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Embassytown

by China Miéville (Goodreads Author)

3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 · rating details · 7,952 ratings · 1,355 reviews

China Miéville doesn’t follow trends, he sets them. Relentlessly pushing his own boundaries as a writer—and in the process expanding the boundaries of the entire field—with Embassytown, Miéville has crafted an extraordinary novel that is not only a moving personal drama but a gripping adventure of alien contact and war.

In the far future, humans have colonized a distant pla...more

Paperback, 345 pages

Published January 31st 2012 by Del Rey (first published May 17th 2011)

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Mar 30, 2013 Nataliya rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Nataliya by: Catie

Shelves: catie-knows-best, mieville-is-awesome, writing-and-language, 2012-reads, awesome-kickass-heroines, hugo-nebula, locus-winner, location-is-the-true-protagonist, favorites, 2013-reads

Sometimes words can shatter worlds. Especially when they are ~~like~~ this:

""I don't want to be a simile anymore," I said. "I want to be a metaphor."

This book lived up to all my expectations. No, it did not quite knock The Scar off its Miévillish pedestal but it came pretty damn close to it. (Hey, Catie, we both agree on that!) I loved it so much, and yet when a colleague politely asked what it was about (when I told him I stayed up half the night before taking call to read it) I could not figure...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Jacob rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, sci-fi-fantasy-etc, mieville, vote-whore, i-own, on-language-and-writing

June 2011

Dear Steven Moffat:

China Miéville. Doctor Who. Think about it.

Love,
Jacob

Avice Benner Cho is an Immerser. She's a floaker. She's a hoopy frood who knows where her towel is (Dear Jane Belson: China Miéville. Hitchhiker's Guide. Bad idea?). She's also a simile. When she was a child on the strangest planet in the universe, home to the strangest beings in the universe, she became a living part of the strangest language in the universe. And then she left to explore the Out, and then she returned--and then she became witness to the strangest revolution in the universe.

It's hard to explain further, Goodreaders. This one you have to unfold for yourself.

So: China Miéville does sci-fi. And huzzah for that! (Dear George Lucas and/or James Cameron: You cannot have him. Fuck off) I was a bit worried last year, after Kraken didn't work for me, that China's next venture wouldn't fly. But it does. It's a bit jumbled, like most other Miéville stories, because he has his own worlds to set up and his own rules to go with them, and his own language to tell it with (with more language layered throughout, in this one), so it opens slowly and takes its time to get to the story. And he spends some time jumping back and forth, from formerly and latterday, which I think could have worked better divided into separate parts (indeed, the "Formerly" chapters seem to exist as a novella, a somewhat-prequel dealing with the first [failed] revolution of the Hosts), but that's minor quibbling. It's a great story. It's a great exploration of language, familiar and alien. And it's great Miéville too.

2009 brought us The City & the City. 2010 was Kraken. Now we have Embassytown and the short story "Covehithe" for 2011 (which I hadn't fully read before I linked it here, but ohmygodguysyougottafuckingreadthis). If China keeps up with this one-a-year habit (Dear Chuck Palahniuk: Surrender now), I can't wait for 2012.

It's becoming an old joke, I know, but I'm still holding out for chick lit.

Update: It's been a few weeks since I finished Embassytown, and I still keep thinking about it, so I'm going to take that as a sign that four stars isn't enough. Rating adjustment ahoy!

Dear Goodreads:

China Miéville. Embassytown. Really, really good.

Love,
Jacob

(less)

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Jun 13, 2011 Elizabeth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, fantasy-sci-fi, in-by-of-england, reviewed, firstreads

China Miéville’s writing reminds me of James Joyce. That’s both a compliment and a frustration. They both have need to play with language in new ways, drawing on old forms, making it sing or fly or float rather than plod along. Isn't this why one reads them? For me, the language becomes a distraction, a beautiful, thoughtful, intelligent distraction, but a distraction nonetheless. I am practical. I like to know what is going on. I am frustrated easily when an author obfuscates, deliberately, his...more China Miéville’s writing reminds me of James Joyce. That’s both a compliment and a frustration. They both have need to play with language in new ways, drawing on old forms, making it sing or fly or float rather than plod along. Isn't this why one reads them? For me, the language becomes a distraction, a beautiful, thoughtful, intelligent distraction, but a distraction nonetheless. I am practical. I like to know what is going on. I am frustrated easily when an author obfuscates, deliberately, his purpose behind word games and scenes that I know are important, like he’s put up a giant neon sign, flashing the word at the beginning of each chapter, but their intention is being hidden. A man behind the curtain – and I am Toto; he has no right to misdirect me. I will rip that curtain down, right now.

My reading sensibilities have been offended, clearly. Working at Ulysses is one thing but I am expected to work at reading a science fiction novel? Just who do you think you are, Mr. Miéville? China Miéville? Yes, that’s exactly who you are and this is exactly what I should have expected. I remember the beginning of The City and the City. I was ready to abandon it after forty pages, too.

So, there I was, in the morass of his world building, his slow burn of characterization, his play time with themes, and I was growing ever-more frustrated by his disconfiguration of technical terms to create his own society’s technology. I stopped. I wandered among my bookshelves, looking for something that would settle me, something that would sooth my wounded pride, something that I was sure I would conquer easily (have I mentioned that I am naturally competitive?). I picked up a long poem, by Sylvia Townsend Warner, whose novel that I read recently, was much like reading poetry. She was a woman who knew how to use language effectively, creating a world full of magic and sorrow, and, finally, joy. And I realized, as I read it, with its strange combination of modern (for her) problems, disreputable characters, and poetry of a magical garden, that this is how I should approach Mieville. Treat him as a poet. Treat the prose like a long poem; he is stretching the form outside of normal bounds. He wants it to be read without effort, letting the words flow, the language shaping how I read the story, making me relax into it, and letting him lead the way. It’s like reading The Waves, which is more poetry than prose, and which I knew when I opened it, that it was to be read like floating on a calm sea, struggle and one will sink immediately, let it carry you to where the tides want to go and one will be rewarded by beauty and power and the experience of reading a book like this.

I finally realized my problem has been that I did not trust him. My natural readerly state is distrustful: that the author will have wasted my time, that I will not like this book, that he will do something horrible to a character I have grown to love and I will hate him for it, that he will betray me. Only with certain authors have I learned to trust them enough that I will let myself float from the beginning, not kick out, fighting the tide.

The first one hundred pages were one long struggle between me and the tide, if not the author (who would want to fight China, have you seen him?) and it did not go well for either of us. But he must know about the hundred page rule because on page 96 the plot kicked in. I was reading a science fiction novel and it was sucking me in, the way all good science fiction novels are supposed to. It wasn't just world building and back story and made up words. From that point on, it was easy to be carried by the prose, by the ideas, by the purpose. It didn't matter that Miéville was playing with a lot of themes that I've read before. I joked earlier that this reminds me a lot of a Star Trek Next Generation episode. It still does. I could hear lines from Lois McMaster Bujold's characters in my head. I wondered if Miéville has ever read Patricia A. McKillip. It's still a good book, a fascinating book, a Miéville book. I still hold a little of my resentment though - those first hundred pages deserve it - but he's pretty brilliant and the book is worth the effort. (less)

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Mar 17, 2013 Cecily rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, miscellaneous-fiction, language-related, sci-fi-or-futuristic

How can a novel about language leave one speechless? In a good way, I hasten to add!

This was the third Mieville I’ve read, and they are all very different in style, content and my liking (or not).

The core idea of this one is language: how minds shape language and how language shapes minds. Wonderful as it was, I can see reasons why some people would hate it, or find it too weird, or just not sci-fi enough. If you don’t delight in polysemy and are not interested in the difference between simile a...more

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Jul 09, 2011 Ceridwen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: aliens, grok-this, sci-fi, memoir, space-the-final-frontier, tolkien-uber-alles, what-are-you-doing-dave

When I was a kid, I played a lot with other neighborhood kids, and it was all politics and skinned knees. My best friend was a girl called Alicia, and it was was a yawning difference in age between us, two whole years. We made friends when I was running a lemonade stand more or less set up by my parents. I had a cigar box full of change, and a pitcher of lemonade, and she swindled me out of the lemonade and into friendship. We played a lot of Spaceman, and various forms of tag, and played her fa...more

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May 27, 2011 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, sci-fi-fantasy, vote-getters, signed-copy, chinatown

BLARGH this guy. This guy needs to be stopped. He is using all the ideas. He is taking all the genres.

(I was going to delete that but it got 10 votes, so it can stay. The sentiment still rings true. Stop using up all the ideas, you limey bastard!)

--------

INTERIOR: Parking garage. Almost every space is full. The only opening is a narrow space labeled "Compact Car." To its left sits a SHINY MOTORCYCLE.

[A BLACK LEXUS creeps into view. The driver is irritated, swinging his head back and forth in sea...more

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Aug 14, 2012 Aerin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, linguistics, science-fiction, well-that-was-awesome, first-contact

Every now and then I stumble on a book that is so perfect in every way it leaves me wonderstruck. And I'm a pretty harsh critic, an aspiring curmudgeon, a habitual roller-of-eyes. I am often accused, by friends and family, of "hating everything". Even when I find a work of fiction decently enjoyable, I'm normally all too aware of the frameworks underpinning it - the tropes, the archetypes, the dramatic structure, the genre formulas - to be really swept up in it. I have this problem with overthin...more

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May 16, 2011 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I don't really want to give anything away. I also don't feel like trying to sell Mieville -- Ursula Le Guin does it grandly, here. . . so pardon me while I bore with a semi-personal take on reading, genre, and my appreciations for this author. Plus I said I'd send the book to Joel, and have been too busy to write a proper review and I really, really want to send the book to him soon...

Loving the Alien*:
Tracking the historical origins of one's own fannish enthusiasms, getting to the bud where ta...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Ian Graye rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mieville, read-2013, reviews, reviews-5-stars

Proem: In Which an Ambassador Iangrayetiates Himself With His Host With Impunity

Is a simile
Like a metaphor?
I cannot espouse
This figure of speech.
This not unlike that?
One word a signpost?

Can this be that, or
Would subject object?
How could I be you?
Worse still, you be me?
Well, I know my place,
I'm not one to boast.

I am, like, content
To be just a guest,
Sometimes arriving
First and leaving last.
Not competitive,
Neither least nor most.

A figure of speech,
An Ambassador,
If you please, beyond
Compare and c...more

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Jan 14, 2012 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of The Dispossessed, alien cultural intersections

Shelves: sci-fi, female-lead, awards

In ninth grade, Mrs. Muench--who had an uncanny resemblance to Miss Marple's friend Dolly Bantry--endeavored to teach us the difference between similes and metaphors.

Similes use "like" and "as" to compare two unlike things.

Metaphors state two unlike things are the same.

But dear, enthusiastic Mrs. Muench could not have anticipated China's sophistry: metaphors are lies.

Embassytown is a deep-thinking book, not one to pick up if you are in a the mood for a fast action read. China's use of a futuris...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Apatt rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Aliens so alien they just alienate you with their alieness.

That is what you have to look forward to. Embassytown is a brave move by China Miéville, it is not an easy read, it is full of neologism, and it has a steep learning curve. The author made an effort to create something special and he expects some mental exertion from the reader too. In order for the reader to indulge the author they generally need to have a store of goodwill for that author to want to make the effort. Basically, this sho...more Aliens so alien they just alienate you with their alieness.

That is what you have to look forward to. Embassytown is a brave move by China Miéville, it is not an easy read, it is full of neologism, and it has a steep learning curve. The author made an effort to create something special and he expects some mental exertion from the reader too. In order for the reader to indulge the author they generally need to have a store of goodwill for that author to want to make the effort. Basically, this should not be your first Miéville book*. However, this is a great book, an amazing feat of imagination, and a real work of art. This is my fifth Miéville book, and in my estimation it is the best so far.

I normally dislike writing synopses but on this occasion I'd like to try writing a Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis like they have in the otherwise inferior Shelfari website. Here goes:

On a planet where lying is impossible, one man started lying.

This sounds like a bad trailer for the Ricky Gervais movie The Invention of Lying but this book is nothing quite so lame. It is in some way the gist of the novel but does not really cover all the bases. The impossibility of lying only applies to the alien Language (always spelled with a capital L) which can only be spoken with two voices (sort of in stereo), it requires two very similar humans to speak them. Such pairs of humans are trained and "grown" (not bred) to be Ambassadors for the human colony in the titular Embassytown. One day a pair of very unusual Ambassadors arrive from Bremen (humanity's home planet) and all hell break loose when they start to speak.

The difficulty with this book lies in the neologism, the large numbers of terms that Miéville coins without direct explanation. He leaves it to the reader to figure out their meaning through the contexts in which the words are employed. This is not as hard as it sound and you don't need to understand every one of these words to follow the story. As a reader I feel somewhat flattered that the author is crediting me with a certain degree of intelligence, and I am glad he did not overestimate my IQ by much. I believe most readers can follow this book but they do need to be patient, especially during the first 60 or so pages. I must confess I did initially search for a bit of help online, and the most helpful assistance came from Miéville himself in this charming video clip.

While reading the first few chapters I was initially annoyed with his presumption of my intellect but later I became amused with the new words' opaqueness. China Miéville's trademarks of lyrical prose, sense of humor, skillful characterization and weirdness are all here. By the end of the book I felt like my mind has been expanded and I am once again a happy punter, and proud to call myself a Miéville fan (Miévillian?).

* Your first China Miéville should be Perdido Street Station or The Scar.(less)

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Mar 27, 2013 Derek Broughton rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: sf

This is why I read China Miéville!

I recently finished The Scar and was thoroughly disappointed, giving it the lowest rating I've given to one of his books. So, I felt I just had to jump into Embassytown, and loved it from the start.

SF is full of "aliens", but for the most part they're odd-looking humans, or at least "people". They're not really all that alien. Miéville's Ariekei are not only completely alien, he never even really clearly describes their appearance - it just isn't that important....more

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Aug 24, 2011 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm ashamed to admit that I was doubting Mieville (sorry, don't know how to do the accent mark) at the beginning of this novel. All of his books prior to this one had grabbed me from the start. However, I almost felt like I was reading an anthropologist's field notebook about a tribe being studied, for the first quarter of the book.

Once it was all said and done though, I get why it was necessary. I'm still amazed he pulled the plot off. It would have been a disaster if attempted by a less adept...more

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Jun 10, 2011 Sandi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, audiobooks, sci-fi

I was thrilled to find a copy of Embassytown at the library a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I only made it through about 40 pages before I had to return it. Those were a tough 40 pages that really hurt my brain. At some point, I realized that my problem was less about the book than about the fact that I just couldn't hear it right in my head. Avice, the first-person narrator, tells the story in a slang that kept making me stumble. She doesn't define anything in her world because she assumes that...more

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Sep 02, 2012 Catie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Catie by: Nataliya

Shelves: read-in-2012, sci-fi

I wasn’t planning to review this book, but I just can’t stop thinking about it. And then I realized last night that the Hugo Award winners will be announced today and I suddenly had this pang of fan-superstition, like one of those crazy sport people who feel compelled to wear the same socks for a whole week. Maybe if I review this today, he’ll win. Maybe I can speak my wish into reality. See? I really can’t stop thinking about this book.

This book is very different than almost anything else I’ve...more

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Apr 07, 2013 Rene Saller rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Embassytown blew my mind. The first few chapters were a bit overwhelming because the world described is so very different from ours, and the author (wisely) doesn't get bogged down in too much exposition. I had to keep rereading certain passages and thumbing back to get my bearings, to make sure I was reading what I thought I was reading. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, because the book became completely riveting before long. I don't want to leak any spoilers, but in the most general terms thi...more Embassytown blew my mind. The first few chapters were a bit overwhelming because the world described is so very different from ours, and the author (wisely) doesn't get bogged down in too much exposition. I had to keep rereading certain passages and thumbing back to get my bearings, to make sure I was reading what I thought I was reading. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, because the book became completely riveting before long. I don't want to leak any spoilers, but in the most general terms this is a science-fiction novel about semiotics, post-structuralism, post-colonialism, and gender politics. I know this sounds unappealingly dry, but the novel comes to these topics honestly; they're in the service of the story, which is fascinating. At various points in the narrative, I thought of William S. Burroughs (particularly the language-as-a-virus concept), David Cronenberg (in a just world Embassytown will be made into a movie, and he'll be the director, assuming he's willing to revisit body horror), Jacques Derrida, Paul Ricoeur, and Julia Kristeva. I hope I'm not making it sound boring because it's anything but. I've never read a novel quite like it, one that made the theories of all the aforementioned academic jargon-disseminators seem frightening, exhilarating, and absolutely relevant.

At times Miéville's sentences are a little awkward--I wasn't always sure whether it was intentional or not, insofar as the narrator/heroine, Avice, is speaking a future dialect of English, Anglo-Urbiq, that resembles our English but isn't exactly the same. There were also a few points where Avice's voice sounded too much like what I imagine Miéville's must sound like, perhaps a tad too writerly considering that she is supposed to be a kind of no-nonsense foil to her linguist husband, who tends to speak in grad-schoolese.

But those are just minor quibbles. The world that Miéville builds is intricate and believable, and the characters--even the most unrelatably inhuman ones--are, for the most part, fully developed characters. This book is at once cerebral and visceral, and many of its images and concepts will surely inhabit my brain for years to come. Now that I've read the novel I would like to listen to the audiobook, just so I can hear Language (the purely transparent, word = referent/referent= word language that the Ariekei, or Hosts, and the surgically altered human Ambassadors speak) for myself.

I really wish Goodreads allowed half-stars. I'd give this four-and-a-half, or maybe four-and-three-quarters stars rather than a plain old four if I could. It isn't perfect, but it made an indelible impression on me that many of my five-star books probably won't, at least in the long run. (less)

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Mar 17, 2013 Arielle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: want-to-make-into-film, written-this-century, speculative-fiction, sci-fi

Embassytown is that rare thing in literature: unique. I'm sure there must be other books, other stories perhaps dealing with similar ideas, but I have yet to come across any that come close to the beautiful strangeness of this book.

There are cons. Embassytown is far from perfect. Like all of Mieville's work that I've read so far, it is hard work (especially at the start, but it does get easier as the story begins to grip you). Sometimes I found that that languaging was so alien - or indeed, so...more

Embassytown is that rare thing in literature: unique. I'm sure there must be other books, other stories perhaps dealing with similar ideas, but I have yet to come across any that come close to the beautiful strangeness of this book.

There are cons. Embassytown is far from perfect. Like all of Mieville's work that I've read so far, it is hard work (especially at the start, but it does get easier as the story begins to grip you). Sometimes I found that that languaging was so alien - or indeed, so un-alien - that I was jolted right out of this strange world and found myself contemplating the language choice rather than the story. This may not even be a negative; it could, in fact, be part of the author's intended reaction. "Language" is such a deep part of the plot that there is no reason to discount the possibility that the very writing itself was used in such a way to make the reader think about our own human forms of language.

Be that as it may, it was distracting. Coupled with this was the tendency to write as though the reader was already knowledgeable of the world and universe in which Embassytown is set. A second re-reading of the book may be in order, becuase there are so many parts from the beginning that I didn't comprehend and I think that detracted from the latter parts of the story. That being said, I did in fact enjoy the fundamental story so much that I will happily undertake a re-read in the near future.

And oh, the story. The ideas! A dissection, an exploration, a near poetic discovery of what constitutes language and sentient interaction - this is at the heart of Embassytown. There are of course many other threads woven throughout (addiction, politics, oppression, morality, can mechanics be considered a life-form etc) but Language is the core. As with Railsea, the first of Mieville's works I ever read, the ending hit me so hard it was almost physical. In fact, the ending - if I may go so far as to say - was perfect.

I will be very surprised if this never finds its way to motion image - whether in film or television (or even pure art) form. Like the world in which it is set, Embassytown is ruggedly, alienly beautiful; flawed and (mostly) imperfect; unique, and essential.(less)

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Aug 13, 2012 Milica Chotra rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I loved this little anthropological study of a wonderfully crafted world on the edge of the known Universe.

Though I couldn't make myself care too much about the human characters (even the narrator of the story seemed uninteresting to me), I was totally immersed in the politics of Embassytown and the linguistic struggle of their Hosts - Ariekei. The central concept of the novel is the importance of language in shaping our worldview / perception of reality, and Miéville did an impressive job. She...more

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Nov 03, 2012 ☽ Moon ☯ 佛月球 Будда Луны rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"We tell the truth best by becoming lies..."

Embassytown is an impeccable piece of literature hiding in a science fiction format. It is a transgressive simulation of China Miéville's densely imaginative mind ensconced in a passionate embrace for higher pursuits thereby tapping the possibilities of the still nonexistent worlds in all its lucid details.

The outlines of the narrative embroiled in somewhat confusing terminologies in a vivid display of the writer's control over words, seem to be in c...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Simon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

SPOILERS

There is no subject, not love, religion, sex, music, that generates more quasi-mystical but ultimately senseless gushing than.... language. I liked this book quite a lot, and wanted to like it more; but I was so unable to credit its central conceit, the Hosts' "Language", that I have to judge the book something of a failure. Here are some of my problems with it.

Language (capital L) both is and is not a language. (Fans of the language mysticism in this book might prefer that I wrote the f...more SPOILERS

There is no subject, not love, religion, sex, music, that generates more quasi-mystical but ultimately senseless gushing than.... language. I liked this book quite a lot, and wanted to like it more; but I was so unable to credit its central conceit, the Hosts' "Language", that I have to judge the book something of a failure. Here are some of my problems with it.

Language (capital L) both is and is not a language. (Fans of the language mysticism in this book might prefer that I wrote the first conjunct of that sentence on top of the second instead of after it.) The Hosts finally make a change, as the narrator Avice puts it, from Language to language. So Language cannot already be itself a language. Yet, Language is spoken, between Hosts and between Hosts and Ambassadors, it enables communication, exchange of technology, so it must be a language.

You cannot lie in Language; and its native speakers can only understand it spoken by other natives, or by specially reared Ambassador pairs speaking in tandem. But no means of communication itself makes lying impossible. And how can the Hosts' inability to understand Language spoken by non-Ambassador humans be a feature of Language, rather than their own psychological strangeness?

The Hosts make people into similes. I just don't understand what that means. They "say people". I don't understand that either. It's not that somehow the Hosts are incapable of abstraction, and need something concrete, a real person or event, because of inability to abstract. They do abstract and use concepts just fine, apparently. The very similes themselves involve abstractions "the girl who ate..." involved being a girl, and eating, both purely general. In fact, if anything, their limits, Avice intuits, lie in the direction of concretion. They cannot say "that". But their inability is no more a simple inability to refer to particular things than it is an inability to use concepts. They clearly have what philosophers call singular or de re thought. They think and speak about particular things, the girl who ate what was given to her, for example. So they evidently have no problem individuating individuals of various kinds. So what exactly does the ability to demonstrate things, with "that", add? Certainly nothing world-changing; a mere convenience at most."Concepts without intuitions [i.e. singling out of particular things] are empty; intuitions without concepts are blind" said Kant (or was it the other way round?). But the Hosts have both concepts and intuitions. So what exactly is their problem?

A lot is made of a distinction between reference and signification. Both terms have been given a plethora of meanings in different philosophical schemes; it was unclear to me what the distinction between them was meant to be here.

Well, I could go on; but of course, this wasn't meant to be a text-book in the philosophy of language.

The most interesting aspect of the novel, given the failure of its main goal in my opinion, was its treatment of colonialism. The Embassytowners are a colony of Bremen; but they themselves have an initially symbiotic relation with the Hosts that soon turns to one of pure colonial domination when they accidentally make addicts of all the Hosts. I loved the way the Hosts fractured in their responses to this overlordship; some collaborate; some look to free themselves constructively (by going beyond Language); the most frightening turn to self-mutilation to make themselves immune to the power of the overlords. Even here, though, I wasn't quite satisfied; it is the "white man" (actually, woman with Korean surname) who helps them help themselves. Without Avice's efforts, and those of her companions, the Absurd, the army of the self-mutilated, are set to rampage and kill, as restless natives are always ready to. (The woman who teaches them all about language has the initials A.B.C.! One thinks of native children laboring over language primers.)

Still, as I said at the beginning, I liked the book quite a lot and will almost certainly read more of the author's work.(less)

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Jul 30, 2012 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, aliens, philosophy, war, language, linguistics

A great accomplishment in a central theme of science fiction, that of humans blundering their way toward fuller communication and understanding of an alien species. Despite some plodding of the plot in the middle and a struggle to accede to the overlying premise of the tale, this was well compensated for by good engagement in the fate of in-depth characters, plenty of ingenious invention and atmospheric conveyance with the details, and fascinating reflection on how very different species may hav...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Rob rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, science-fiction, to-re-read

If you are acquainted with China Miéville's work, there will not be too many surprises for you when you read this novel. Which is not to imply that it is predictable or formulaic, but that it quintessentially one of his novels. It's all there: the weird landscapes that are intimately, almost erotically detailed; how the landscape collapses singularity-like onto one pivotal city that is populated by the most bizarre people and things that he can funnel from his imagination into yours; how those w...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Mike Moore rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

SPLENDID! This truly gives me hope for S.F. as a literary form. It is the opposite of hard S.F., he describes a concept or event in sparse detail, and the reader is left pondering how/what just happened.

Imagine this - Science Fiction that is about the STORY, not the science. WHAT a concept! And yet, the science is JUST SO COOL, you cannot help thinking about it. Farms that literally shit produce into the city. Autonomously.

The story is set in the far future. As with much of Miéville's fiction, t...more

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May 24, 2011 Andrew Neal rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I stayed up late reading this one. Somehow he brought all the stuff I associate with China Mieville wihout making it seem like a retread of what he's done before. I thought it was great.

And here's the thing I think he's best at: dropping you right into the middle of a culture, where the characters, including the narrator, speak in such a way that you don't quite follow whats happening, but then gradually cluing you on what exactly the weirdness is in without just having the characters explaining...more

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Apr 21, 2012 Wrey Fuentes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I am an interpreter by trade and a linguist by education. I came to the end of the novel and I was compelled to orient myself in the general direction of the U.K. (thank you, iPad) and genuflect deeply and for some minutes. It's a bit of a niche piece and without some background in linguistic theory much of this novel might go ignored as chaff, but this book is all grain. Whole grain. Nourishing. As an aspiring writer, I felt a smidge emasculated, which I am sure was never China's intention, but...more

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May 22, 2011 Lou rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: may-read

Not the best of china's storytelling, I am sure even though this being the first of his I have read. I found myself just waiting for something really good to happen to the plot. This world he's crafted is not easy to write he's done well to conjure up this world and characters. A Coupe is brewing Embassytown used to be just cohabited by The Host's then the humans came and language was learnt between the two. The story picks at the problems they have had, the ambassadors and breakdown or lack of...more

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Dec 21, 2012 Warwick rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi, ebooks, linguistics

I see I'm going to be a dissenting voice here, but I'm afraid I found Embassytown to be weak, poorly-plotted and fundamentally unconvincing.

The book is concerned with a settlement on a planet at the edge of the known universe. The city is inhabited by Ariekei, a strange species whose distinguishing feature is a unique language which has a double articulation and in which it is impossible to lie. A small enclave of humans lives there, and communicates with their ‘Hosts’ via a series of Ambassador...more I see I'm going to be a dissenting voice here, but I'm afraid I found Embassytown to be weak, poorly-plotted and fundamentally unconvincing.

The book is concerned with a settlement on a planet at the edge of the known universe. The city is inhabited by Ariekei, a strange species whose distinguishing feature is a unique language which has a double articulation and in which it is impossible to lie. A small enclave of humans lives there, and communicates with their ‘Hosts’ via a series of Ambassadors – two people bred to think as one, who, by talking simultaneously, can communicate effectively with the Ariekei natives.

So far so good. Unfortunately, a lot about Miéville's world here just doesn't add up. The narrator, Avice, is special. She's an ‘immerser’, born with special abilities to navigate the ‘immer’, or sub-space underlying the known universe. We hear all about how unusual this is, and the special training she receives to be able to navigate vessels through the vast reaches of space this way.

Then, the whole concept is dropped and never reappears in the novel again. The whole thing turns out to have no bearing on the plot whatsoever (apart from a very tangential callback during the climax). Avice and other characters keep banging on about how she has these special, unique abilities – but they are NEVER called on and have no relevance to anything. Obviously I don't expect everything to tie together at the end, but this was just bizarre in its pointlessness.

The language element of the plot, too, irritated me. I am no expert, but linguistics is an interest of mine and the ideas on display here seem deeply unconvincing. A couple of vague references to langue and parole are not enough to back up some very shaky concepts. The whole idea of a language where you cannot lie is very problematic, if not impossible: certainly it requires far more explanation than we are offered here. Saying that it is a language where ‘words are referents’, far from convincing me, only made me feel that Miéville doesn't know what he's talking about. It really makes no sense to say (as we are told in the book) that the Ariekei employ humans to perform certain specific actions just so they can then speak of them as similes, this being necessary because unless something has literally happened they would never be able to express it in their language. To ask for these actions to be carried out in the first place, they must be able to formulate the idea in advance and express it to someone. This is actually pointed out by a character in the book, but no one, including the author, bothers to answer the question despite the fact that it's clearly a major flaw with the entire set-up.

Then there's the fact that the dénouement depends on large chunks of the Ariekei population suddenly learning to lie practically overnight – not only that, but they invent an entire writing system in a single afternoon. Give me a break. I just didn't believe any of it.

The City and the City had its flaws, but it was a much better-written novel than Embassytown, and I'm at a loss as to why so many people seem to think this is his masterpiece. The plot is all over the place, and the theories underlying it are dodgy in the extreme. It's just not a particularly great book (and that ain't no lie).(less)

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Nov 02, 2011 Lisa Vegan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Lisa by: Sarah Pi Pinkster & Ceridwen

Shelves: fiction, novel, speculative-fiction, gr-author, gr-groups-buddies, reviewed

what to say? what to say?

What an odd book.

It was a slog for me. I didn’t have a lot of fun reading it; it was more of a frustrating challenge than pleasure reading. But it was fascinating, and highly creative. This is my first book by this author and I’m not running to read others by him. I’m afraid this is my failing: to not fully appreciate what was done here. It is brilliant in its way, maybe worthy of even 5 stars.

This author does almost too good a job at making the aliens and the society se...more

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Apr 26, 2012 Meghan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Meghan by: Keith Staskiewicz (EW)

Shelves: sci-fi, ew_rec, award-winning, brit-lit, bookish, british, horror, own, kindle, new-england

This story socks it to you. Mieville has an excellent grasp on the geopolitical powder keg that is international politics. I know all the experts like to talk about Language vs language. And there is plenty to talk about on that subject. But what I found most intriguing about the story was the scathing review of "Big Government" on colonial life. Everything was started because Bremen made a power play, with consequences so disasterous it might wipe out an entire planet. Looking through man's own...more This story socks it to you. Mieville has an excellent grasp on the geopolitical powder keg that is international politics. I know all the experts like to talk about Language vs language. And there is plenty to talk about on that subject. But what I found most intriguing about the story was the scathing review of "Big Government" on colonial life. Everything was started because Bremen made a power play, with consequences so disasterous it might wipe out an entire planet. Looking through man's own history, how many times have we encountered similar situations?

Living in an embassytown myself, I can relate to or at least imagine on certain levels what the Terres went through. When you watch your own government sqwak and holler about things, you often wonder if they even have a clue since they so obviously refuse to take the time or effort in understanding the natives and their cultures, their history, who they are. They just see what they want, make assumptions, and deem what should be done based on political correctness or favor. It's scary because they, safe in their homes far, far away do not have to live with the fall out of those not-well-thought-through decisions and proclamations. It's easy to decide what to do when you aren't there to deal with the consequences.

As much as I enjoyed the story, Mieville's writing is tough to slog through. Hence the loss of one star. For the most part, I read this fairly quickly. But the times where there was lag, it slowed way down. I think sometimes Mieville enjoyed a little too much of his wordplay. The smoothness of the story got bogged down by the cleverness in the words, which I found a bit ironic considering the whole premise of the story to begin with.

All-in-all, for my first Mieville book, I enjoyed this thoroughly. While it won't be any time soon, I will definitely be reading his other works. This felt less science fiction-y to me so I don't think you have to be a hard core sci-fi fan to enjoy it. Allthough if you're not into international politics or science fiction, it might be rough going for you.(less)

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May 24, 2012 switterbug (Betsey) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The only other Mieville I have read (and also reviewed) was The City & The City, which was his least fabulist style of book, and I was transported and absorbed throughout. Although I am not attracted to SciFi, I was intrigued by a novel about "Language." I knew that Mieville would scatter EMBASSYTOWN with fascinating neologisms, and create a world that is absurd, baroque, yet inevitably believable, due to his attention to detail and his wicked, hipster, and yet sensitive, intelligent treatme...more The only other Mieville I have read (and also reviewed) was The City & The City, which was his least fabulist style of book, and I was transported and absorbed throughout. Although I am not attracted to SciFi, I was intrigued by a novel about "Language." I knew that Mieville would scatter EMBASSYTOWN with fascinating neologisms, and create a world that is absurd, baroque, yet inevitably believable, due to his attention to detail and his wicked, hipster, and yet sensitive, intelligent treatment to all the tropes he uses. EMBASSYTOWN is, to me, a living metaphor. The book, if surfacely sci-fi, reads like a post-modern story of language. It makes you consider language in its deepest, most philosophical sense.

The story starts in media res, in the thick of things, and proceeds non-linearly, with different sections titled to keep us focused. A ship has arrived to Embassytown, bringing Hosts and Anbassadors. Avice Benner Cho, the books's protagonist, is a female human who was raised in the ghetto of Embassytown, a colonized planet of the Ariekei people. The Arekei are "insect horse coral fan things" with hooves and two wings--one that can fly and one that can manipulate, and they have two mouths that speak in unison.

The Arekei people are called Hosts. The Hosts are OF language, but cannot speak language. Words are not signifiers, they are not abstractions of thought; they are objective truth. They are like thought, born. Hosts chitter with their two mouths and their noise is not translatable to most. And they cannot lie. They communicate through Ambassadors, who are clone-twins who can speak to people individually, but speak together to the Areikei.

Mieville does fling those new words and concepts like miab, corvid, exot, and a hundred other terms early on, when you have no anchor for it--yet. But--and this is his genius--if you pay attention, it gradually forms a living, breathing, world that you understand. Introducing these neologisms early serves to implant these ideas and concepts in the reader. He isn't dumping bizarre words just for grins; he is a master of language with a refreshing blast of ideas, requiring the reader to pay attention. Lexically, the words have some familiarity to them, so that it pieces together naturally and buttresses the story.

Humans have left earth in the "human diaspora" many years ago--time is registered in "kilohours" here. Avice is locally famous for traveling in the Immer, a place of deep space and time that not everyone can handle. She is also a living simile. The Arekei made her a figure of speech, a part of their language, "the girl who ate what was given her." The Arekei need similes and metaphors in lieu of lies. However, as Mieville will show us, creatures are attracted to lies. The Arekei planet will get an intoxicating dose of the misuse of language, a paradox otherwise known as a "false lie" through a new, genetically engineered Ambassador, which whirls this story into an apocalyptic opera.

The virtuosity of Mieville is how he sets this book up on a metaphor, or AS a metaphor, carries it through immaculately, and gives the reader a vision of humanity. Rich with ideas and moral backbone, it even appeals to readers like me with little background in sci-fi. Mieville is part of the group of writers called "New Weird," and I prefer that term, because it removes Mieville from being thrown in with the predictable, often shopworn forms of science fiction about "good vs evil" and starred with laser guns and scripted wars. Instead, we arrive at a nuanced, absurd, but comprehensible world of language.(less)

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Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
Miévillians: SECTION 7: Part 8: The Parley and Part 9: The Relief	59	18	Apr 25, 2013 08:31pm
Miévillians: SECTION 1: Proem: The Immerser (0.1-0.3)	151	50	Apr 15, 2013 05:41am
Miévillians: SECTION 4: Part Four: Addict and Part Five: Notes	52	17	Apr 05, 2013 09:22am
Miévillians: "Embassytown" - GENERAL DISCUSSION	32	21	Apr 05, 2013 06:58am
Miévillians: SECTION 2: Part One: Income	98	37	Apr 04, 2013 09:42am
Miévillians: SECTION 6: Part 7: The Languageless	23	41	Apr 04, 2013 09:16am
Miévillians: SECTION 3: Part Two: Festivals and Part Three: Like As Not	67	16	Apr 03, 2013 01:34pm

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About China Miéville

A British "fantastic fiction" writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" (after early 20th century pulp and horror writers such as H. P. Lovecraft), and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird who consciously attempt to move fantasy away from commercial, genre clichés of Tolkien epigons. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist W...more

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Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1)

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Quotes from Embassytown

“It felt like being a child again, though it was not. Being a child is like nothing. It's only being. Later, when we think about it, we make it into youth.” — 20 people liked it

“We speak now or I do, and others do. You've never spoken before. You will. You'll be able to say how the city is a pit and a hill and a standard and an animal that hunts and a vessel on the sea and the sea and how we are fish in it, not like the man who swims weekly with fish but the fish with which he swims, the water, the pool. I love you, you light me, warm me, you are suns.
You have never spoken before.” — 13 people liked it

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