...The Silence of the Asonu is a little gem. Both a humorous tale and a call for more empathy, it packs a lot into a short text. It must have flown under the radar the years it was first published. This is easily as good as some of Le Guin's award nominated short fiction. As far as I am concerned, this is recommended reading.

Full Random Comments review ( )

An alien world where the residents do not speak. Like kittens, they chit-chat a lot as children, with somewhat older children teaching the younger ones the language. But after a few years, they just stop speaking. I love the people in the story who follow the aliens around recording the few short utterances they actually do make, then construct epistemologies based on the revealed nuggets of wisdom. Because obviously, if someone doesn’t speak much, when they do it must be full of great import. ( )