China Miéville

Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist on a distant planet populated by the Ariekei, sentient beings famed for their unique language, returns to Embassytown after many years of deep space exploration to find she has become a living simile in the Ariekei language even though she cannot speak it, and she is torn by competing loyalties when hostilities erupt between humans and aliens.

Embassytown

Very smart and original sci-fi. Philosophic yet suspenseful. Well-written.

Frederik De Bosschere

I liked that the book had some creative elements that were really out of the norm. The disconcerting thing was how the story was presented, at times intentionally absconding with detail to drag it out. I liked the idea of Language and interfacing with other creatures, but the book could have steered away from being so unclear to being more clear. I'll fondly remember the phrase Jesus Christ Pharotekton though! Overall it was a slog to read and took quite a while to develop a meaningful narrative.

BC Hark

Nora 

One of those books that you really want to savor, let yourself absorb as much of Mieville's amazing wording. Its more than just the biolingustic process that he explores (Chomsky would be proud), but it is the his own language that is so skillfully used throughout the book. We often talk about world-building in SF books, but imagine language building, something the Mieville executes brillantly. He brings in other brillant themes that parallel current global development issues and there relationship to prior colonization. If I could have a quarter of Mievilles linguistic abilities I would feel pretty content.

Embassytown

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