Fluency

This had a fun “classic sci-fi” feel to it; Wells has clearly been influenced by authors like Clarke and Bradbury, and tells an enjoyable story about first contact (minus, of course, the casual sexism that one tends to encounter with classic sci-fi stories).

One thing that bugged me about the story, though, was that a lot is made of the protagonist's abilities as a linguist - both within the narrative itself, and in the title of the book. And her linguist skills end up not really playing an important part in the story at all. Instead there's some handwavy sci-fi tech stuff that renders that ability unnecessary. There's a place for handwavy tech stuff in sci-fi, but here it felt like there was a more interesting story that could have been told than the one that ultimately was told.