China mieville embassytown review5/22/2023 ![]() ![]() The Ariekei (also known as ‘Hosts’) speak Language – yes, that’s language with a capital ‘L’, because it’s unlike any other in the universe. There’s only one Embassy in town, and its function is communication with the Ariekei, the large insectoid aliens of the planet. In the novel, Embassytown is a relatively small, parochial town on the planet Arieka, at the very edge of the known universe. His space opera is less about exploring the universe than about using the possibilities of an infinite universe to explore ideas about language and communication. ![]() Not that Miéville ever disappoints in that department. It’s wonderful then, to read a novel like Embassytown, proving that sf can still push the limits. Sf might be the genre of ideas, but many of those once outlandish things have become tropes of the genre, as common and clichéd as love triangles or dark and stormy nights. And oh, what a beautiful piece of science fiction it is – elegant, cerebral, audacious. ![]() Embassytown (2011) is his experiment in science fiction, and more specifically, in space opera. Source: Copy received from publisher for reviewĬhina Miéville said that he wanted to write a book in every genre. ![]()
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