Right off the bat, let's get this out of the way: I won this on a goodreads giveaway. I am so glad I did, because otherwise it would have been aaaages until I managed to get around to it in my tbr pile and I'd have no idea what I was missing. This is a dense, multi-layered book that is easily one of the best novels of the year. China Mieville has done an outstanding job with creating Embassytown.The story is told with a distinct voice, that of immerser Avice Benner Cho. She seems world-weary, almost distant in the beginning pages and chapters of retelling the extraordinary events of her life in Embassytown, on her home planet of Arieka. Though she travels to many places on far distant planets, Avice's story focuses around Embassytown and her life in it as a child and adult. As a young girl, Cho was made part of the Language of the Ariekei, an important event she doesn't understand yet but will impact her future the most.An Ariekei (singular form of the native sentient life found on Arieka) is a completely original, alien lifeform. China Mieville calls his writing "weird" science and it shows in the original, creative and crazy lifeforms he created. The Ariekei Language is a huge and intricate part of the novel: first of all, they cannot lie. Before humans came to their planet, they did not even conceive of the concept of a lie. Their speech is also very limited, and thus humans like Cho become living similes, examples (the girl who ate what was given to her, the boy who swims every week) for them to facilitate more Language for the Ariekei population. Additionally, each Ariekei uses two mouths so to speak, the Cut and the Turn both speaking simultaneously. Humans cannot communicate with the Ariekei; they lack the second voice sounding with the exact same intent and focus as the first voice. Thus the Ambassdors began. Human mutations/clones or doppelgangers are what they are called and they are always from Embassytown itself. They are raised and trained to speak with the Ariekei population for the rest of the humans in on their planet. When an Ambassador is sent in from the home world of Bremen instead of grown in Embassytown itself, the colony wonders what prompted this strange, unlikely occurrence and how the Ariekei will respond to their Language.When Ambassador EzRa appears and things take an unprecedented turn in human/Arikei relations, Cho has to figure what the truth is and how to turn the tide. This is a very good book. It was slow starting in the beginning for me because it is a personal pet peeve of mine when nothing is explained and new terms and phrases are floating in every sentence and I have no idea what anything means. However, comprehension soon dawns and with it a realization of the depth of the world Mieville has created. An alien species that thinks as well as a man, but utterly unlike one. A hostile planet with a sentient species with Language far more pure than our own. Bioengineering, where "herds of factories" produce household goods in the wild. It is wildly imaginative and ridiculously good. Avice as a narrator grows and changes and becomes a much different woman from the almost beaten-down, inescapably weary woman in the opening of the book into someone completely different. I loved this book and recommend it highly. More of my reviews here: http://bibliophileanonymous.blogspot.com/
