Languages Of Pao
| Title: | The Languages Of Pao |
| Author: | Jack Vance |
| Genre: | SF |
| Ranking: | Good |
| LibraryThing: | Title:Languages Of Pao WorkId 49271 |
| Type: | Owned |
| Read: | 2008-08-06 |
The people of Pao were docile - much too much so for their own good. Because they were always easy marks for space pirates and glib-tongued businessmen from commercial worlds. When finally one particularly nasty band of ruthless conquerors came down and simply took over the whole planet, the last survivor of Pao's monarchy sought assistance from the scientific wizards of the planet Breakness.
Thoughts
The description above comes from the cover blurb, which is slightly misleading. But it was enough to get me interested, and the thing that interested me -- the linguistics -- was still there. Based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, this whole novel is a thought-experiment set in a space-faring galaxy of different languages and cultures. It's an Idea book, and as such, the characterisations are somewhat flat, as is to be expected. But it's a fun idea, some classic mind-candy.