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Review
“A fully achieved work of art.”—Ursula K. Le Guin
“The most engrossing book I’ve read this year, and the latest evidence that brilliant, challenging, rewarding writing of the highest order is just as likely to be found in the section labeled Science Fiction as the one marked Literature.”—Jim Higgins, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“Original, sophisticated, bristling with subversive ideas, and filled with unforgettably alien images . . . an amazing, sometimes brutal rhapsody on the uses of language.”—The Christian Science Monitor
“Richly conceived . . . Embassytown has the feel of a word-puzzle, and much of the pleasure of figuring out the logic of the world and the story comes from gradually catching the full resonance of its invented and imported words.”—The New York Times Book Review
“Miéville’s swing-for-the-fences gusto thrills. This is Big Idea Sci-Fi at its most propulsively readable.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Miéville [is] one of today’s most exciting fabulist writers.”—Los Angeles Times
Product Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak. Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language. When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties: to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak—but which speaks through her, whether she likes it or not.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
who cares?,
By
This review is from: Embassytown (Hardcover)
Yawn. I have been wanting to read a book by China Meiville for a while now so I finally got down to it with Embassytown and find myself very disappointed. A science fiction book about language that was total crap. Not sure how I even finished this book. Took 10 days of boredom but finally got to the horrible surprise ending (not). I now believe China to be the most overrated author writing today. (perhaps I should have started with Kraken?)
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Perplexing and unrewarding,
By
This review is from: Embassytown (Hardcover)
I disliked this book immensely. I went into it with a shady understanding that it was literary sci-fi, and I guess that is still a good way to describe it, although maybe we should change that slightly to "linguistic sci-fi".This quote is the climax of the book - this is the moment when the "heroes" make the leap which will save their world: "We changed Language," I said. A sudden change - it couldn't undo. "There's nothing to... intoxicate them." There only ever had been because it was impossible, a single split thinkingness of the world: embedded contradiction. If language, thought and word were separated, as they just had been, there was no succulence, no titillating impossible. No mystery. Where Language had been there was only language: signifying sound, to do things with and to. That should help you decide whether or not you want to read this book - does that sound like a climatic moment that you can sink your teeth into? The fact that "L"anguage had been turned into "l"anguage?? It doesn't work for me. The bare facts of this book are that in a distant corner of the universe, on the edges of where humanity has so far explored, there is a planet inhabited by a race of creatures with a completely unique system of communication. This native species has a delicate relationship with the humans who have been colonizing the planet, and the humans have had to bio-engineer some of their own people, creating twins who are the only ones who can communicate with the natives. Eventually, one of these sets of twins destroys the humans' relationship with the natives, and a battle for survival ensues. Fair enough - but what that description doesn't convey is the fact that EVERYTHING... plot, character development, description of the planet, description of the native species, back-history... every thing you would usually imagine to be important in a novel, is given far less importance than the ongoing discussion of the linguistic barrier between the native species and the humans. Linguistics linguistics linguistics linguistics. That is what this book is about. It really didn't work for me.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intelligent SF,
By
This review is from: Embassytown (Hardcover)
Pros: truly alien aliens, unique alien language, full immersion in alien world with little to no explanationCons: because the books is told from the POV of an indifferent narrator you don't learn as much about the world/aliens as you'd like Avice Benner Cho grew up in Embassytown, escaped to the out for several years and was drawn back by her current husband's interest in the language of the indiginous life forms of Embassytown's planet, the Hosts or Ariekei. She doesn't realize how much her home town is about to change by the arrival of a new Ambassador from their governing world of Bremen. Ambassadors are usually made in Embassytown, and are the only ones with the talent to be understood by the Hosts. She's about to learn how little she truly understands about the Hosts, their world, and the politics of Embassytown. The novel is told in two parts. The first alternates between her present situation, waiting to see the new Ambassador at his welcome party, and her past (childhood in Embassytown and how she became a simile for the Hosts, and her time in the immer where she met and married Scile, the man who convinces her to return to Emabassytown). The second part deals with the fallout of the new Ambassador's first speech. This is the first of Mieville's novels I've read. It won't be the last. The writing is absolutely brilliant. He dumps you in the middle of an alien world filled with alien concepts, takes you into space using undescribed technology and expects you to figure out what's going on. A lesser author would have failed, leaving the reader fumbling to understand unexplained words and concepts. Not Mieville. There's no glossary and no translation except for the Host's speech, when required. Yet there's also little confusion beyond the first few times a word/concept is mentioned. Much of what he brings up is understood in context and it makes the world come to life in a way that feels real. The Hosts and Ambassadors are fascinating and truly alien. If you like languages, as I do, then you'll enjoy the intricacies of thought that are played out with the truth of Language and the Hosts' festival of lies. My only complaint is that Avice doesn't really like her home world, and so doesn't always tell you things that as a reader you want to know more about. And she ignores some of the more interesting intrigues the Embassy gets into. I wanted to learn more about Scile's theories about the Host Language and about the various Host factions and how their interests intersect with the power struggles of the Embassy. From what I could tell (I'm no physicist and my knowledge of space travel is quite limited) the science isn't accurate, so hard SF fans may be annoyed by that. But the Host planet has an atmosphere unbreathable to humans, which is dealt with realistically. If you like intelligent SF this is a fantastic book to pick up.
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