I was delighted when my recent book, Alien Talk, received a positive review.  The book is the second in the Newcomers Series, about AI androids making their way in a human world.  The review came from Booklife, the division of Publishers Weekly that considers self-published work.  Their review is a fairly big deal for me, so naturally I am pleased. Here’s what they said:

https://booklife.com/pwreview/242161

Alien Talk

William X. Adams. Psi-Fi, $12.99 trade paper (318p) ISBN 978-1-7322274-5-3

Adams’s provocative second Newcomer novel (after Reluctant Android) injects thought-provoking scientific speculation into a prescient tale of a global epidemic. People around the world spontaneously lose their ability to communicate. The mysterious affliction is dubbed output aphasia, and though its victims can still hear and understand others, they lose their command of both spoken and written language. Androids Andy Bolton, a software engineer, and Robin Taylor, a linguistics expert, work together to uncover the cause, discovering that human language is actually the result of an intelligent alien parasite called Ruk-ruk Akoo. The parasite is indignant that humans have created computer-driven language devices such as Siri, Alexa, and even GPS, and is punishing humanity for misusing its gifts. Because Andy and Robin represent the pinnacle of artificial language users, anyone they speak to is instantly afflicted with output aphasia. To protect humanity, they must devise a way to warn people without using language and figure out how to neutralize Ruk-ruk. The too-easy solution they eventually land on is a letdown, but the fascinating scientific debates on linguistics, genetics, the nature of identity, and the distinction between intelligence and consciousness make this worthwhile. Fans of big idea sci-fi should take note. (Self-published)

–Reviewed by Publishers Weekly on 05/22/2020

That’s about as good a review as I could ever hope for. PW is not always kind, so I am delighted to have survived, and I do not for a moment want to seem ungrateful. And yet…

The reviewer gives a synopsis of the major plot points, and that’s probably what most readers want to know about a book. But that’s not really what the book is about. The deep story is about the question: what is the difference between natural and artificial language? Even deeper is the question: What is language, anyway?  I guess the review hints at those questions.

I wrote this book after taking a linguistics course from Noam Chomsky, someone I’ve admired for decades.  Hearing it “from the horse’s mouth” was an exhilarating experience, but not without some disappointment when I realized he hasn’t changed his views in a half-century. If you’re sure you’re right, maybe there’s no reason to change.

The day after one of his lectures, I was thinking deeply about language but a mourning dove outside my window grated against my thoughts with a repetitive sound: “Ruk-ruk akoo!”  And I thought, “Of course. Ruk-ruk akoo. You don’t need words to communicate. You don’t even need language. The essence of communication is intentionality, what you “mean.”  If you know what you want to “say,” you can say it in dance or oil paint or in a dozen other ways.

That was the insight of “Alien Talk” and the answer to the question about the difference between artificial and natural language. In some more perfect world, wouldn’t the review say that?

KDP Paper:         https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732227454                      bit.ly/AT-Paper

Kindle:                https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LDJ4CHF                      bit.ly/AT-Kindle

Smashwords:     https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/886758       bit.ly/AT-Smash