Book Thoughts: Embassytown
Some authors you just can't vibe with, no matter how on-brand their subjects are. For me one of these authors appears to be China Miéville, the writer of such famous works as Perdido Street Station and The City & The City.
I've previously tried to read Perdido Street Station and fell off halfway, the strangeness of the setting never quite settling in my head. Perhaps it's due to my weak mind's eye, or perhaps it's just their writing style, but of the two books I've attempted, both felt as if I was only skimming the loose details of a much deeper world.
Embassytown is the second of their works that I've attempted, and I nearly gave up a few hours into the audiobook version. Everything felt slow and dreamy (in a boring way) despite the complete alien-ness and wonderful creativity of the scifi setting. I ultimately finished the book, and really did love all the ideas on display in the story -- but the writing or the pacing or something kept me from getting in deep, and I found myself avoiding the audiobook more than reaching for it.
This is a scifi book about language, and it takes a very interesting approach, giving us aliens that are incapable of understanding human speech and communciation. The ways humanity works around this, and the sheer curiosity around the ways these aliens comminicate and interact with humans was fascinating in ways the story sadly only ever hints at.
I was left wanting to know more -- more about the strange alien lifeforms, more about their language, more about the strange dreamed-up form of space travel. More than anything I wanted to see more of the other alien lifeforms hinted at that communicate in bizarre and creative ways. I almost would have preferred a documentary format than the story and characters that were presented, which were ultimately vapid and boring on such a vibrant and curious backdrop.