Embassytown
Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe. Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, Humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie. Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes. Catastrophe looms. Avice knows the only hope is for her to speak directly to the alien Hosts. And that is impossible.
Stats for nerds
14recommend
28mentions
24people
2011–2024years
57% recommend32% neutral11% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Embassytown, also by China Miéville, is traditional sci-fi and really good as well.
- Definitely read Embassytown by China Mieville. I'll second the Cixin Liu rec (though his series is divisive), and also recommend Philip K Dick.
- It's a big category.
In the last year, two of my favorite reads were Children Of Time and it's sequels (Adrian Tchaikovsky) and Embassytown (China Mieville). I also really enjoyed reading the Lilith's Brood series (Octavia Butler). All three of these present a more nuanced look at humanity's interaction with alien intelligence
- Embassytown by China Mieville. Great world-building and thought provoking. Humanity has created an embassy on a planet of giant mantis-like aliens who have a unique perspective on language. Their language is tied to their thoughts in a way where they cannot think anything that cannot be directly expressed in Language, and are unable to lie. There is no barrier between thought and word. To the point where they will orchestrate events deliberately to add to their own vocabulary of thought. Crazy.
- People generally mention Snowcrash when Bicameral Mind is mentioned, for a good reason - they explore bicameralism in humans and computers. Not usually mentioned is China Mieville who wrote Embassytown where an alien species with literally two heads that speak independently in similes evolve to use metaphor.
- I'd highly recommend Embassytown. The interpreter has to deal with a species that has two heads that communicate seemingly independently - bicameral mind indeed!
