Embassytown [Anglais] [Relié]

I'm not actually a China Mieville fan. The entire "New Weird" genre just sort of confuses me, and I'm rarely impressed (to be fair, he's a fantastic writer). "Un Lun Dun" and "Kraken", particularly, didn't really leave favorable impressions. Still, I did love "King Rat" and "Perdido Street Station", and his other books were enjoyable. Also, it's stupid to not read anything else by a prolific author simply because two books weren't your thing. Add to that the fact that "Embassytown" is, at least superficially, hard-core science fiction...well, it was enough for me to take the plunge.

"Embassytown" is told through the eyes of Immerser Avice Benner Cho. She first chronicles her childhood on the planet Ariekei, giving us glimpses of Mieville's multi-layered world: most children don't grow up with their birth parents. They live in communal homes with multiple parents (much like counselors.) Humans share their world with "exots"--aliens (exoterres). But this isn't some two-dimensional Star Wars or silly Futurama-type melting pot. Exots are screened. With one important exception, exots can only settle on Ariekei if their sociologic and, to an extent, genetic makeup (they must have language, move comfortably in a human-run world, have similar thought processes, et cetera) is similar enough to allow integration with humans.

Humans do not own Ariekei, however. We are settlers, only living on the planet because beings known only as Hosts permit us to.

The Hosts protect themselves. While benevolent, especially toward children, they have a part of the planet only they can enter; humans can't breathe in their area. They circumvent the human similarity, as well (it's their planet, after all.) They speak a language only genetically engineered linguists can comprehend (these people are called Ambassadors.) They are not at all humanoid in appearance; they do not communicate like humans; and their sociologic match-up is questionable at the very best.

However, the human and exot population of Ariekei long struck a balance. They are always problems, but Embassytown is an almost disturbingly cordial society. The Hosts do their best for Ariekei, and the Ambassadors keep the peace and essentially run the society.

But when a new Ambassador arrives, the entire balance is thrown into jeopardy.

Now, the writing in "Embassytown" is fantastic. It does start slowly. There are pages and pages of childhood memories, but that serves two purposes: extensive, and subtle, world-building; and an understanding of a narrator who often takes a back seat to the story to follow.

The writing is lyrical and descriptive. During its leaner moments, Mieville recalls Ray Bradbury (which is only a plus as far as I'm concerned.) Some readers will probably describe it as "long-winded", but I think it matches the story perfectly. The narrative doesn't stop or bog itself down. There is simply a lot to tell, and Mieville tells it all.

The characters weren't as deep as I prefer. But again, this matches the story. While a rather bleak, hard-core science fiction novel, the crux of "Embassytown" is the beauty and power of language. It wasn't a parable, but the theme overtook the plot. At the same time, it doesn't wham you over the head. You're not having "language is a beautiful thing" screamed at you from every page. It is subtle. The story doesn't have a weak spot, and it doesn't stop. I think one of Mieville's greatest achievements is this flawless weaving of a theme and moral into the fabric of a novel.

This novel is, I thought, bleak, if far, far from hopeless. While it starts off comfortably as Avice describes her childhood, "Embassytown" swiftly darkens.

I'll be honest. This is my favorite of China Mieville's books. It is traditional science fiction infused with enough originality to make it unqiue. It carries a theme that is actually very dear to my heart. The writing is Mieville at his best, and the story itself is very different. I can already tell it isn't to everyone's taste, but I adored it, and eagerly suggest you give it a try.

China Miéville's fertile imagination has always explored the interstices of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but this, his eighth novel, is more strongly tilted toward science fiction than its predecessors. On a planet dominated by aliens whose unique language demands a uniquely specialized form of communication, the isolated human community of Embassytown lives a life of benign neglect, having only occasional contact with the society of which it's a nominal colony and the natives on whom its livelihood depends. When that harmony is shattered by an impossible arrival and an unexpected discovery, Avice Benner Cho, positioned by fate at the nexus of several conflicting agendas, finds herself caught up in the tragic, violent birth of a new order.

Miéville uses theoretical questions about the nature of language as a jumping-off point, but doesn't explore them in any rigorous way; this is not so much a novel of ideas as of images. As ever, the author excels at portraying an urban existence that's alien and yet based in universal aspects of city life. Embassytown is first seen through a child's eyes, as flashbacks detail Avice's early years, the games and myths that spring up in the lives of children surrounded by strangers, whether those strangers belong to a different ethnic group or a different species. No awkward exposition blunts the mystery of Avice's city, and readers not familiar with the immersive quality of novels like this one may find themselves lost. But before too much time passes, Miéville weaves seemingly-disparate threads together into a deeply satisfying moment of revelation. At that point, the novel truly takes off.

In its first half, chapters detailing Avice's complicated history with the different powers of Embassytown alternate with ones set on the evening when everything changes. These overlapping sections are perfectly paced, revealing narrative secrets at a rate that prevents the reader from becoming bored with either plotline or losing sight of the big picture. The science fiction notions that emerge are not particularly novel, but there are enough of them that the combination remains distinctive, and Miéville describes these familiar ideas with flair, finding the awe and terror in what might otherwise be clinical concepts, especially in the later sections, where the flashbacks end and the particular nature of the novel's aliens leads to a truly horrific outbreak of chaos.

The characters of Embassytown often lack individual depth; their histories are unexplored and their motivations treated as unknown and possibly unknowable, while Avice's laconic voice conceals personality rather than revealing it. Frustrating though it can be, this distance lends them a certain strange grandeur, the counter-intuitive dignity of minimalist fiction, and its shortcomings are offset by Miéville's rich rendering of the different factions at work in the life of any city. It's not as simple as humans vs. aliens, colonists vs. homeworlders, or any such binary. Feuds and clashing ideologies of which even the well-connected Avice can have only the dimmest idea drive competing factions, creating an impression of greater complexity than a three hundred fifty-page novel can offer, and there are no easy answers about which groups and actions are morally justified. Likewise, Miéville's robust world-building makes Embassytown feel like a real place, one whose dark nooks and crannies can only be glimpsed on a single visit.

Wars are fought not to preserve the past but to define the future. Miéville understands this, and his novel captures the compromised, compromising life of a city in transition. In spite of the cruelty, fear, loss, and destruction that it describes, Embassytown is first and foremost a portrait of strength and survival, of the adaptations demanded by hardship and the price they bring with them. And, for all its futuristic wonders, it is ultimately a novel about how communication between different cultures produces changes on all sides, and therefore remarkably contemporary. Embassytown excels both as gripping, imaginative science fiction and as a carefully thought out meditation on the nature of cities.

I read science fiction to be entertained and to stretch my understanding of ideas I might never otherwise consider. Embassytown gave me a huge dose of both. China Mieville wrote a stimulating, entertaining story of the importance of language. He did that by introducing an alien culture totally out of sync with the way in which human beings communicate - even though both species communicate through sound.

The protagonist, Avice, grew up in the one human town - Embassytown - on the alien's planet. The town was an outpost of a human-dominated world and not a large place to live. Mieville does a good job of grounding the reader in the culture of the synergy between humans and aliens by allowing Avice to tell certain important parts of her childhood.

The story begins in a time of rapid and traumatic change that threatens to destroy the aliens' world and Embassytown. The snowballing events pressure breakthroughs that offer changes as devastating as the ones at the beginning of the story.

I had two problems with the advanced proofs that I received for review. (The book is due to be released in May.) First, about 50-to-75 pages near the center of the book slowed down to the point of slogging through mud. (Mieville spends too many pages getting through the times when any action is taking place out of Avice's sight.) Second, one of the subplots that seemed to be important several times in the book - Avice's relationship with Ehrsul - ended strangely, even for sci-fi. Those are the only reasons that I rated the book with four stars instead of five.

With all truly well written science fiction stories, the first reading is for orientation to a new world and to make the paradigm shifts necessary to understanding the plot. The second reading brings out the nuances and the delights of finding all the subtleties the author includes in the book. Embassytown passed the first-reading test with high marks. I anticipate that Embassytown will carry me through the second reading with equal aplomb.

I highly recommend Embassytown.