“If there’s no word for it, how do you think about it?”

Twenty years after an invasion of the solar system, poet Rydra Wong (famous throughout the five explored galaxies) is called upon to help decode Babel-17, a language that has something to do with the invasion. Rydra is only 26 and in addition to being a famous poet, is also an expert in both human and extraterrestrial languages, to the extent she can even read people’s minds simply by observing their body language. There are nine space-faring species, some on each side of the war, but language barriers keep them from reality knowing each other even if they’re allied.

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In this alternate version of 1962, Roosevelt is assassinated during his first year in office which leads to the Japanese and Germans winning World War II. Germany and Japan divide the United States between them with the western US belonging to Japan and the eastern US belonging to Germany. While the Rocky Mountain states belong to Japan, they’re considered inconsequential and generally left to themselves. (Italy has a small empire in the Middle East, but generally didn’t benefit much from their alliance with Germany.)

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The moon explodes, breaking into seven large pieces and several smaller ones. It will continue breaking up until earth gains a ring like Saturn. However, in the meantime, bits of rock will rain down on the Earth for thousands of years, making the surface uninhabitable. Humanity can only survive by going into space or perhaps going underground.

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It’s unknown when exactly the Poem of Erra was written, but probably sometime between 1124BC to 652BC in response to one of the Sutian aggressions against Babylon. A lot of the introduction is devoted to arguing that this should not be called the Epic of Erra. The hero of the poem doesn’t fit the profile of a hero found in other epics, it’s too short to be an epic, etc.

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I can’t resist a good pun, and I’m a fan of corvids, so I just had to purchase this anthology which was released as a fundraiser to make up for all the money lost due to the covid-related cancellation of RavenCon.

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Despite the title, most of the characters are English. However, the novel does take place in 1950s Mexico. Noemí’s newlywed cousin Catalina, who is a big fan of Wuthering Heights, appears to have gone crazy. Her latest letter mentions ghosts and begs Noemí to come to her.

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Ned Henry is a time traveler who has been tasked with finding out whether an item known as the bishop’s bird stump was in Coventry Cathedral when it was bombed during WW2. He comes down with a case of time-lag due to too much time travel and is sent to the Victorian era to rest. However, the Victorian era isn’t as restful as he had hoped because a missing cat might cause time itself to unravel.

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A solid collection with fleshed-out characters and good world building. Most of the stories left me wanting more including the dream-like opener, “In the Distance, A Familiar Sound” in which a drug-using artist in Germany obsessed with consciousness and time meets a figure of chaos. We get another artist in “The Flesh Winks while the Ghost Weeps” who is forced to do a portrait of a cult leader.

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“The time comes when he thinks, ‘I might just as well fall back; there’s no use pushing on. A colored man just can’t make any headway in this awful country.’ Of course, it’s a fallacy. And if a fellow sticks it out he finally gets past it, but not before it has worked considerable confusion in his life.”

Joel Marshall has ambitions to be a great man. He’s a successful caterer, but he wants more. His daughter, Joanna, shares his desire for greatness and she has a talent for both singing and dancing. She’s at a disadvantage due to her skin color, but she thinks that her success could be a way to break down prejudice. Joanna has the double consciousness spoken of by W. E. B. Du Bois, considering herself an American first, and a colored person second.

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