The stars are waiting for you. We hope you will come find us there . . .
Discover the unmissable and uplifting science fiction novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Long way to a Small Angry Planet.
THE COMPLETE RORQUAL PILOT’S COURSEBOOK
VIII. COMMUNICATION STYLE
AND CONCEPTUAL DIFFERENCES
Section C. Nonlinear Communication
You may have heard that rorquals don’t understand the concept of time. It’s a common misunderstanding about their species, and in some ways, it’s reflective of the kind of skepticism we encouraged you to develop in chapter III (“Alien Intelligence and the Dangers of Anthropomorphizing”). It is always worth questioning your human assumptions about how a conscious mind “must” think.
However, in this specific case, the claim is inaccurate. Rorquals do have an innate sense of linear time, and of the past. They understand that, as is true of all life, they began to exist at a fixed point in time, before which they experienced nothing. They likewise understand that once they die, they will again experience nothing. In this isolated respect, our perception of the universe is not so different from theirs.
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As You Wake, Break the Shell is a quiet yet powerful story. Told in alternating timelines, we follow Cora, a pilot with a rare and dangerous medical condition and Signy, a reclusive botanist who bio-prints medicine that might be able to save her, but at what cost?
'A miracle.' - ANTONIA HODGSON
'Becky Chambers never misses.' - L.R. LAM
