It had that great sense of disorientation that I love about the authors other books. Dropping you in over your head in a new and highly creative premise and letting the reader figure out how to swim. I love that. But somewhere in the middle things lose momentum and urgency and it gets a little bit stalled out. I found myself more willing for it to move toward a resolution rather than relishing its particular twists and turns. It wasn't devoid of good twists, but none of them felt as revelatory as in some of his previous work. This has been on my shelf for ages, finally got to it. I confess I did not love it as much as I hoped I would. Mixed feelings about Mieville. Felt that The Scar and whichever one came after it were more travelogues than novels. FANTASTIC worldbuilding, but it seemed that he got carried away with that and forgot about stories and characters. I loved The City & The City. Embassytown had a good premise and interesting characters, but this one actually lacked world building. Very little sense of the planet, for instance. I'm not sure the interesting frame on language/thought/cultural resilience was profound enough to carry a book. A more condensed novella might have been a better format. Lots of characters developed and then... nothing, like Ehrsul, the AI. What was the point of her? And the narrator was so muted that I didn't actually feel that much tension re Scile and CalVin, etc. However, I totally owe Mieville for this line: "I never understood the injunction against regret, couldn't see how it wasn't cowardice..."
What do You think about Embassytown (2011)?
I like my sci-fi anthropological, and you can tell that China majored in anthro at Cambridge.
—squirrelirium
"Embassytown" is AMAZING but a tough read unless you're into language. - Shawna
—chii
great setup, great setting... then trails off a bit at the end.
—Sikoramike
