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.
The Language of Liars by S.L. Huang Published by Tordotcom on April 21 2026
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 176
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A high stakes, emotional tale that explores language and communication between species, The Language of Liars is both thrilling and heart-wrenching.
“He’d only wanted to understand them. How many Linguists had told themselves that lie? A lie enough repeated until it becomes true.”
The Language of Liars is a beautifully written science fiction story about communication and how powerful language can be—in both good and bad ways. S.L. Huang uses linguistics to explore the different ways words are used among different cultures, in this case, alien beings. I was fascinated by this idea, and while I’m certainly not a linguist myself, and I didn’t completely understand all of the terms the author used, Huang’s story and characters made this book not only accessible, but engaging on an emotional level. I was rooting for Ro, the main character, who finds himself caught up in something so big that the future of the galaxy might be at stake.
The story is set in a world full of many different alien species. Ro is a Ponto Linguist whose greatest desire is to learn how to “jump” into the body of a Star Eater, a mysterious, dying species who is able to sense and mine a critical compound called meridian, without which space travel wouldn’t be possible. Jumping requires detailed knowledge of the Star Eaters’ use of language, but none of his teachers think Ro is smart or talented enough to actually do it.
So no one is more surprised than Ro when he suddenly finds himself part of a Star Eater colony, inhabiting the body of an individual Star Eater. He jumped successfully, and now he must integrate into the society, learn how to mine meridian, and send reports of his findings back to Orro, his home planet.
Unfortunately, Ro didn’t study hard enough and finds himself struggling to communicate with the Star Eaters, but it isn’t until he has his first meeting with a Ponto representative that he realizes things are not as he thought. All Ro wants to do is learn about the Star Eaters and play a part in discovering why they haven’t been able to reproduce, but he’s horrified to receive orders that don’t line up with his benign, curious nature.
This is a short book full of big ideas, but I can’t imagine it being any longer. Huang deftly conveys all the necessary information without any filler, which results in a fascinating story about an alien race on the brink of extinction and the young Ponto who is determined to save them. Despite being thrown into a completely alien world (there are no humans in this story) and floundering a bit in the beginning, it didn’t take long to sympathize with Ro, whose enthusiasm for the Star Eater’s linguistics and history is contagious. I loved the epistolary snippets at the beginning of each chapter that add an extra richness to the world-building, especially a timeline showing various political factions making decisions for the Star Eaters, which was actually horrifying.
The Star Eaters seem to be little more than slaves, who work in shifts round the clock mining meridian and following a mantra they’ve perhaps been spoon fed—”Work is life”—while controlled by Overseers, huge snake like creatures who keep everyone in line. Ro experiences this first hand and is shocked by some of the things he sees. It’s at this point that his perception of the Star Eaters begins to change.
The real emotional impact of the story comes near the end, when Ro makes a linguistical breakthrough that changes everything. The implications of Ro’s discovery are heartbreaking to say the least, but luckily Huang ends her story on a hopeful note that brought tears to my eyes.
The Language of Liars was a wonderful surprise, don’t miss it.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
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