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Embassytown
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Embassytown
Unavailable
Embassytown
Audiobook12 hours

Embassytown

Written by China Miéville

Narrated by Susan Duerden

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

China Miéville doesn't follow trends, he sets them. Relentlessly pushing his own boundaries as a writer-and in the process expanding the boundaries of the entire field-with Embassytown, Miéville has crafted an extraordinary novel that is not only a moving personal drama but a gripping adventure of alien contact and war.

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.


From the Hardcover edition.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateMay 17, 2011
ISBN9780307913807
Unavailable
Embassytown
Author

China Miéville

China Miéville is the multi-award-winning author of many works of fiction and non-fiction. His fiction includes The City and the City, Embassytown and This Census-Taker. He has won the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Arthur C. Clarke awards. His non-fiction includes the photo-illustrated essay London’s Overthrow, Between Equal Rights, a study of international law, and the narrative history of the Russian Revolution, October. He has written for various publications, including the New York Times, Guardian, Conjunctions and Granta, and he is a founding editor of Salvage.

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Reviews for Embassytown

Rating: 3.9075047780126853 out of 5 stars
4/5

946 ratings138 reviews

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    For a while I was tempted to give up listening to it and get the text version because it was so fascinating, but I was tired and kept falling asleep at night. In the end I'm glad I stuck with it - Language is unique enough to add another dimension when spoken aloud.

    Avice is a woman who has grown up on a strange backwater colony that has designed itself and some of its denizens to communicate with the locals in a language like no other. She was once drafted as a simile, but made it out as a space-farer. She returns partly for nostalgia and partly to please an academic husband who is fascinated by her past.

    My immersion in this world was tinged with dread because I know that Mieville is hard on his characters, and he is here too. A new kind of Ambassador has disembarked with Avice to throw a wrenching spanner into the lives off all beings on the planet.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Amazing book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Like Mieville's The City and the City, the world building in Embassytown blew me away. It was a bit hard to follow as an audiobook because the world was complex and there was no exposition, but I loved how the author slowly revealed the world as the plot unfolded. The plot itself took a bit of a backseat (inevitable, perhaps, with world building this good) . I was interested in finding out what happened, but I was far less engaged towards the more action-packed ending than I was at the beginning, when I couldn't wait to piece together more about the world the author created.

    Also like The City and the City, Mieville doesn't do much explaining of why things are the way they are, but in this case, that was a good thing. The alien race he creates seems to be in some ways beyond human comprehension and I love that. Even alien races who aren't described as being humanoid so often act like people. In reality, I think aliens would be more likely to resemble the ciphers Mieville creates. I liked the focus on the power of language in the story, which was strengthened by the author's incredible use of language to tell the story. I thought he invented believable slang and wrote amazing, vivid descriptions by using words in very unique ways. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone looking for an action-packed plot, but would highly recommend it (as a physical book especially) to anyone looking for beautiful writing and superb world building.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The premise: ganked from publisher's website: 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.My Rating: 4 - Problematic but PromisingIf you've not read China Miéville before, then for the love of everything pure and good, DO NOT START HERE. Instead, grab yourself a copy of Perdido Street Station and all will be good (for the record, this and PSS are the only two Miéville I've read). If I hadn't read this author before, I think I would've been utterly and completely lost. For a book about language and how it works and why it works (and with Miéville trying his damnedest to create an alien Language that's truly alien), it's not an easy book to read by any means, and I think Miéville's syntax could've been a little bit cleaner at times. That said, most all of the ideas propelling this book are fascinating, if you have the patience enough to GET to those ideas in the first place. Patience is the key, and I wouldn't think less of a reader who doesn't have said patience here. I don't believe this is Miéville's best, but I'm glad I got to read his take on the SF genre, because it was interesting on different levels, just not all the time. The book does sag at inopportune parts (like the beginning, close to the end) and that makes continuing very difficult. But for the dedicated fan of his work, there is something of merit to be found in these pages. But dedication is necessary. I'm hoping that The City & The City, which is still sitting on my shelf, will be a much better and stronger read. :)Spoilers, yay or nay?: Honestly, this isn't the kind of book you can spoil, in that if I reveal the ending, it won't effect your reading one way or the other. So I may spoil some things when I talk about this book, but trust me when I say it won't matter. This is China Miéville, not Chuck Palahniuk, you know? However, if you're paranoid and want to stay purely surprised, do not read the full review below. But as always, comments and discussion are most welcome!REVIEW: China Miéville's EMBASSYTOWNHappy Reading!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    A mind bending exploration of linguistics and science fiction.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    3.5/5 starsThis was a really interesting exploration of language, aliens, and our understanding of another culture once contact has occurred. I really enjoyed this exploration and the writing style. The narrator did a great job with this as well. Her tone was perfect for this novel.The world building was very intricate and interesting. I liked how we were introduced to Hosts, and Arieka, and how the humans came to be on this planet. The concept of Language was really cool as well. I enjoyed having Avice as our main character and hearing the story from her perspective, because she was outside of the events, yet very much inside them as well.Overall, this was a very clever novel, it definitely made me think. I did find the audiobook hard to follow and pay attention to at times, but it was quite well done.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Would have been higher but a really slow difficult book to read.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Amazing world-building and examination of the importance of language.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Mieville's novel is one of those prime examples of how genre fiction can be Literature proper. The worldbuilding here is phenomenal, making us think about the very nature of language and communication in ways that fiction has rarely tackled. You can tell the Mieville has a philosophy background. That said, his characters veer towards flat. Avice, our protagonist, has all of her significant relationships with men grounded in the event, eventual or immediate, of them going to bed together. With more charater depth, we'd have a classic on our hands, alas ...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Good but not great. Doesn't have the drive and drama of the Perdido Street Station. It also doesn't have some of the flaws of the New Crobuzon stuff (over-reliance on the word puissant, for example).
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    AMAZE
    _______
    BALLS
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    There was a lot of bizarre, chaotic and intriguing world building in this book, but too little plot. It was all too strange for me. "I don't want to be a simile anymore, I want to be a metaphor." This book is all about languages and those without language. I listened to the audiobook, which introduced a whole new type of weird. One of the languages is spoken by having two people speak different words simultaneously. Having these words (nonsense syllables to me) spoken in stereo in my headphones was a unique listening experience. I'll read more by this author, but this book is not going to be a favorite.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This one was awesome. I started it months ago and then set it down because the first few chapters felt indecipherable. I'm glad that I picked it back up though, because once I powered through the beginning with its alien setting and language, the present-day story about Language started, and suddenly I found myself awake far too late at night dying to know what was going to happen next. Fabulous stuff.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I’ve always thought of Mieville as more of a fantasy writer- not a fluffy unicorn type one, of course, grittier than that- than an SF one, so Embassytown was a surprise. Okay, every Mieville book is a surprise. But this one had a lot of the trappings of classic science fiction- space freighters that pass through a weird sort of dimension- the immer- to travel huge distances in relatively short time; an empire of sorts that colonizes worlds; non-humanoid aliens. The planet that the story takes place on has natives that speak a language with two mouths saying separate things at the same time and a biotech that does everything- everything is grown, from houses to transport. Even batteries are little animals. But the first person protagonist is human. Avice Benner Cho, born on the planet, is an Immerser, a person with the talent of guiding a freighter through the immer. She couldn’t wait to leave the planet, but now she’s home and she’s brought her husband, a student of language, who has become fascinated with the Ariekei and their language. While there is a plot that involves scheming ambassadors and the empire, the novel really revolves around the natives and their language. Most humans can learn to understand the Ariekei language, but one person can only ever speak half of it. And having two random people speak the two halves of the language doesn’t work. It turns out that only genetically engineered identical twins, who not only walk alike and talk alike but think alike and have special links implanted in their brains, can actually be heard by the Ariekei as speaking. And the Ariekei- usually known as the Hosts-, despite their advanced civilization, have restrictions in their language. They can’t lie. They have trouble with new concepts. There are things they really can’t talk about- almost, it seems, can’t think about. But there are some who push the envelope, who devise new figures of speech. These forward thinks create and work with similes (Avice herself was made into a simile by them), have lying contests. These folks are trouble. They reminded me very much of rebellious, avant garde students at a college. When they, along with plotters of multiple factions all collide- with Avice finding herself at the center of them- it looks like Ariekei is doomed. Can the the Hosts, the planet, the humans and exoterres living on the planet, be saved? While the story is a wonderful, multiply textured adventure, it goes deeper than that. It explores the colonial attitude of humans, and how language develops and shapes and is shaped by its speakers. But it doesn’t preach or go technical; the story just shows us how it works for these characters in their world. The world building is marvelous. The story is slow at times- the beginning seems superfluous but it really isn’t – but those slow times are spent explaining the world to us. The characters are a bit lacking; none of them, even Avice, have much depth. We really never know what drives any of them. But in a way, this seems to fit with what I remember of old school science fiction- I don’t really remember much of it being character driven or spending a great deal of time explaining characters emotions. While not my favorite Mieville (Un Lun Dun holds that title), it’s a solid second.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    He has created real characters with plausible motives moving thru a world ,thought provoking speculations about language and I want to go there and see .
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Fantastic narrator, amazing story. CM's world building is really unique and thoughtful. I loved it!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    For anyone who believes there isn't anything new to do with science fiction -- this book with challenge and excite you. Okay I'm going to listen again now.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This author is a master of envisioning. He made an alien race that needed to say and hear a communication in two voices at once... only understanding at a certain pitch.it took a while to envision what mieveville was trying to illustrate, but eventually I had an idea.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book makes me wish that I still worked in a book store or belonged to a book group because I would really like to discuss it with others.
    It is thought provoking, difficult, controversial, and complex. I could only read @ a chapter at a sitting because the writing required processing time. The book is all about language and its importance and about perception. Do not read this if you are looking for an easy fun read. Read it if you want to stretch yourself. I'm going to percolate on it and reread in the future. I give it 4 stars because of originality and because it is really well written.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Started reading this with my wife, but we were both getting lost. Picked it up again by myself and though it was a little slow going for a while, I loved it by the end. To me this is what "real" sci-fi is about, worlds/aliens that have completely different ways of doing things. Not just green guys with laser guns who act like humans.I'm a huge Mieville fan, but sometimes his stuff is just too far out there for me. He almost always seems to be breaking new ground and whenever an author does that he's taking a risk that it just won't work for readers.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I just can't get comfortable with Mieville's writing because I am so often unsure of what he's saying. He has a wonderful gift for seeing complex societies, that's for sure, but I can't hold it all well enough to enjoy it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    a complex SF novel
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wow! That was a ride. It took me many weeks to read Embassytown and I think it was worth it. In a very far future in another galaxy humans have colonized a remote planet with sentient, advanced indigenous life. Communication is only possible through genetically and technologically altered dual-human "Ambassadors." But shit hits the fan and there's a falling out. Havoc ensues and threatens both lifeforms. An Embassytown native, Avice, is visiting after a long absence and attempts to save her town. The first half is very difficult to read. There are so many imagined things, places, words, etc. and the author doesn't provide a glossary or any explanation. You just learn the language through context as you proceed through the novel. Ironic, possibly intentional, since language and communication are clear themes. I also see a strong commentary on colonization and assimilation. The last half of the book moves along and the plot thickens. Overall I'm glad I finished it. It would be wrong to blow through a book like this is a few days. Better to immerse yourself in the imagined world.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Essentially, I think China Mieville does a great job at making things seem alien. This novel, like many of his that I've read, mostly takes place in an environment (far future planet/universe) that you only gradually come to understand. The novel is told from the main character's perspective. One thing I really liked was that she (the main character) had a pretty laissez faire attitude. She even had a word for it, she called it floaking. Drifting through life and doing enough to be useful, but avoiding responsibility and hard work as much as possible.

    I liked this book very much.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    What an interesting book. The ideas it explores were completely unexpected going into it. It is really an exploration of language v communication in a very literal but still meta way. It's a truly unique story told by a master. It's not my favorite of his, but it's so much better than a lot of books out there.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My first run-in with China Miéville and I'm pretty sure it won't be the last. This is a thrilling story of the power of language and a different look at first encounter (although the story is set well after the actual physical encounter.) The first part is all getting to know a well thought out future world, while learning of the upcoming conflict. While there are heroes and villains and conflict present, this is not space opera. There are no epic space battles or huge galactic civilizations clashing. I still found it remarkably exciting. Well worth the time.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Very dense, but worth wading through. One of the most original conceptions of extraterrestrial life I've ever encountered. Mieville also knows his linguistics, which makes the novel even more compelling.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    on sentience, language, and being/becoming: this is a real departure for Mieville, a kind of far future First Contact story, grounded in current theories of language. it's basically anthropological sf in form, and the first half of the book got me very excited, because i was thinking, yes! finally a clear successor to LeGuin (who on the cover calls it a "fully achieved work of art"), and building on her work at the top of her game, which is no small praise. it questions the roots of language, the relationship between consciousness and language, many of the underlying causes of things that matter. but then i encountered a problem there, which i think was maybe personal to me, which is that all those postmodern language theorists? i just don't find them persuasive; so as Mieville plays out their arguments to their logical conclusions here i became progressively less persuaded by his story. anyway, my issue aside, this book is seminal and powerful in a way that we don't much see in sf at the moment, and so it's an important book in the evolution of the genre, and not to be missed.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Everything about this book makes me jizz my pants. It's about aliens and it is about language. Amazing. When I first started reading, though, some of it was hard to grasp because it jumped right into using alien world terminology. I'll do my best to explain the important/cool stuff about this book. Would it be easier to copy and paste the publisher's description? Entirely. But I like a challenge. And confusing people.

    The main character is Avice Benner Cho, a traveler who eventually returns to her home planet, Arieka, right before a revolution. On this planet, humans and the indigenous Ariekei, or "Hosts", live more or less together. What's interesting about the Ariekei is just how alien they are physically and linguistically. They communicate through what is called Language. Each Host has two mouths that say different sounds at the same time to construct words. The humans figured this out, but when they took two people trying to reconstruct the language, the Hosts didn't even register that anyone was talking. Then they tried making a computer speak in Language. Still nothing, because what the Hosts need behind Language is sentience. Without a single mind behind the voices, the words are just noise. In order to communicate with the Hosts, the humans have to take twins at birth and raise them as one person, linking their minds together. They become ambassadors, whose sole job is to communicate with the Ariekei.

    Another interesting thing about the Language and minds of the Ariekei is that they speak in similes referring to actual events and they cannot lie. That's what links Avice so strongly to these creatures. When she was younger, the Hosts turned her into a simile. She became a part of Language.

    Got all that?

    I don't want to say much more about the plot. A lot happens, all of it very fascinating and surprising. Maybe it's just me who does this, but I did what I could to prolong my reading of this book. I just did not want to leave the world the Mieville had created. It's so wildly original, and although I'm not used to hard sci-fi and it took me a while to get used to the world's terminology, it was well worth the time spent. Sometimes Mieville does some jumps back and forth in the plot, but I was able to stay interested in the story.

    Mieville said, "if you are a writer who happens to be a human, I think it's definitionally beyond your ken to describe something truly inhuman, psychologically, something alien." He has a point, but I think he came incredibly close to creating something completely new, and a new favorite book of mine.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I really liked this book by the end but I only want to give 3 and a half stars because the first half of this book simply frustrated the hell out of me.