exploring the cities of the long-dead Martians, trying to decipher the culture. However, how do you ever figure out how to read Martian without even the possibility of some sort of Rosetta Stone? That question powers the storyline and the conclusion is satisfying. This one is a great read.
I should note that Piper is notable (heh) for having strong female characters for the time, such as the lead in this story.
I should note that Piper is notable (heh) for having strong female characters for the time, such as the lead in this story.
April 19, 2014
Interesting novella. Good ideas. I'm a little unclear on why the periodic table would be universal. I mean, why exactly would they lay it out in exactly the same order? Why couldn't it be organized by month of discovery or funny hats or something else inscrutably alien to our way of thinking? Still an interesting idea. Loved the library. Loved the thought there would be breathable pockets of oxygen at extreme depths on Mars. Such a wonderfully outlandish and outdated idea. Well written. Worth reading. Short.
March 5, 2012
Science fiction, more of a short story or novella than a book. Very well written, hard science, with a philosophical question (how do you find a Rosetta Stone for an extinct alien civilization?). What was really strange for back when it was written was that the main character was a female scientist, and nobody in the story thought anything odd about a female being a scientist, or a Space Force officer for that matter.
January 27, 2013
On an Earth to Mars expedition, the scientific team find the remains of a civilization that's about 50,000 years old. Among the ruins they find many books and other documents but are unable to decipher the contents. However, after finding a periodic table in one of the rooms of what may have been a university, one of the team's archeologist Martha Dane decides to employ this as a guide to this puzzle...
February 8, 2013
A fairly short story, but longish for the idea it's built around.
The main character is an archaeologist on Mars, who maintains, in the face of her colleagues' skepticism, that she will be able to translate the Martian language. The author makes a point about science with the ultimate resolution, but given how un-alien the Martian civilization seems to be, I think she would have been fine anyway.
Everyone smokes, which to a modern reader is quaint.
The main character is an archaeologist on Mars, who maintains, in the face of her colleagues' skepticism, that she will be able to translate the Martian language. The author makes a point about science with the ultimate resolution, but given how un-alien the Martian civilization seems to be, I think she would have been fine anyway.
Everyone smokes, which to a modern reader is quaint.
March 5, 2017
Nice short story about archeologists trying to unravel the mysteries of a long dead Martian civilization. How do you translate a language that is completely dead, and has no referents at all? I'll give you a hint... science! Neat story. 3 stars only though because it was so dated. Cigarettes and Pipes in a space habitat on Mars? Written way before computers, so the space archeologists still did everything on paper.. :0 Golden Age Sci-Fi!
February 9, 2019
Great Golden Age novella about an archeological expedition to Mars. Some typical bits about academic rivalry, but the primary focus is the linguist who is being given short shift by the physical archeologists and scientists on the expedition who feel that her specialty is irrelevant as there will never be a Mars-Earth version of the Rosetta Stone. Doubly fascinating that the author choose to make his focus character a woman.
January 27, 2020
Set on Mars in 1996, long after civilization there has vanished, Omnilingual focuses on the archeological and military exploration of one of the last cities. As they are exploring, one member of the expedition is trying to determine how to read the recorded language, a key to understanding what was left behind. It lost a star because the ending came too abruptly but otherwise this is a nice exploration of the kind of keys linguists look for in decoding a language.
April 30, 2009
I'm not much for Science Fiction these days, but I have to admit, I enjoy H. Beam Piper's stories. I enjoyed the anthropological expedition to Mars aspect, too, although I expected more action.
I really like listening to Mark Nelson read this on his SciPodBooks Podcast. He is a delight to listen to.
I really like listening to Mark Nelson read this on his SciPodBooks Podcast. He is a delight to listen to.
September 16, 2011
One of the things that I like about H. Beam Piper is that he often had strong female characters in his books, characters that are both educated, brave, or strong willed. Omnilingual is a short story that focuses on a group of scientists trying to unravel the mystery of an ancient alien civilization. It’s a little bit slower than some of his other works, but decidedly less political.
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