Babel by R. F. Kuang, really enjoying it. I've been trying to learn a second language this year, and the idea that determining the relationship between languages can be a source of magic is very fun.

Also, the Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin. I understand it's a good faith attempt to examine 1969 America's notions of gender and sex, but 50 years on, the age is showing. The default pronoun for all these non-gendered characters being 'he/him' scratches my brain continually.

[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

The pronoun thing bothered Le Guin a bit too. If you dig around, you'll find a short story set in the same world, Winter's King, that uses she/her pronouns instead. (I confess that I don't remember much else about it, though.)

[–] cdipierr@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, hindsight is 20/20 and all that, but the idea of a spacefaring civilization only having a concept of he/she pronouns is very amusing.

[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 4 points 2 years ago

Eh, I put it in the same category as spaceships with ashtrays, or spacefaring humanity still building giant 1960s-style batch-oriented mainframe computers even though they've reached distant solar systems. It's something you have to be able to ignore to enjoy the older works.

(It's also better than James White's solution of calling anyone who wasn't a gender-distinguishable member of the speakers's own species "it".)