- These limits only I place upon you.that never shall a Speaker summon a Speaker.
that never shall a Speaker summon the living.
that never shall a Speaker summon herself.By these laws abide.
As for the rest, may your conscience be your guide.—Margda, "The Speakers' Edict"
A 2015 sci-fi novel by Lawrence M. Schoen.
Far in the future, the Alliance encompasses thousands of planets inhabited by dozens of species of Uplifted Animal. One major exception is the watery world of Barsk, where the hairless Fants were exiled centuries ago. The Alliance hasn't completely cut off contact with Barsk, as the Fants' knowledge of pharmaceuticals are invaluable to galactic civilization, especially as they are the sole source of the drug koph, which allows a select few known as "Speakers" to contact the dead.
This fragile status quo is upset when Speaker Jorl, trying to make sense of his friend's suicide, stumbles upon a plot by the Alliance senate to steal the secret of koph, with the fate of the galaxy at stake.
Tropes:
- Albinos Are Freaks: Pizlo has several mutations and birth defects, but his albinism is most visually apparent and marks him out as what Fants call "Abominations".
- A Million Is a Statistic: The Matriarch correctly predicts that Senator Bish's threat to raze Barsk from orbit would be too abstract, too audacious, to sway Arlo into giving up his koph agonist. But threatening his son would.
- Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Most Alliance species are frequently referred to by the common name of their progenitor species, but they also have more official names that are clipped forms of their scientific names. For instance the two species of Fant are known as Elephs (Elephas maximus) and Lox (Loxodonta africana).
- Demonic Possession: Turns out to be one reason why the Matriarch forbade summoning Speakers, the nefshon construct of a dead Speaker can overwhelm a weaker-willed Speaker and seize control of their body. The other is that she predicted a Speaker would disregard the Edict and summon her during the crisis she foretold, as Lirlowil did.
- Driven to Suicide: Jorl's friend Arlo committed suicide for some unknown reason a few years before the novel's start, leaving behind a wife and son. Though Jorl summons his nefshons for a conversation every so often. It turns out he discovered a koph agonist that would allow a Speaker to run on one dose for the rest of their life, and could be further enhanced until they were powerful enough to commit genocide with a thought.
- Fantastic Racism: Fants physically disgust many members of the Alliance's fur-bearing races, to the point where they were practically exiled to the rain-soaked Barsk.
- The Federation: The Alliance is one of the corrupt and subtly authoritarian variety. Capable of reclassifying a citizen as a "resource" if they so decide.
- Feel No Pain: Pizlo doesn’t have functional pain receptors, it causes him to accidentally injure himself often.
- Interrogating the Dead: Speakers have the unique ability to call up the nefshons of the dead and construct a simulation they can converse with. There are limitations, usually it has to be someone the Speaker knew, though reading a biography can give a Speaker enough knowledge of a person to summon them.
- Higher Understanding Through Drugs: Speakers need koph in order to summon the nefshons of the dead and communicate with them.
- Humanity's Wake: Humans are long gone and never mentioned because the Raised Mammals had an existential crisis and wiped them out, then erased all record of their existence from the official records. It doesn’t stop Jorl from summoning one after taking the new drug.
- Psychic Powers: Speakers are the most common but other forms of psychics exist. For instance Lirlowil is a telepath as well as a Speaker. While Senator Bish has a whole team of precogs and Matriarch Margda made prophecies during her seizures Pizlo seems to be a precog as well.
- Unperson:
- In Fant society “Abominations”, mutant children born out of wedlock, are not to be spoken to, looked upon, or otherwise acknowledged. Pizlo is fortunate that his parents and his father’s best friend defied that rule.
- The Alliance’s precursors un-personed their creators. To the day any artifacts of humanity discovered by the Patrol are vaporized on sight.
- All living memory of Senator Bish is erased by Jorl.
- Uplifted Animal: There's eighty-seven species of uplifted animal in the Alliance.
