From the Bookshelf of The Alternative Worlds…

Embassytown

China Miéville

Start date: October 15, 2011

Finish date: November 15, 2011

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Why we're reading this: October Theme Read 2011
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What Members Thought

Jun 24, 2012 Kara Babcock rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, 2012-read, hugo-nominee, science-fiction, nebula-nominee

Some books are just made for readers. Embassytown, with its focus on the way language shapes our perceptions and our thoughts, is one such book. As readers we are conoisseurs of language, we inhale it and revel in it and cultivate it and all of its diversity. Language informs us, sways us, entertains us, engages us … it is everything to us.

Science fiction seems, to me, like a perfect vehicle for exploring our dependence upon language. After all, there has been a great deal of speculation about h ...more

50 likes · Like · see review

Dec 27, 2010 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: political, sci-fi, philosophical, speculative, mieville, linguistics

What is Embassytown about?

Embassytown is about reality.
Embassytown is about how we make reality.
Embassytown is about how we speak reality.
Embassytown is reality.
Embassytown is unreal.
Embassytown is about religion.
Embassytown is about the spirit.
Embassytown is about being incorruptible.
Embassytown is about corruption.
Embassytown is corruption.
Embassytown is about the opiated masses.
Embassytown is about what opiates the masses.
Embassytown is about any opiates for any masses.
Embassytown is opiates ...more

30 likes · Like · see review

Jun 10, 2011 Sandi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobooks, sci-fi, 2011

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

17 likes · Like · see review

Jan 02, 2012 Denise rated it it was amazing

Language changes everything and languages change.

13 likes · Like · see review

Apr 18, 2011 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: sf, speculative-fiction

China Mieville is a hard guy to pin down. Each of his novels probes a different cranny of genre writing. The only commonality is his use of the word "chitinous" as early and often as possible. Each of his novels that I've read layers idea upon idea, novelty upon novelty. A couple have defeated me, the ugliness of his descriptive passages outweighing the brilliance. I can't remember him depicting any place or creature that wasn't in some way grotesque.

Some of those hallmarks are still in place h China Mieville is a hard guy to pin down. Each of his novels probes a different cranny of genre writing. The only commonality is his use of the word "chitinous" as early and often as possible. Each of his novels that I've read layers idea upon idea, novelty upon novelty. A couple have defeated me, the ugliness of his descriptive passages outweighing the brilliance. I can't remember him depicting any place or creature that wasn't in some way grotesque.

Some of those hallmarks are still in place here, but they are muted. The descriptions in Embassytown are of creatures and landscape that is utterly, brilliantly foreign. There are dozens of terms that need to be internalized and twisted until they give up their intent. The aliens are truly alien. It's a scorcher of an answer to anyone who has ever complained about Star Trek aliens that look like humans with headbumps.

Speaking of Star Trek, one of the episodes I remember most vividly is the one with Captain Picard and Paul Winfield stranded on a planet together. The latter is an alien (headbump variety) who only speaks in metaphors. Mieville took that baffling first contact and extrapolated into the future of two species with a communication gulf. His exploration of Langauge is absolutely my favorite part of the book.

I have to say that the one place the book fell down was in characterization. Avice Banner Cho is a fine enough narrator. She has an interesting history, as a simile, a floaker, and an immerser. She was reliable and in the right place at the right time. I just felt that the interactions between her and her husband, or her and the Ambassadors, or the other staff all felt cold and clinical, like field notes rather than memoir. Grief rarely felt like grief, fear rarely felt like fear. This was my greatest problem with Mieville's The City & the Cityas well.

As a child, I drew nothing but horses. I got to the point where I could make decent money selling portraits to horse owners, just as long as all they wanted was a picture of their horse. My horses were good enough that anything else I put in the drawing - human, dog, background - looked cartoonish in comparison. I think that's what happens with Mieville. He creates worlds and monsters so rich that the humans just can't compare. That's where emotion and observation and interaction between characters becomes important. While I think Avice makes an excellent reporter of the proceedings - and plays an integral role in the climax of the book - I think the stakes might have been higher if I had felt more connections between her and others. As it was, the Areikei carried the book for me. ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Jul 13, 2011 Lori rated it really liked it

Completely different than PSS, more true sf than fantasy. I had no trouble getting right into it - tighter focus than Perdito, no lengthy descriptions (which I loved but I know many don't). What struck me the most is how language reflects our reality, the way we actually think. And if suddenly a new way comes at us, our whole perception is shattered, blasting away a sense of self and how we relate to the world. In this case, it's alien species who are starting to incorporate similes, the strange ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Mar 13, 2011 Terence rated it really liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction

I liked Embassytown. It falls somewhere between The City & The City and Kraken in terms of enjoyment. I thought Miéville was uncharacteristically restrained in the former but allowed his imagination and writing freer rein in the latter (to its detriment in the opinion of some, though not mine). In Embassytown, Miéville is exploring a number of themes, most particularly language & consciousness but also identity and religion, and with his usual verve.

Embassytown is the human colony on Arieka, hom ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

May 10, 2011 Nicky rated it really liked it

Shelves: speculative-fiction

Miéville's work is never easy for me -- I always have to work for it -- so I get a little contemptuous of people who just read fifty pages and give up, even though I do that plenty with other books. I always have to give Miéville plenty of leeway: he gets to a place where he blows my mind in the end, but it might take half the book before I'm starting to see it.

So it was with Embassytown, and not helped by the fact that I'm in a bit of a depressed phase at the moment and everything is Too Much E ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Sep 06, 2011 Maree rated it really liked it

Woohoo! I finished a China Miéville book! Now SciFi people will think that I'm all smart and stuff, even though I didn't finish Perdido Street Station after trying twice. Next time I'll start in the middle and see how far that gets me.

But anyway! Embassytown! It did feel like a heavier book to me, especially in that the book is about words and language and portrayed in words and language as well, because we as humans have no other way to communicate. I'm glad that I read this book as a group rea ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

May 23, 2011 Ryandake rated it really liked it

I'm almost hesitant to comment on this book without giving it a second read first.

This is not an easy book. I found myself reading and re-reading passages, looking for a meaning I felt was just out of my reach. I consider this a very good thing in a book--a book that insists that I stretch to meet it halfway is a book that ends up on my permanent shelf, read and re-read over the years.

Do I know doodly about what goes on in Mieville's shiny carapace when he's writing a book? Nope, of course not. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 15, 2011 Kevin Xu rated it it was ok

I did not find this book all that great. The problem is that the book with more on different languages then anything else. It was not the book that I expected, the unusual Alien encounter.

2 likes · Like · see review

May 21, 2011 Daniel Roy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sf, favorite, new-weird

China Miéville's first foray into science fiction territory is further proof that he possesses monstrous talent. Miéville could have pigeonholed himself in fantasy, and written Bas-Lag novels for the rest of his life. Instead, he took his 'New Weird' credo seriously, and ported it across genres. And "Embassytown" proves that science fiction is a great fit for New Weird.

"Embassytown" has all the hallmarks of stellar science fiction. It builds a plausible yet outlandish reality, and then meticulou ...more

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Jul 16, 2011 Marty rated it it was amazing

One the most intriguing books I have read this year. It explore the esoteric side of language and plays with concepts we take for granted. I urge you to get lost in this book!

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Sep 07, 2011 Brooke rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, 2012

This one was awesome. I started it months ago and then set it down because the first few chapters felt indecipherable. I'm glad that I picked it back up though, because once I powered through the beginning with its alien setting and language, the present-day story about Language started, and suddenly I found myself awake far too late at night dying to know what was going to happen next. Fabulous stuff. ...more

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