Embassytown Discussion: SECTION 1: Proem: The Immerser (0.1-0.3)

[Cecily]

As my granny used to say:
"A little of what you fancy does you good"
and
"Moderation in all things"

[Daniel]

Hi very interesting and informative thread!

Ubik/Ubiq
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I read an interview by Mieville where he explicitly says P. K Dick is a huge influence on him, although this is not mentioned at GR's bio or Wikipedia.

Children's education
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One thing that caused me strangeness was the fact that children are not raised by their parent's but I cannot tell you that this is something that Miéville endorses. I don't, but Embassytown city, Bremen empire, the out, this future, is a highly well imagined and fascinating future.

One question:
---------------
What is the miab?

One thing in my mind now:
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With this book I will practically ascend Miéville to my top 3 favorite authors with a tie ( Gaiman, Vance, Moorcock/Miéville )

Nods and homages
----------------
So far the most obvious to me are Left Hand of Darkness and Dispossessed, but there is also something of Dune.

[Derek, Miéville fan-boi]

miab: MIAB -> message in a bottle.

You have Miéville in good company, though I'd place him well ahead of Gaiman! I started rereading Vance this year. I've only touched on some of the lighter-weight ones, so far.

[Daniel]

Thanks for the info Derek!
Which Vances you read so far?

[Traveller]

Daniel wrote: "One thing that caused me strangeness was the fact that children are not raised by their parent's but I cannot tell you that this is something that Miéville endorses. I don't, but Embassytown city, Bremen empire, the out, this future, is a highly well imagined and fascinating future.
..."

Well,I don't know if Mieville specifically endorses that specific practice, but he is a socialist, and according to communist/socialist doctrine and in some other communal societies, children are raised "communally".
This wouldn't work for me personally, but I suppose there are people who don't have strong parenting instincts for whom it would work out fine...

[Derek, Miéville fan-boi]

The Planet of Adventure books, which I see you 5-starred, and The Demon Princes books (which I see I didn't even add to my challenge--no wonder I never make my targets.

My, how time flies. I started rereading Vance last year and I have still only got through those two series. I must get to the The Dying Earth & Nopalgarth. I think Traveller's a bigger Vance fan than I am.

[Traveller]

I am a huge fan of Vance's writing style, yes, but all I can remember clearly still is The Dying Earth. I do own most of the Demon Princes books, but I can't remember them in detail anymore.

[Daniel]

I read just "The Killing Machine", which is one of the three books of this series - and maybe one of the 9 - Vance books ever translated to Portuguese. Dying Earth, first book, aka Mazirian the magician is probably one of my all time favorite books. I like "Eyes of the overworld" and "Cugels saga" but I have to admit that Cugel's is annoying.

[Derek, Miéville fan-boi]

Daniel wrote: "I read just "The Killing Machine", which is one of the three books of this series "

There's actually five. The book I linked was an omnibus of the first three. It's tough being a fan of an author in a foreign language, and having to wait for a publisher to be willing to translate. My wife and I are huge fans of Jo Nesbø and Andrea Camilleri, and both of their major series were first published in English with a volume well into the series, so we waited years to actually get the first volume. Which would be even worse in a series like the Demon Princes, where each volume does depend on the previous one.

[Daniel]

Derek (Guilty of thoughtcrime) wrote: "Daniel wrote: "I read just "The Killing Machine", which is one of the three books of this series "

There's actually five. The book I linked was an omnibus of the first three. It's tough being a fa..."

Hi Derek, I knew about the five books, what I meant was that only 3 of the 5 books were translated to Portuguese. Books like Planet of Adventure, Dying Earth or Lyonesse were never translated.

There was a science fiction burst of releases in the 70s and 80s here in Brazil with occasional 90s releases so I mostly consumed these ( It helps that I am a huge comics reader and most of the best stuff was translated back then so I always had what to read ;-) ) but many authors had their bibliographies releases fragmented, in most cases not reaching 5% of all books.

Back in 1998 I realized if did not start reading in English I would never read the books I wanted.