Discover a new to me author Vyvtan Evans newest book, The Babel Apocalypse today and make sure to enter the tour wide giveaway as the author will be awarding a physical paperback copy of the book (available internationally) to a randomly drawn commenter. The tour is sponsored by Goddess Fish Promotions and you can find the full tour stops schedule HERE.
Chatting with author Vyvyan Evans
Tell us about your latest book, who is
the main character(s) and what can we expect when we pick it up?
VE: ‘The Babel Apocalypse’ is set in the
near future when language is no longer learned, but streamed to neural implants
in people’s head, controlled by powerful bug tech corporations.
There are two main protagonists. The
first is Emyr Morgan, a cybercrime detective, charged with investigating who’s
behind the cyberattack, that is causing the imminent collapse of civilization.
The second is Professor Ebba Black,
heiress, linguist and hacker extraordinaire. In a desperate race against time,
Emyr and Ebba have to figure out who is behind the outage and how to prevent a war
between the great federations.
The book is a genre-blending, sci-fi
mystery-thriller that will make you think about language in a whole new way. It
will appeal to readers who enjoy speculative fiction or dystopian tales with a
touch of romance.
Give us an out of context quote from your book to warm our hearts:
VE:
“ What sustained the blackness of her sorrow was vengeance. Vengeance past and
vengeance yet to be dealt. Ebba nurtured it in the dark palace of her mind—the
innermost, most private mental shrine where she kept the one list, the list
that was actualized and ritualized. The list of lists.”
Who are some authors that you look for inspiration?
VE:
There are two authors that stand out for me, in terms of ingeniously exploring
the impact of language on how we think and experience (illustrated through the
conceit of a protagonist learning an entirely new, and alien, language).
The
first by Samuel R. Delany who wrote the novel: Babel-17. The book was first
published in 1966 and was joint winner of the Nebula Award for best science-fiction
novel in 1967.
The
eponymous Babel-17 is a language that alters the perceptions and world-view of
any who speak it. This is a conceit that draws upon the principle of linguistic
relativity.
Linguistic
Relativity holds that divergence in the grammatical organization and lexical
structure of the language we speak alters the habitual perception of the world
around us, even dramatically changing how we think. As an example, we now know
that the brains of Greek speakers perceive certain colours differently from
speakers of English because of how Greek labels for colour divide up the colour
spectrum. This is an unconscious consequence of speaking Greek versus English.
In
the novel, Babel-17 is the language spoken by Invaders, as they wage an
interstellar war against the Alliance. The novel’s protagonist, Rydra Wong, is
a linguist and cryptographer who possesses a rare ability to learn languages.
She is recruited by the Alliance to try and decode the language of the
invaders, Babel-17, to uncover clues for attack vectors.
Babel-17
is an exemplar of a very high-concept conceit. When Delany was writing the
novel, linguistic relativity was still only a hypothesis, first dubbed the
Spair-Whorf hypothesis in 1954.
Delany
asks a classic ‘what if’ question: What if the language we speak fundamentally
changes the way we see the world, the way we feel, our belief systems, the way
we act? Babel-17 then explores the logical, and extreme consequences of this
proposition.
In
the novel, as Rydra Wong learns the strange, alien tongue, she starts to see
the world, and think as the invaders do. And the consequence is that she starts
to become one of them. She ultimately betrays her own command and her
government, acting as an agent of the Invaders.
And
in this way, Delany shows that in the context of warfare, when the notion of
linguistic relativity is taken to its logical extreme, language can serve as
the most powerful weapon of all.
The
second writer is is Ted Chiang author of the novella, ‘Story of Your Life, and
first published in 1998. This story was subsequently adapted as the major
motion picture Arrival.
Again,
this story features a linguist as its main protagonist, Dr. Louise Banks. The
story involves Banks narrating the events that led to the arrival of her
new-born daughter. In so doing, she explains how her work, translating the
language of the alien Heptapod species, led her to understanding time in a new
way, where she could perceive her past and future simultaneously.
The
consequence is that as learning a new (alien) language transforms thought, the
novella explores issues relating to linguistic relativity, determinism and
freewill.
Fire down below! What’s the first object you save?
Not
objects, but beings: My two pet cats.
Advice for newly sparking writers in three sentences or less:
Keep
practicing your craft. Write what you know, and research the rest. Never give
up!
Which of your characters would you want to share a campfire with, and
why?
Ebba
Black: she’d be great a conversational partner on the mysteries of language,
how it works and why language is the hallmark of what it means to be human.
Tell us about what you are reading at the moment or anticipate reading in
the future? Any new books you are looking forward to?
One
I’m looking forward to is ‘The Book that wouldn’t Burn’, by Mark Lawrence.
It
tells the story of a journey on which knowledge erodes certainty and on which,
though the pen may be mightier than the sword, blood will be spilled and cities
burned.
Can you briefly describe your writing process for us?
Basically,
I plan, then start writing, then change my plan! Every revision makes the story
richer and the writing better.
What is
next on your writerly horizon?
VE: ‘The
Babel Apocalypse’ is the first book in the ‘Songs of the Sage’ sci-fi book series.
There are six projected books which, in increasing turns, examine the role and
nature of language, and communication. The thematic premise is that, in the
wrong hands, language can serve as a weapon of mass destruction. This
overarching motif is explored, across the six books, both from Earth-bound and
galaxies-wide bases.
As language
involves symbol use and processing, the book series, perhaps naturally, also
dwells on other aspects of human imagination and symbolic behaviour, including
religious experience and belief systems, themselves made possible by language.
The second
book in the series, The Dark Court, is set five years after the events of the
great language outage depicted in The Babel Apocalypse. It explores how the
language chips in people’s heads can themselves be hacked, leading to a global
insomnia pandemic. The Dark Court will be published in 2024, as book 2 in the
series.
THE BABEL APOCALYPSE
by Vyvyan
Evans
GENRE: Science Fiction
Language
is no longer learned, but streamed to neural implants regulated by lang-laws.
Those who can't afford language streaming services are feral, living on the
fringes of society. Big tech corporations control language, the world’s most
valuable commodity.
But
when a massive cyberattack causes a global language outage, catastrophe looms.
Europol
detective Emyr Morgan is assigned to the case. His prime suspect is Professor
Ebba Black, the last native speaker of language in the automated world, and
leader of the Babel cyberterrorist organization. But Emyr soon learns that in a
world of corporate power, where those who control language control everything,
all is not as it seems.
As
he and Ebba collide, Emyr faces an existential dilemma between loyalty and
betrayal, when everything he once believed in is called into question. To
prevent the imminent collapse of civilization and a global war between the great
federations, he must figure out friend from foe—his life depends on it. And
with the odds stacked against him, he must find a way to stop the Babel
Apocalypse.
Excerpt Two:
Ebba was all too aware that she was viewed as an anomaly by
pretty much everyone; she was neither feral nor out-soc. So, some of her
students—especially those from outside the Republic, such as the Grand Union,
and other places too—thought she must be breaking the law. It was a common
misconception. She had even once been reported to the authorities by one of
those types. For being an unchipped ghost, as they called her. That made her
laugh; a dark laugh at the irony of it. The mutes, she called them. Those who
had been fitted with Universal Grammar tech.
But while she officially resided in the Nordic Republic, and
as long as she remained there, Ebba wasn’t doing anything illegal. The Republic
was something of a curiosity even among Tier One states, never having passed a
lang-law. Yet this singular absence was offset by the special requirements of
Nordic birth licenses. To have one granted, prospective parents had to consent
to their newborn being fitted with Universal Grammar tech. So everyone got a
language chip at birth anyway, together with an ear implant transceiver. Which
meant that voice command tech was, for all intents and purposes, de rigueur
even without a lang-law. But that was the Scandinavian way. In the Nordic
Republic, they organized freedom.
For her part, Ebba knew it wasn’t her. It was everyone else
who had the problem. “That’s what you would think,” her braver, typically male
students told her. “You’re Ebba Black.” Ha! Whatever that means. How do they
know what Ebba Black would think anyway?
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Dr. Vyvyan Evans is a native of Chester, England. He holds a PhD
in linguistics from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., and is a Professor
of Linguistics. He has published numerous acclaimed popular science and
technical books on language and linguistics. His popular science essays and
articles have appeared in numerous venues including 'The Guardian', 'Psychology
Today', 'New York Post', 'New Scientist', 'Newsweek' and 'The New Republic'.
His award-winning writing focuses, in one way or another, on the nature of
language and mind, the impact of technology on language, and the future of
communication. His science fiction work explores the status of language and
digital communication technology as potential weapons of mass destruction.
Book website (including ‘Buy’ links): www.songs-of-the-sage.com
Author website: https://www.vyvevans.net/
Youtube channel:https://www.youtube.com/@vyvevans
Twitter:https://twitter.com/VyvEvans
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Vyvyan.Evans.Author
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/nephilim_publishing/
The Babel Apocalypse earned a starred review in Kirkus: "A
perfect fusion of SF, thriller, and mystery—smart speculative fiction at its
very best."
The full review is here: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/vyvyan-evans/the-babel-apocalypse-songs-of-the-sage/
1 comment:
Thanks for hosting!
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