He is a writer who haunts the streets on London England. He is also a writer that is two degrees separated from me. I know someone who knows him. My friend gave me his first book and I gave him the second last and eventually the last book he wrote.
The most recent book was Embassytown, his first pure Science Fiction book. His other books were high fantasy based on a Steam Punk genre, a world that is in the midst of an industrial revolution and is magic based. Lots of gritty coal fired machines, people that are half coal fired machines, other people who are mutants and normal people. His next to last book was a very good apocalyptic Streets of London Magic story. It was ver y good too. Embassytown is something different.
There are really only three types of science fiction. There is human centric Earth based SciFi. It is on earth, it may be in our past, it may be in the stars, but it is based on Earth in some way. Maybe they do not refer to earth explicitly but one or more characters are from Earth, or it is a planet that everyone knows. Most SciFi is this type. The second type makes no reference to earth, because there is no earth and this type is really more fantasy than SciFi. Welcome Star Wars and others. The third type is far cooler; it is a blend of the first two. Humanity has forgotten where it started, or is too far to have much or any contact, they are from Earth but there is no direct references, there are concepts and words that have little meaning to the characters, but have some context for the readers. Dune, the Foundation series, H Beam Piper wrote a few, and now this one, Embassytown.
It is a smart book, that is you have to have a brain or you will be lost right away, because his characters do not explain things in our terms, because they have no reference to our terms and why would the writer explain things to the reader when they can puzzle it out for themselves. The entire book is a puzzle about language, so if you can't understand simple things like the context people are talking give up now.
Without giving away any plot, the human settlement sits as a pimple on a planet, in a city of aliens. The alien world is toxic, but their generosity has provided a livable bubble. The most important thing to the aliens is Language, or rather The Language. The Language, is the most complex language in the galaxy, because the native speakers have two mouths working in tandem saying different things to make their words. Machines can duplicate it, but they do not understand the duplication.
China Miéville likes his words, English words. I think the next time I get one of his books it will have to be a digital format, just so that I can look up new words more easily. If you know what velleity means, good for you. If you do not know what it means and you are not reaching for your dictionary, do not read this book.
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