A review by clownface
Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

medium-paced

3.0

Lydia is one of my favorite protagonists in a while; Fitz is exactly as well-developed as he needs to be for the story. Actually, the book overall is very good at developing characters to the exact level needed for the plot. Every piece of dialogue was important! 

The worldbuilding is some of the best I've seen in sci-fi. It's very obvious that Robson knows his way around the modern internet, and knows the current trends in web design and how they'll develop. I think there were quite a few points where Lydia explains things for no reason - it's her perspective, and she clearly knows what this new tech is, so why is she explaining it?

The murder mystery plot was very well-executed! Not much more to say there. All the pieces fit, for me, and I was making conclusions just as Lydia was, which was very satisfying.

Personal taste: I think the aliens could've been significantly weirder. The plot wouldn't really have to change at all if you replaced them with, say, beefy Maltese ambassadors.