Embassytown

By: China Mieville

Narrated by: Susan Duerden

Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

China Miéville doesn’t follow trends, he sets them. Relentlessly pushing his own boundaries as a writer - and in the process expanding the boundaries of the entire field - with Embassytown, Miéville has crafted an extraordinary novel that is not only a moving personal drama but a gripping adventure of alien contact and war.

In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei, sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak. Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language.

When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties - to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak yet speaks through her.

©2011 China Mieville (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

“A breakneck tale of suspense...disturbing and beautiful by turns. I cannot emphasize enough how terrific this novel is. It's definitely one of the best books I've read in the past year, perfectly balanced between escapism and otherworldly philosophizing.” (io9)

“Embassytown is a fully achieved work of art…Works on every level, providing compulsive narrative, splendid intellectual rigour and risk, moral sophistication, fine verbal fireworks and sideshows, and even the old-fashioned satisfaction of watching a protagonist become more of a person than she gave promise of being.” (Ursula K. Le Guin)

“Brilliant storytelling... The result is a world masterfully wrecked and rebuilt.” (Publishers Weekly [starred review])

Original but Too Much Linguistic Oriented

It's very original, interesting and even suspenseful but the author seems to be obsessed with his treatment of the "language" and the story gets to almost becoming an academic essay in the field of linguistics.

Thought provoking, good, not what I was expecting

What made the experience of listening to Embassytown the most enjoyable?

The performance of the work is excellent; both the tone and the voice of the reader seem both appropriate for the story and flexible enough to carry multiple characters. The use of the doubled phrases for "Language" made it all the more compelling.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Embassytown?

The time spent in Immer... I wish there were more of that, or perhaps a sequel that further explores what lies beyond Arieki in the Immer

Which character – as performed by Susan Duerden – was your favorite?

Avice is an excellent, believable character... though I get great pleasure from hearing her work with the unusual, double-threaded voices of the ambassadors and Hosts

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Reflections of a rogue simile

Any additional comments?

Very good book. Not quite what I expected, and did not go at all where I expected it to go - but I like that. More deeply thoughtful on the nature of language, thought and alien-ness than I was prepared for, and very well thought out.

A refreshing blast of creative story telling

This book is awesome. And very hard to describe. It's a must listen. The language play makes it a must audiobook purchase. It's the most creative and interesting scifi to come along in a long time. Brilliant.

Definitely worth a listen, but...

I love the themes of this book -- the problem of communication, the nature of language, the relationships among language, thought, and reality -- and the story is vividly written and quite compelling throughout. The timeline of the first part of the book is challenging (especially in audio format) but brilliant. However, there are deep conceptual problems at the heart of the very issues the book tackles. The fiction definitely trumps the science in this one. It is, however, a great book to argue about with others who have read it. The narration is also excellent for the most part, although it does become a bit melodramatic toward the end (although perhaps the prose demands that).

Just amazing.

I have listened to this book, rapt, within 48 hours. Wonderful, flourished descriptions and practically made for an audiobook experience. Such gorgeous language, narration, and narrative...

Fantastic

I got lost in the world created by China Mireille.
So beautiful and vividly described. And the narrator gave an outstanding performance.

mind bending

great read. hard to wrap your brain around. heart pounding. intense and suspenseful. joy to listen to.

Narrator is awesome

I thought the narrator's tone was perfect for the alien story. Best scifi I've read in a while.

Fantastic

I can really only say that this was done ingeniously. I had thought this was a premise that would be hard to pull off in audio book, with so many unpronounceable words and difficult ideas you have to go back with, but if anything that all adds to this books accessibility. Having listened to this I feel like I know so much more about how Language worked than I did just reading the book.

A moving, thought-provoking, unique tale

What did you love best about Embassytown?

This is a big ideas story. Sometimes I had to pause the book so I could just spend a while with all the thoughts it had provoked. This, to me, is the best measure of a book: if it changes the way you see the world.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Spanish Dancer! That's one of the Ariekei, the aliens in this book. I really liked the narrator, Avice, but in the end I admired Spanish Dancer the most, because ultimately it had to show the most courage.

What does Susan Duerden bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

This is a book you really must experience as an audiobook. She and the production team really bring to life the strange jargon and alien linguistics of the world of Embassytown.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Only lies can set you free.