Embassytown is a breakneck tale of suspense about weird philosophy and a deeply alien culture . It ’s disturbing and beautiful by turn . And yes – China Miéville ’s unexampled novel is one of his best .
Spoilers forward …
Embassytown is a engrossing stumble through a freak - haunt subspace called the immer , and down into a tiny human ghetto called Embassytown on a major planet call Areika , whose alien habitant can not realise any language but their own . Embassytown , where our hero sandwich Avice grow up , is a tiny region in the middle of a vast , biotechnological Areikene city , where mostly human immigrant live . They trade in with the Arekei locals , mostly for their improbably sophisticated “ biorigging , ” fundamentally live factories and technologies that no other intelligent species is able to duplicate . But the satellite seat at the border of known subspace , in a peculiarly stormy part of the immer , so it ’s a form of backwater wonderland .
Avice does n’t quite realize how much of a wonderland it is until she becomes an immerser – an immer pilot -and gather her husband Scile , a polyglot who is enamour by the completely singular property of Areikene language , know only as chapiter - 50 Language . Unlike every other mintage with speech communication , the Areikei do n’t distinguish between linguistic process and reality . To them , Language is n’t symbolic – it is one with the things it describes . For this rationality , they have no writing ( too symbolical ) and ca n’t consist ( that would be describing something that is n’t ) . Also , they can only understand Language when it is spoken by a biologic entity with idea behind it – because after all , Language , thinking and reality are one . They ca n’t understand Language synthesize by computers , which is a great problem since no single human can pronounce Language . The Ariekei , you see , have two mouths .
Scile sweep Avice back to her old rest home , hop to become the first linguist to really empathize the Ariekei . The only way humans have been capable to dress up relations with the fauna – who look just like something out of HP Lovecraft , cover in eyestalks , wings , and walk on hooves – is by bioengineering human clones , attached via biotech implants , who are able to simulate being a unmarried mind with two mouth . These double humans are called Ambassadors , and they negotiate every dealing between human and Ariekei .
Once the two of them get to Embassytown , we lead off to learn more about the political economy of the major planet – and how it gibe into the broader human exponent called Bremen which controls many local planets . The marvels of the biological city that Miéville describes are no more or less unbelievable than the thought experiment he deal with the Arkeikei – creatures for whom there is no division between symbolic representation and referent , for whom Christian Bible is thought . As we plunge with Avice into the complicated politics of Embassytown , Miéville ratchet up the suspense – and the whimsy .
We visit a “ Festival of Lies , ” where Ambassadors nurse the aliens by lie ( they are endlessly awed that somebody could call a red bulb green ) , and the Ariekei endeavor to do it themselves . We also find that the Ariekei use humans to create similes so that they can talk in a near - symbolic way . Avice herself is one of their most democratic similes , and the many substance she ’s transform into become integral to the story .
Embassytown need what would happen if the human penchant for symbolism were to infect the Ariekei , and the result is truly incredible . There ’s a variety of delightfully dark inventiveness here that showcases a author at the altitude of his originative powers . Every young revelation is both a terrific plot twist and a thought experiment you ’ll want to linger over and ponder for week to come . When a foreign Ambassador arrives in Embassytown , a non - cloned pair created by a young sort of technical link , their words have an unexpected and horrific effect on the Ariekei . And the city go to war with itself – a war over language .
I can not emphasize enough how terrific this novel is . It ’s definitely one of the best books I ’ve read in the past year , perfectly balanced between escapism and otherworldly philosophizing . If there ’s any flaw here it ’s in Avice ’s case , who pulls us through the tarradiddle at a breakneck pace but never seems to have any motif of her own other than to calculate out what her married man and lovers are up to . But by the end , she does have a motive , which is to save Embassytown and the Ariekei from state of war , using the power of symbolical thought .
If you are fascinated by report of genuinely exotic cultures , you need to read Embassytown ( it comes out in May ) . And if you ’re a fan of China Miéville , generator of The City & The City and Kraken , you ’re in for a delicacy : This is his first pure skill fable novel .
book reviewBooksChina Mieville
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