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Product Description
Review
'There are few (releases) that can command the anticipation that the latest Miéville does... Given the huge burst of publicity that the author received with his novel Kraken, we're expecting this to be one of the big hits of the year, certainly on Tor's list and most likely another awards contender, given Miéville's three-times victory at the Arthur C Clarke Award.' SciFiNow < br/>< br/>
'Breathtakingly original, smart and imaginative storytelling.' --Fortean Times
'Breathtakingly original, smart and imaginative storytelling.' --Fortean Times
Product Description
The enthralling new novel from the award-winning author of Kraken and The City & The City
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'd been looking forward to this for a while. It is at first sight something of a departure from Miéville's last two books, in being, perhaps more overtly "science fictiony" that them (which will maybe please some of those who didn't like The City & the City and Kraken?)
Set on a human colony, on an alien planet, right at the end of everywhere, it is narrated by Avice, a cool-headed space sailor who has returned to show her new husband her very odd home world. The aliens whose world Avice was born on are very.. alien, something Miéville conveys well by not describing them. It's not just their physiology that is strange, or their technology of "biorigging", making buildings, machines, everything from live flesh. The oddest thing is their language - or as it is rendered, Language. It would be a shame, and spoil some of the careful revelation that Mieville uses to draw his reader in, to say much about how it is produced or what humans need to do to speak it, but one feature he makes clear from the start is that the natives of this planet - the Host - cannot lie. Their Language does not allow it. So when a cult of would-be liars springs up, it is a matter of concern, and the repercussions of this seem to be shaping up to the climax of the book - until Miéville deftly twists his plot and everything changes. The crisis we thought was coming is suddenly unimportant, and a much worse threat arises.
This is a compelling book, stuffed with vivid language, meaty concepts (the idea of "immer", a space-beyond-space, underlying the Universe and allowing navigation; the Hosts' technology; the colonial politics of Embassytown and its distant masters in Bremen; the strange society of the Ambassadors, those who can speak to the Hosts; the Hosts themselves; characters who are living similes - the Hosts cannot lie, their language can only refer to what is true, what has happened, so if they need a new figure of speech it has to be acted out, made concrete; the mysterious Lighthouses - enough in this new universe for a string of books). But the central concern is the nature and magic of language, of truth, of lies.
Avice herself can seem a rather distant, cold narrator. Only towards the end of the book does she drive the plot to any degree. In large part, this mirrors the split between the unknowable Hosts and the humans, or that between the human "commoners" and the privileged Ambassadors and their Staff. Avice is an outsider, looking in - as of course are we. This is, I think, is where the book shows some similarities with its immediate predecessors - I found echoes especially of The City & the City here (while Kraken has perhaps some analogues in the sheer exuberance of the Host and their world and there are even parallels with Un Lun Dun, both the way things fall apart and in the malignity of bureaucrats and rulers.
This is a beautiful book, not an easy read but easy to read, thought provoking, lavish in what it gives the reader, a great gift from China Miéville to his readers. I think it's the best thing I've read so far this year.
Set on a human colony, on an alien planet, right at the end of everywhere, it is narrated by Avice, a cool-headed space sailor who has returned to show her new husband her very odd home world. The aliens whose world Avice was born on are very.. alien, something Miéville conveys well by not describing them. It's not just their physiology that is strange, or their technology of "biorigging", making buildings, machines, everything from live flesh. The oddest thing is their language - or as it is rendered, Language. It would be a shame, and spoil some of the careful revelation that Mieville uses to draw his reader in, to say much about how it is produced or what humans need to do to speak it, but one feature he makes clear from the start is that the natives of this planet - the Host - cannot lie. Their Language does not allow it. So when a cult of would-be liars springs up, it is a matter of concern, and the repercussions of this seem to be shaping up to the climax of the book - until Miéville deftly twists his plot and everything changes. The crisis we thought was coming is suddenly unimportant, and a much worse threat arises.
This is a compelling book, stuffed with vivid language, meaty concepts (the idea of "immer", a space-beyond-space, underlying the Universe and allowing navigation; the Hosts' technology; the colonial politics of Embassytown and its distant masters in Bremen; the strange society of the Ambassadors, those who can speak to the Hosts; the Hosts themselves; characters who are living similes - the Hosts cannot lie, their language can only refer to what is true, what has happened, so if they need a new figure of speech it has to be acted out, made concrete; the mysterious Lighthouses - enough in this new universe for a string of books). But the central concern is the nature and magic of language, of truth, of lies.
Avice herself can seem a rather distant, cold narrator. Only towards the end of the book does she drive the plot to any degree. In large part, this mirrors the split between the unknowable Hosts and the humans, or that between the human "commoners" and the privileged Ambassadors and their Staff. Avice is an outsider, looking in - as of course are we. This is, I think, is where the book shows some similarities with its immediate predecessors - I found echoes especially of The City & the City here (while Kraken has perhaps some analogues in the sheer exuberance of the Host and their world and there are even parallels with Un Lun Dun, both the way things fall apart and in the malignity of bureaucrats and rulers.
This is a beautiful book, not an easy read but easy to read, thought provoking, lavish in what it gives the reader, a great gift from China Miéville to his readers. I think it's the best thing I've read so far this year.
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This feels like the penultimate draft of what could have been a really good book, but it isn't quite 'there' yet. It's difficult to get into, and feels as if a couple of different attempts at starting the novel have been integrated, not wholly successfully, into what we have here. Is it going to be about immer? Is it going to be about the Festival of Lies? As ever, it's a hugely intelligent and interesting work, I just wish, in fact, that Mieville would write more slowly instead of producing a book a year as he is at the moment.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
In this book a world is created then torn apart. In this respect it reminded me a bit of Perdido Street Station, which I found more unnerving (terrifying, giant moths) and in the end more melancholy. The major difference is that Embassytown is a far more fragile settlement, it's a human settlement that relies entirely on the cooperation and technology of the native alien Hosts (Ariekes). The story is told entirely in first person by Avice Benner Cho, a woman from Embassytown who was one of few inhabitants to leave and go out to other planets. The first part alternates between present events and flashbacks so that Avice and the world she grew up in are introduced to the reader.
Once we are familiar with Embassytown and how it works -its links with the Host aliens, its bubble of breathable air, its upper class of Ambassadors (fully identical, linked, doppels/twins)- a paradigm shift happens and everything goes to pot. The society that was built up faces a major catastrophe and descends into desperation and barbarism and war. The book is about the people who carry on trying to keep things running in the face of likely destruction. It's about how there will still be factions and politicking even in the face of disaster.
Once we are familiar with Embassytown and how it works -its links with the Host aliens, its bubble of breathable air, its upper class of Ambassadors (fully identical, linked, doppels/twins)- a paradigm shift happens and everything goes to pot. The society that was built up faces a major catastrophe and descends into desperation and barbarism and war. The book is about the people who carry on trying to keep things running in the face of likely destruction. It's about how there will still be factions and politicking even in the face of disaster.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
"If I had to live my life again..."
Feel a bit like Woody Allen when thinking about this book - its something I could happily have done without but I have not so I am forced to address what I thought of it. Read more
Published 13 days ago by William K. James
Good idea, fair story, poorly written
This starts with a very good idea about a species with a unique language/method of communication.
It leads to a story that is quite good in parts but the writing itself is... Read more
It leads to a story that is quite good in parts but the writing itself is... Read more
Published 1 month ago by R. Harper
Not quite as smart as it thinks it is... but still good
Embassytown is based around a strong central concept, that of a race who cannot lie, and effectively explores what it would be like for such a civilisation to encounter humanity. Read more
Published 1 month ago by J. Whyte
Prepare to be challenged
Like all China Mieville books this one is full of unique ideas and characters. I have read all his previous books and I have not yet finished this one but I am hooked. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Flyboy
Pushing the boundaries of SF - again
Mieville gets more mature as a novelist by the book, in this genuinely innovative and somewhat mind-bending tome which merges textbook space-opera characters and an alien race who... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Madaxeman
Mieville returns to form
This is proper science fiction, a completley imagined universe with characters you care about and empathise with... not something the genre is known for. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kitsune
An unusual slice of science fiction
Embassytown by China Mieville is the first of his books I have read, and what a place to start. It is a science fiction story about space traveller Avice, who returns to her home... Read more
Published 2 months ago by R. A. Davison
also a love story
Others have provided excellent summaries of the book's content and themes; and there is little point in me going over the same ground. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Alichapp
Imaginative storyline - bit heavy going, but worth persevering
I read this book after seeing China Mieville at a recent event and thought his writing would be worth reading. The book's storyline is certainly imaginative and quite deep. Read more
Published 3 months ago by CHS
So much potential
To be honest I gave up reading this book about half way through, I know other reviewers have said the book picks up the pace a bit but to be honest I didn't actually care about any... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Rob
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