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The Speaking of the Dead (The Termite Queen, #1)

Lorinda J. Taylor

Why we're reading this: Vol. 1 of a two-volume novel, The Termite Queen - first contact with a species of extraterrestrial intell…more
[close] Vol. 1 of a two-volume novel, The Termite Queen - first contact with a species of extraterrestrial intelligent termites, plus an intense love story and a great off-world adventure.

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Mar 24, 2013 Marva rated it really liked it

Les Miserables is 1500 pages long. About a third of it is exposition, essays, and other thoughts that popped in Hugo's head while he wrote an epic tale of exploitation and redemption. It appears that the extra 500 or so pages didn't deter readers from making this one of the most famous and well-read novels of all time.

Yes, you are reading a review of The Termite Queen. The above paragraph describes a bit of what you'll face reading the two volumes. Really great story, characterizations, plot, an Les Miserables is 1500 pages long. About a third of it is exposition, essays, and other thoughts that popped in Hugo's head while he wrote an epic tale of exploitation and redemption. It appears that the extra 500 or so pages didn't deter readers from making this one of the most famous and well-read novels of all time.

Yes, you are reading a review of The Termite Queen. The above paragraph describes a bit of what you'll face reading the two volumes. Really great story, characterizations, plot, and brilliant descriptions of how language works. For all of these very positive reasons, I encourage any reader who is not daunted by the length, to jump in and purchase both volumes of Lorinda Taylor's great science fiction tale.

The story follows the main character, Kaitrin Oliva, a xenolinguist, who discovers the giant termites found on an alien world are not simply bugs, but are an intelligent species with a complex language she is determined to understand. When one of the captive insects dies in her arms, she had recorded the brain waves of the dying creature. What seems like static to the uninitiated, Kaitrin recognizes as a language transmitted not by sound waves or even telepathy, but by broadcast radio waves (for want of words which accurately describe the language transmission). When Kaitrin realizes what she has discovered, she must convince her friend Prf. A'a'ma and the xenoentomologist, Griffin Gwydian. A mission is put together to return to the termite world with Oliva enthusiastically going along to discover the secrets of the termite language.

In the meantime, the story follows the palace intrigue in the termite world. We get to know some of the main power players in the termite society, and how that society works with its warriors, workers, and alates all serving a nameless queen (part of the religion of the termites).

It's a very complex story following humans, aliens like A'a'ma (of an intelligent bird species, and the completely alien termite society.

Volume 1 ends just as the expedition reaches the termite planet. Volume 2, no doubt, will take us into the discovery of the termite society and how the expedition members deal with something so alien.

This is a hard book because Ms. Taylor has bits and pieces of multiple languages, some familiar to humans, and several languages of the aliens, both friendly and unknown. I soon gave up trying to keep the termites straight in my mind, and relied on the context to figure out which were friends and which foes. Inj (English) is also morphed into a future-speak that might throw some readers. I kept wanting to correct "misspellings" which weren't misspelled at all, but were invented by Taylor to illustrate how language changes over centuries of use.

Reading this book is a serious undertaking by the reader. Be ready to really think about what's going on. If you prefer light romances, move along, there's nothing here for you. If you're ready to be challenged, then jump right in, but pay attention. I've got this sneaking feeling like there'll be a written quiz at the end of Volume 2. ...more

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