“The Kafkaesque writer journeys to the distant edges of the universe in his latest sci-fi thriller.” -Entertainment Weekly 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 “ Embassytown is a fully achieved work of art. It's definitely one of the best books I've read in the past year, perfectly balanced between escapism and otherworldly philosophizing.” -io9 I cannot emphasize enough how terrific this novel is. 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-but which speaks through her, whether she likes it or not. When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. 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.

Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure.

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.

Embassytown by china miéville