Embassytown
Just finished China Miéville's Embassytown. Oh China, China, you are such a frustrating writer!
To start off - Embassytown is much better than Miéville's last novel, Kraken, which was China-by-numbers and read like an old second draft dusted down, polished up and sent to the press. That it's not as good as The City And The City is no surprise. That novel was so absolutely right - a brilliant idea beautifully realised - that I wonder if Miéville will ever top it.
Embassytown starts very well. It reads like a homage to 70's Le Guin, Tiptree or Wolfe, with a bit of Cordwainer Smith thrown in. (Le Guin has written a very positive review - you can find it here). The world-building is immaculate and entertaining if occasionally a little overdone. The natives of the world of Arieka - the Host who cannot lie - are invoked nicely, as are the Ambassadors who speak to them.
Ah yes, speaking. All this world-building is there - and mostly in its right place - to underpin the story, which is about language. And herein lies the problem and the frustration. Early on, the narrator - the immer Avice - becomes a living simile. That's a neat idea, although the simile she becomes is repeated and repeated over and over again until you tire of it. But the resolution of the story depends on a development that is so blindingly obvious and so banal that you've probably already worked it out from reading this review; and it seems rather a let-down to navigate 400 pages - however well-written and inventive - to reach a conclusion that I, for one, dismissed in advance as being unlikely because it was so, well, blindingly obvious and banal.
Arghh! There's so much here to love, but it's all thrown away in the end.
To start off - Embassytown is much better than Miéville's last novel, Kraken, which was China-by-numbers and read like an old second draft dusted down, polished up and sent to the press. That it's not as good as The City And The City is no surprise. That novel was so absolutely right - a brilliant idea beautifully realised - that I wonder if Miéville will ever top it.
Embassytown starts very well. It reads like a homage to 70's Le Guin, Tiptree or Wolfe, with a bit of Cordwainer Smith thrown in. (Le Guin has written a very positive review - you can find it here). The world-building is immaculate and entertaining if occasionally a little overdone. The natives of the world of Arieka - the Host who cannot lie - are invoked nicely, as are the Ambassadors who speak to them.
Ah yes, speaking. All this world-building is there - and mostly in its right place - to underpin the story, which is about language. And herein lies the problem and the frustration. Early on, the narrator - the immer Avice - becomes a living simile. That's a neat idea, although the simile she becomes is repeated and repeated over and over again until you tire of it. But the resolution of the story depends on a development that is so blindingly obvious and so banal that you've probably already worked it out from reading this review; and it seems rather a let-down to navigate 400 pages - however well-written and inventive - to reach a conclusion that I, for one, dismissed in advance as being unlikely because it was so, well, blindingly obvious and banal.
Arghh! There's so much here to love, but it's all thrown away in the end.