Valentina’s job is to extract useful knowledge from foreign books, then destroy them. In the opening excerpt of Yoon Ha Lee’s Code and Codex, the chief censor is sent to bring one back intact.
The mission leads to a second book: poems in a forbidden language. Reading them brings back the memory of Melisande, the first woman Valentina loved. The censor takes both books away.
In the Censorate, other languages are banned. Its official language, lingua rubra, can change reality, and its ruler Aurelia can command people who understand her to obey.
The excerpt names Aurelia as Valentina’s sometime lover, calls the censor both Val and Valentina, and uses he and she for the character.
Saga Press lists the Korean-American writer’s new novel for US publication on 27 October. The publisher has made an opening excerpt available online. This preview draws on that sample and the publisher’s description, ahead of the full book’s release.
Which queer science-fiction book would you recommend for the way it plays with language?
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