What an out there book. I enjoyed reading it a good deal. Its grand scale sci fi but not focusing on the grand scale which is nice, just the story of a single town and the arakie who can only tell the truth and are just a weird ass alien orginisation.

Its hard to tell what is book is really about. I find it hard to believe its the language stuff becuase how could it be. There was a lot of power dyanmic stuff, the, total curruption the power brings. I guess a main point was that this society that had exsisted for 100s of years easily had the power to emancipate the aliens from their truth telling langague but they didnt. ‘Its not really something the ambassadors like to hightlight’ as bren said. Even when the world was ending they were reluctant to give up their power.

I suppose that was the takeaway. The author really things most power holders would rather die with their empire than give up their power to save it.

It feels like a deep book.