Jorgen reviewed Embassytown by China Miéville
i dont think i got it 10/10
5 stars
you heard me
345 pages
English language
Published April 16, 2011 by Ballantine Books.
Embassytown
4 stars
(10 reviews)
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 yet speaks through her.
speljamr reviewed Embassytown by China Miéville
Review of 'Embassytown' on 'Storygraph'
4 stars
Language is everywhere, it infects everything about who we are. China Miéville holds nothing back as he sets out to explore this topic in what is his first full length novel within a science fiction setting; and he achieves it with spectacular grace.
Miéville has never been an average author, he creates images and scenes unlike anything I've read from other sci-fi/fantasy authors; he is truly unique. Here he creates a world on the edge of the known universe, where there are beings who's speech is different from anything man has ever encountered in his exploration of space. And what that speech means to them, and how it can effect them is at the heart of this plot.
If you've never read any of Miéville's books, this may not be the one you want to start with, but it is worth the effort once you start it. Linguists will probably …
Language is everywhere, it infects everything about who we are. China Miéville holds nothing back as he sets out to explore this topic in what is his first full length novel within a science fiction setting; and he achieves it with spectacular grace.
Miéville has never been an average author, he creates images and scenes unlike anything I've read from other sci-fi/fantasy authors; he is truly unique. Here he creates a world on the edge of the known universe, where there are beings who's speech is different from anything man has ever encountered in his exploration of space. And what that speech means to them, and how it can effect them is at the heart of this plot.
If you've never read any of Miéville's books, this may not be the one you want to start with, but it is worth the effort once you start it. Linguists will probably get the most out of the explorations this book invites. The book is as intoxicating as language is to the Hosts and I had a difficult time putting it down.
Dan D reviewed Embassytown by China Miéville
Review of 'Embassytown' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Good ideas middlingly executed
Subjects
- Fiction
- Space warfare
- Human-alien encounters
- Loyalty
- Life on other planets