I have been meaning to review the next three books in the Steerswoman series for months now, and continually failing to actually do so. And when I started reading The Transgalactic Guide, I had no idea that it would present me with any reason to review it here. But then it went and had alien language content (and what was I supposed to do? Not blog about that!?), so here we go...
The Transgalactic Guide to Solar System M-17 (beware the Amazon Affiliate link!) by Jeff Rovin is satirical science-fiction travel guide, supposedly published by the Transgalactic touring company to describe the tourist attractions and accommodations available in the eponymous solar system M-17 (but actually published by the Perigee imprint of the Putnam Publishing Group in 1981). As science fiction, it is decidedly archaic; the author doesn't really give a crap about physical, chemical, or ecological plausibility, such that aside from the genre trappings of spaceships and alien planets, it's really more a work of fantasy--think C.S. Lewis's Space trilogy with less plot, less allegory, and more description of the bad science. Rovin makes repeated use of the "make them alien by not giving them eyes" trope (which Wayne Barlow has applied to much greater effect), which is sometimes justified and sometimes... not so much. Nevertheless, for the modern author it may provide a decent source of inspiration for weird and interesting environments and creatures, if you are willing to do the work to clean them up a bit for modern audiences.
But the reason I am bothering to review it here is that each of the 5 worlds of M-17 has at least one, and sometimes several, native alien languages which are represented in the text, along with brief tourist glossaries. As conlangs go, they are also.. not great, although there are some neat ideas. There is some decent effort put into the Alladis logography (which is supposedly tactile in nature), and the basic idea of an Oleran scent-based language (a concept which is developed in more detail in the Semiosis duology).
Excerpts of alien languages are frequently integrated into the text to refer to alien concepts or proper nouns. For the most part, a very straightforward translation strategy, using appositives or parenthesized translations, is employed--and that's really all you would expect from something presenting itself in the style of a travel guide! However, I found it notable that chapter 3, on the planet Morana, actually attempts to Teach The Reader, employing italicized alien words untranslated to refer to objects and locations after they are first introduced; the attempt is not particularly skillful, but it is there!
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