7 December, 2023 | keystroke
Axiom’s End is a sci-fi first-contact novel by the ex-YouTuber, now Nebula-er(?) video essayist Lindsay Ellis. Set in 2007, it features Cora Sabino trying to live a normal life after her estranged father whistleblows a government cover-up of first contact in the wake of a large meteoric event. Her attempts are quickly thrown off when a second event happens right over her new workplace.
Lindsay has obviously written before, with a long history of video essays and previous fiction work, with Axiom’s End being her first published novel. Her experience shows, as her writing is compelling and interesting, with complex characters all explored through the relatable lens of a linguistics college dropout. We are kept grounded, even in completely foreign situations, through Cora’s thoughts and actions and we slowly get to understand the unknowable being through her effort.
I wish that linguistics had played a slightly bigger role in establishing communication. One of my favourite parts of Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary was the time spent on just establishing understanding between the two parties. While Babel fish doesn’t bother me in more fantasy sci-fi like Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Doctor Who, I prefer harder sci-fi like Axiom’s End edges into to get a bit more in-detail instead of handwaving with a magic universal translator.
Despite the linguistics being rarely explored, this book is deeply invested in the alien society, and specifically how it relates, pushes up against, and may even be completely unknowable and incompatible to human society. The primary drive of this book may revolve around running, escaping, hiding and fighting various threats, but its ideological core remains around exploring if cohabitation or even friendship is possible across a galaxy-spanning cultural divide.
With this combination of grounded characters, character and plot-driven story, and a strong philosophical core to follow through; the book is effortlessly readable. It easily kept me invested and managed to keep me reading until well past my bedtime and into the morning. I can heartily recommend it.
And I still want to know how alien pronouns work!
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