DRUNK ON ALL YOUR STRANGE NEW WORDS by Eddie Robson – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson
Published by Tordotcom on June 28 2022
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 288
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Cozy mystery, humor and futuristic sci-fi combine to make Eddie Robson’s latest a uniquely fun read.

Reading an Eddie Robson book is such a joy. I absolutely love his writing style, his subtle humor and the interesting characters who populate his stories. Last year I read Hearts of Oak and loved Robson’s quirky style, and his latest is just as quirky and fun to read. 

The story takes place in a future New York where climate change has decimated the landscape of the famous city to the extent that parts of Manhattan are under water. In this future, an alien race called the Logi have made peaceful contact with humans, although their language is completely different and only select humans who have an ability to communicate telepathically are able to speak with them. Our main character Lydia is one such translator, having completed a course at the London School of Thought Language. She’s been assigned as the translator to the Logi cultural attaché, an alien who calls himself Fitzwilliam, or “Fitz” for short. Lydia enjoys her job, although the hours are long and exhausting and it’s starting to take a toll on her. Communicating telepathically with the Logi induces a feeling of being drunk (hence the book’s title), which leads to Lydia doing reckless and sometimes embarrassing things while she’s working.

One morning, after a long night spent attending a play and an after party with Fitz, Lydia wakes up to discover Fitz’s dead body in his office. Lydia has no memories of the night before and doesn’t remember how she got home. Now she’s the number one suspect in Fitz’s murder, although she’s pretty sure she didn’t do it, and so she sets off to discover for herself the identity of the real killer and the reason that Fitz was targeted.

Most of the plot centers around the murder mystery, as Lydia gets help from an unexpected source and follows clues on a circuitous path through the city. This isn’t a fast-paced plot by any means, but the joy in reading this book comes from the characters and the world-building. Lydia is a delight! She’s a fairly awkward woman who doesn’t really seem to fit in anywhere. She’s happened upon her translating job because she took a test that revealed her affinity for learning to communicate with the Logi, but it’s a stressful and draining job. Lydia often takes a drug called &amp (pronounced “namp”) which offsets the drunken effects of communicating with Fitz, but her drug use is called into question during Fitz’s murder investigation and doesn’t help her case at all. During her search for the murderer, Lydia gets into all kinds of trouble—she seems to attract it, which is one reason I loved her so much.

We briefly meet Lydia’s mum and step-father Gil, who are minor side characters but add a nice sense of family history to Lydia’s character. Most of the characters, though, are of the shady variety and all seem to be suspects in one way or another, so it’s hard to know who to trust. I really grew to like another Logi named Madison, who “watches over” Lydia after the murder. Madison is annoying at first and Lydia doesn’t like her at all, but they end up having to work together and I ended up loving their dynamic.

I enjoyed the futuristic touches as well, although the author somehow makes the story feel contemporary at the same time. Social media still rules peoples’ lives, as each person has their own “feed” and can share things instantly. News stories go through something called a “truthometer” which assigns “truthiness” ratings, and you can filter you news feed if you want to keep fake news out (something I wish we had now!) Lydia constantly wears a pair of glasses that record everything she sees and hears. My favorite futuristic touch is that when you visit Strawberry Fields in Central Park, you can interface with a John Lennon AI who will chat with you if you have a problem you need to solve.

Robson’s aliens are different from what you might expect. For one thing, the Logi have trouble understand digital data, which is ironic because they have decided to make contact with a mostly digitalized world. And because only certain people can directly communicate with them, the Logi end up feeling more like props than actual aliens. If you’re looking for an in depth story about an alien race, with detailed information about what they look like and their reasons for making contact with humans, you’ll probably be disappointed. Instead, this story is centered around the humans, and I was OK with that.

The overall feel of Drunk On All Your Strange New Words is more cozy than tense, although Lydia does get herself into a couple of hairy situations. Part of the mystery involves a group who oppose the presence of the Logi and think there’s a conspiracy against humans that involves mind control. But Robson does a great job of keeping the mystery twisty and interesting, and the different characters Lydia comes into contact with kept me from guessing the identity of the murderer. Lydia’s unexpected antics made for some very funny scenes, and the ending was a nice, feel-good moment that left me smiling. I can’t wait to see what Eddie Robson writes next.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.