Embassytown

I liked it a lot - thought the linguistic concepts were solid and Mieville's usual surreal world-building was its usual mind-bending cacophony of weird - although in this book I found that the sheer quantity of weird distracted from the plot - which I think is the main weakness of the book. I felt the plot suffered at the hands of the world-building and overall concept of the book. Mieville was so focused on the Idea here that he didn't construct a super-solid "what happens." In addition, the main character - Avice - is just...kind of a cipher, and she never really solidifies. Still, a very worthwhile read, if not just for the intriguing linguistic concepts.
 
I'm really slogging through "Embassytown" right now. It's a tough read when you're tired at the end of the working day and want something a bit less intense. Nevertheless, I am a fan of Mieville's work and I will keep slogging through... hopefully things will pick up in the second half of the book.
 
it's my favourite book of his - as a meditation on cognition and language but also culture and unspoken expectations it is really quite brilliant. I can see that some people would see it as a little slow to open but really for me he's exploring something quite amazing in an accessible way. I thought his use of the MC was as a cipher for building out his sense of how language builds the person and in that sense she grew along with my own understanding of what the hosts actually were. A thoughtful and quite brilliant piece. In some senses it foreshadows the recent film, Arrival, which is also a firm favourite of mine.
 
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