Embassytown
China Mi%C3%A9ville. Del Rey, $25 (368p) ISBN 978-0-345-52449-2
Miéville (Kraken) adds to the sparse canon of linguistic SF with this deeply detailed story of the ways an alien language might affect not only thought patterns but ways of life. Avice Benner Cho returns to her backwater colony home of Embassytown so her linguist husband, Scile, can study the almost empathic, in-the-present language of the planet's natives, the Hosts. When a Host learns to lie, the resulting massive cultural earthquake in Host society is compounded by two new Ambassadors whose voices have a profound physiological effect on the Hosts. Miéville's brilliant storytelling shines most when Avice works through problems and solutions that develop from the Hosts' unique and convoluted linguistic evolution, and many of the most intriguing characters are the Hosts themselves. The result is a world masterfully wrecked and rebuilt. (May)
Details
Reviewed on: 03/21/2011
Release date: 05/01/2011
Genre: Fiction
Hardcover - 251 pages - 9780345524515
Paperback - 432 pages - 9780230754317
Other - 400 pages - 9780230760417
Paperback - 345 pages - 9780345524508
Hardcover - 350 pages - 9781596064102
Hardcover - 345 pages - 9780345524492
Audio book sample courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio