By China Miéville, Embassytown is:
- two novels juxtaposed — the first a revelation about language and awakening, the second a conventional saved-in-the-nick-of-time galactic war-and-politics potboiler
- a science-fictional hall of mirrors — reflections of the best among Samuel R Delany (cf. Babel-17), Roger Zelazny (cf. Lord of Light), Robert Anton Wilson, Liz Williams, Neal Stephenson, A E Van Vogt, Cordwainer Smith, ...
- an extended joke — a riff on the hyperliteral Drax the Destroyer of Guardians of the Galaxy
- a mind and a map and a metaphor of itself — and as per Daniel Dennett, "... metaphors are not 'just' metaphors; metaphors are the tools of thought ..."
- brilliant sprinkles of poetry — decorations on the frosting of a store-bought cake
- a gray idea — without character, and lacking characters that one might come to care about
Embassytown — it is, and could have been, much more ...
^z - 2018-01-23
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