Review
I have a confession to make. I am in love with China Miéville's brain. I think his writing is brilliant, unique, and thought-provoking to the millionth degree. He treats the English language as his tool, his toy, and his landscape, and
Embassytown is a perfect example of how much he can accomplish in one book.
Avice Benner Cho grows up in a world where humans barely have an outpost, and the native population can barely communicate with them. The Ariekei's nature and language are such that it takes humans more than a century to be able to speak with them, though understanding is still limited. And while on one level this story is like a Star Trek Prime Directive fiasco (and worse than anything Kirk or Picard had to deal with), the science fiction adventure element is merely the surface. Miéville creates a world in which the characters play out the parts...
Beyond the Book
China Miéville (pronounced mee-AY-vill) has taken the science fiction world by storm in his relatively short tenure as a published author. He is the winner of three Arthur C. Clarke awards, two British Fantasy Awards, four Locus Awards, a Hugo Award, and a World Fantasy Award - not to mention he's received numerous nominations for every major science fiction and fantasy award possible, including the Bram Stoker and International Horror Guild awards. His first novel,
King Rat, was published in 1998. That's a lot of attention in 12 years.
Though reviewers often speak of how he 'transcends the genre,' Miéville sees no shame in writing within the bounds of traditional science fiction. In a July 2010 interview in the
New York Times, he stated...
