Ethuun

Eleven years of failed diplomacy have left the Intersolar Compact one excuse away from taking Ethuun by force. Linguist-ambassador Jena Valcourt descends alone into a frozen capital where the language has no stable word for "I" — where a person's identity genuinely reorganizes with the planet's shifting magnetic field. Her guide is an exile with no civic standing and no reason to trust her. Her daughter's messages arrive months late. And a landing force is already in transit.