Native Tongue

We are two centuries into the future, and the world has become a misogynistic nightmare. Women have been stripped of all rights and solely exist to serve the men. The world has also expanded into alien spaces, and capitalism blooms through commerce with the alien races. Crucial for successful trade are native speakers of the alien languages. Human infants are paired with Aliens to acquire difficult non-human languages from birth. The power of languages is evident, and the women are secretly trying to develop one of their own.

I love the field of linguistic relativity, how one's native tongue influences one's worldview. And how the power of language can bring forth change. I fault this book for teasing this perfect setup, and then never getting to the punch, because this is only book 1 in a series. The plot pulls you along, the writing is smooth, and occasionally very wry and clever in how it depicts the gender interactions (Nazareth experiencing first love was such a gut punch).

This naturally all should lead to a heroic revolution, because if not, I'd be a bit annoyed at the overly simplistic binary depiction of the genders. All the women are secretly sly, while all men are clueless and devoid of empathy. Which does not feel like a realistic sustainable scenario.