At the beginning of the novel, the town’s “ruler” John Noa demands the Wordsmith and his apprentice cut the List from 700 to 500 words. A few questions that came to me, but were never answered, include: Since Letta is the wordsmith (and thus has access to all the words, even the banned ones) and ends up interacting with practically only people who, for one reason or another, have access to full language, readers don’t see a lot of “List speech.” This has the unfortunate consequence that “List speech” is not fully explained. Patricia Forde demonstrates the regulated speech of the Ark people, known as “List speech,” through verb-heavy sentences: Her job is to help regulate the words used by Ark’s citizens. Which doesn’t entirely make sense, unless I unpack my statement, so let me get into my review.Īs stated in the summary, Letta is the Ark’s apprentice wordsmith. On the other hand, I didn’t understand all the characters, plot-lines, and features specific to Ark. I devoured the book in one sitting (albeit, not unusual for me) and had no trouble keeping straight the many characters, plot-lines, and features specific to Ark’s world-building. But when she uncovers a sinister plan to suppress language and rob Ark’s citizens of their power of speech, she realizes that it’s up to her to save not only words, but culture itself. On the death of her master, Letta is suddenly promoted to Wordsmith, charged with collecting and saving words. The exceptions are the Wordsmith and his apprentice Letta, the keepers and archivists of all language in their post-apocalyptic, neo-medieval world. Speak outside the approved lexicon and face banishment. In the city of Ark, speech is constrained to five hundred sanctioned words. Our promise to you is to always disclose affiliate links/buttons. We receive a percentage of commission from each purchase you make after following links provided on our site. 
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