Hugo and Campbell Award Nominations for Novel with Comments (by Liviu Suciu)

The nominees for the 2011 Hugo Awards and for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer have been announced. The winners will be announced on 20th August, at the Hugo Awards Ceremony held at Renovation, the 69th World Science Fiction Convention, held in Reno, Nevada. There are the usual categories but since my short fiction reading was appallingly low in 2010, I will include only the best novella nominees since at least there I read two of the nominees.

Demonstrating once more the age and demographic of a majority of its voters, the Hugo nominations for fanzine and fan writer are to pre-Internet stuff which is most likely read by a majority of Hugo voters and no-one else, while the editor short form category is almost the same as you could have had 100 10 years ago despite the huge changes in the short fiction market of recent times. Though it has Jonathan Strahan who is a big favorite of mine in short fiction editing, so at least I can "root" for someone there. For long form though there are some new names - finally - and as usual Lou Anders is my favorite for all the reasons mentioned HERE. For the full list you can head to the link above

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Best Novel:

“Blackout/All Clear” by Connie Willis (Ballantine Spectra)
“Cryoburn” by Lois McMaster Bujold (Baen)
“The Dervish House” by Ian McDonald (Gollancz / Pyr)
“Feed” by Mira Grant (Orbit)
“The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms” by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)

I have been delighted and a little surprised by the inclusion of “The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms” (FBC Rv of it, FBC Rv of The Broken Kingdoms) by N.K. Jemisin (FBC Interview with the author HERE (by Mihir) and HERE (Guest post by Kelly Link)) and of course that is my favorite hands down.

As originally from around there, not quite Turkey but the neighborhood - and not surprisingly based on how people from the appropriate "there" saw River of Gods and Brasyl, which I liked a lot but I am not from there - I disliked The Dervish House which is the kind of novel that modern Westerners tend to write about other cultures - researched and well intentioned, but mostly clueless beyond the physical descriptions.

I have been a huge Miles fan across the years, but I think the series should have closed with the awesome A Civil Campaign since Diplomatic Immunity read tired and what I read from Cryoburn is even worse, feeling like the author just went through the motions.

I tried Blackout since a few reviewers I respect were enthusiastic about it, but I was not interested enough to continue; I read too many books about England 1940 and the Blitz - I recently reviewed The Distant Hours which despite having the war in the background and not being sff is considerably more interesting. I keep wondering why the sf authors do not get even a little more adventurous and explore other moments in alt-history since after all the big bestselling alt-hist genre series of today is about the 30 Years War in Germany 1630's, showing that when done well, less Anglocentric periods can generate lots of interest.

I even opened Feed since I saw one or two enthusiastic reviews from people I respect, but it was still a zombie novel, so no interest.

Prediction for the Winner: The Bujold/Willis juggernaut is way too strong among Hugo voters, so I give 60% to Cryoburn and 40% to Blackout/All-Clear.

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Best Novella:

“The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen’s Window” by Rachel Swirsky (Subterranean Magazine, Summer 2010)
“The Lifecycle of Software Objects” by Ted Chiang (Subterranean)
“The Maiden Flight of McCauley’s Bellerophon” by Elizabeth Hand (Stories: All New Tales, William Morrow)
“The Sultan of the Clouds” by Geoffrey A. Landis (Asimov’s, September 2010)
“Troika” by Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines, Science Fiction Book Club)

Here I read two as mentioned and I voted for both in the Locus Poll, while I put some thoughts about them on Goodreads: “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” by Ted Chiang (Subterranean, Read it free HERE), “Troika” by Alastair Reynolds (Godlike Machines, Science Fiction Book Club) and both were very, very good but not quite the top of the game for the authors.

However Ted Chiang is simply the current master of sf novella/short story form and Alastair Reynolds is probably second or third with only Greg Egan for competition in sf (beside Chiang of course), so even "not quite the top of the game", means better than almost anything out there.

Prediction for the Winner: “The Lifecycle of Software Objects” by Ted Chiang

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John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer:

Saladin Ahmed
Lauren Beukes
Larry Correia
Lev Grossman
Dan Wells

Here the rules are a bit arcane with two years of eligibility - Lev Grossman has been writing fiction for years now but as mentioned, rules are arcane - and it seems that for all authors this is their last year of nomination.

As it happens, here at Fantasy Book Critic we published a story by Saladin Ahmed: Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela - originally published in The Clockwork Phoenix 2 - and I have been reading the author's short fiction since, while his debut novel scheduled for 2012 is high on my anticipated reading list since I tend to like sff written about other cultures when done credibly - or at least my lack of real-life knowledge about them and the research that fits with what I read previously in other books allows me to believe it's credible.

Since I have strongly disliked The Magicians and I have not read anything by the other nominees, Saladin Ahmed is my clear favorite.

Robert has reviewed I am not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells and Mihir has interviewed the author.

Prediction for the Winner: this one is tricky but I expect Lauren Beukes or Lev Grossman to win at about 35% each, though I think Saladin Ahmed has a reasonable chance too at say 30%.

“RUN” by Blake Crouch (Reviewed by Mihir Wanchoo)

Official Author Website

Order “RUN” HERE

Read An Excerpt HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Blake Crouch was born in Statesville, North Carolina and he graduated in 2000 with degrees in English and Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina. He has written four previous novels and a host of short stories. Two of his stories have been optioned for film adaptation. Blake currently lives in Durango, Colorado with his wife.

PLOT SUMMARY: Picture this: A landscape of American genocide...

5 d a y s a g o

A rash of bizarre murders swept the country...

Senseless. Brutal. Seemingly unconnected.

A cop walked into a nursing home and unloaded his weapons on elderly and staff alike.

A mass of school shootings.

Prison riots of unprecedented brutality.

Mind-boggling acts of violence in every state.

4 d a y s a g o

The murders increased ten-fold...

3 d a y s a g o

The President addressed the nation and begged for calm and peace...

2 d a y s a g o

The killers began to mobilize...

Y e s t e r d a y

All the power went out...

T o n i g h t

They're reading the names of those to be killed on the Emergency Broadcast System. You are listening over the battery-powered radio on your kitchen table, and they've just read yours.

Your name is Jack Colclough. You have a wife, a daughter, and a young son. You live in Albuquerque, New Mexico. People are coming to your house to kill you and your family. You don't know why, but you don't have time to think about that any more.

You only have time to...

R U N

FORMAT/INFO: RUN is 281 pages long divided over thirty-eight unnamed/unnumbered chapters. Narration is in the third-person via Jack and Dee Colclough. RUN is self-contained and ends on a clear note. The book also features an interview with the author and includes excerpts from Locked Doors, Desert Places, Abandon & Snowbound. March 23, 2011 marked the Trade Paperback publication of RUN. The e-book edition was published on February 19, 2011. Cover art and design provided by Jeroen ten Berge.

ANALYSIS: Not only was I fascinated by RUN’s blurb, but previously I had read Serial Uncut which was a collaborative effort between Blake Crouch and Joe Konrath. I very much liked the book’s mix of horror and thriller genres and therefore contacted the author for a review copy. Mr. Crouch gladly obliged and I immediately dove in wondering how the book would measure up against such a tantalizing blurb.

RUN begins with an unnamed female arriving at an unknown site and we are left wondering what is going on? The book then shifts to Deanna “Dee” Colclough who has a scary encounter with her paramour Kiernan as he asks her to get away from him before anything happens to her. We are then introduced to Jack Colclough and his family which consists of his wife Dee, his teenaged daughter Naomi and his son Cole. Jack is a professor at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque and Dee is a physician. They are packing their things and trying to get their bearings as they plan to flee the city when Jack’s name gets called out on the radio. Jack and his family then rush out of their house and are attacked rather brutally by people who are tracking the folks whose names have been announced.

Thus begins their odyssey as they seek travel to the North not knowing who or what awaits them. The events which have caused this meltdown are alluded to and are a bit explained, but ultimately it’s up to the reader to decide what triggered this situation. There is much more happening, but to describe them would ruin the surprise. The action is shown throughout the lower continental US, Northern Mexico and southern parts of Canada with Jack and Dee’s journey taking them through the western half of the US as they try to avoid the ‘crazies’ and survive along with their children.

Because the book focuses deeply on the Colclough family, specifically the story of a father striving to do right by his progeny, RUN is immediately comparable to The Road by Cormac McCarthy. However, there’s a crucial difference: the world featured in The Road is a post-apocalyptic one, whereas in RUN, the world teeters on the verge of collapse. RUN is also less dark than the Pulitzer Prize winner, although it has its moments of horror.

Blake Crouch’s prose admirably fuels this high-strung tale as he showcases a slightly dysfunctional family: Jack, the father struggling to save his family; Dee, the estranged wife who has to choose between her feelings for her paramour and her family; and Naomi and Cole, the children who are shockingly thrust into a world where they have no control and no way to adapt... Mr. Crouch efficiently showcases the struggle faced by both parents as they try to explain the situation to themselves and their kids, with emotional family moments brilliantly juxtaposed by harrowing action scenes that will have readers turning the pages to see what happens next.

Besides the Colclough family, we also get bits and pieces of information about the environment from other characters we meet during the course of the story, although they are fleeting. The affected people meanwhile, seem sane enough in understanding what they are doing and the author provides clues about their motivations, but nothing is clearly spelt out.

There are very few drawbacks with the book. A few readers might get frustrated at the absence of a concrete explanation for what is happening, but like in real life, many things occur which have only theories instead of rational explanations. Lastly, the climax is a bit fantastical and detaches a tiny bit of credibility from the tale. Fortunately, the ending is not too over-the-top to ruin the overall effect.

CONCLUSION: Blake Crouch’s RUN is a simple, but magical tale about survival, the bonds of family, and the endurance of the human spirit. RUN exceeded my expectations and is a book I will enjoy re-reading in the future. In short, the author is rapidly moving up my reading list and seems hell-bent on proving David Morrell’s words true: “Blake Crouch is the most exciting new thriller writer I've read in years.”

Odds and Ends: A Game of Thrones Debut and a 2011 Translation from David Albahari (by Liviu Suciu)

In my recent review of Embassytown I mentioned how China Mieville will always be for me the author who opened new possibilities in the stranger aspects of fantasy; in the same way George Martin will always be the author who opened core fantasy to me since before his masterpiece A Game of Thrones appeared in 1996, the scene had very little of interest for me as I am not a fan of D&D, S&S, Tolkien, Feist and all their clones from the pre-Martin period.

Yes there was CS Friedman excellent - at least for its time since today it reads slightly dated - Coldfire trilogy, there was Sean Russell superb quasi-Earth series The Initiate Brother and Moontide and Magic Rise, but that was pretty much all for me in fantasy until GRRM opened the door for the much more complex epic and adventure fantasies of today.

I bought and read A Game of Thrones on publication in 1996 because it sounded "right" and the one (famous) sf story by GRRM that I had read many years ago beyond the Iron Curtain , "The Sandkings", still resonated with me. That novel and the second volume of the series A Clash of Kings are still among my all time favorites and I've read them quite a few times across the years. A Storm of Swords while having great moments and an awesome ending, was also a monster sprawl of a novel that scattered the series and lost its focus to a large degree, while A Feast of Crows despite some unforgettable moments, was a moderate disappointment for me, so the upcoming A Dance with Dragons comes with huge expectations.

Fast forward to last Sunday's premiere of the HBO series and all the pre-release snippets, trailers and information pointed to a quality show that will do justice to the masterpiece novel, so I had very high expectations and they were definitely fulfilled. The first episode of the series got the right feel and the production values were superb. The cast so far also represents the novel well and I am curious to see how they will develop, since watching the first episode which was just dominated by Jaime Lannister while having also a very strong presence from Daenerys Tagaryen, I realized that it will be tricky to realize some of the character nuances on screen. Flamboyance from Jaime and otherworldly beauty from Daenerys express well on the screen but let's see how the smart cynicism tinged with bitterness from Tyrion and the dogged faithfulness of Ned Stark will show in detail since so far both were good but not outstanding.

Anyway a great series beginning and I urge every fantasy fan to give it a try whether you can recite the actors' lines from memory or you have not yet read the novels...

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Recently I have discovered a very interesting new translation from author David Albahari who hails from Serbia and currently lives in Canada. "Leeches" is a translation of a 2006 novel which has an April 28 official publication date, though it is in stores already and I plan to give it a careful read soon. I loved the first few pages I've read and the novel has the advertised feel of a sort of a tight and denser "Foucault's Pendulum" without U. Eco's smugness and interminable digressions that made that novel an infuriating read which I both loved and hated at the same time.

"Leeches" is a novel in which mainstream meets the speculative and I have really high expectations for it since as 2011 releases go, only pure core-sff novels have blown me away with the two celebrated mainstream novels I've tried being a huge UF formula dud ("A Discovery of Witches") and a well written but somewhat cold and ultimately only partly satisfying reading experience (The Tiger's Wife). Here is the blurb:

"The place is Serbia, the time is the late 1990s. Our protagonist, a single man, writes a regular op-ed column for a Belgrade newspaper and spends the rest of his time with his best friend, smoking pot and talking about sex, politics, and life in general. One day on the shore of the Danube he spots a man slapping a beautiful woman. Intrigued, he follows the woman into the tangled streets of the city until he loses sight of her. A few days later he receives a mysterious manuscript whose contents seem to mutate each time he opens it. To decipher the manuscript—a collection of fragments on the Kabbalah and the history of the Jews of Zemun and Belgrade—he contacts an old schoolmate, now an eccentric mathematician, and a group of men from the Jewish community.

As the narrator delves deeper into arcane topics, he begins to see signs of anti-Semitism, past and present, throughout the city and he feels impelled to denounce it. But his increasingly passionate columns erupt in a scandal culminating in murder. Following in the footsteps of Foucault’s Pendulum, Leeches is a cerebral adventure into the underground worlds of secret societies and conspiracy theories."

“To Hell and Back: The Damned Busters” by Matthew Hughes (Reviewed by Robert Thompson)

Official Matthew Hughes Website

Order “The Damned Busters” HERE (US) + HERE (UK)

Read An Excerpt HERE

AUTHOR INFORMATION: Matthew Hughes has made a living as a writer all of his adult life, first as a journalist, then as a staff speechwriter to the Canadian Ministers of Justice & Environment, and lastly as a freelance corporate and political speechwriter in British Columbia. His bibliography includes the Archonate novels, the Tales of Henghis Hapthorn, The Commons, Template and numerous short fiction. He also writes crime fiction as Matt Hughes and media tie-ins as Hugh Matthews. The Damned Busters is the author’s Angry Robot debut.

PLOT SUMMARY: After accidentally summoning a demon, the mild-mannered Chesney Anstruther refuses to sign the contract, causing Hell to go on strike. But with no demons to tempt mankind, the world becomes a strange and boring place. To settle the strike, a deal is struck between Satan and Chesney, and thus the strangest superhero duo ever seen—in Hell or on Earth—is born!

CLASSIFICATION: The Damned Busters is a whimsical PG-13 urban fantasy novel that combines the supernatural and superheroes with comedy and romance.

FORMAT/INFO: The Damned Busters is 340 pages long divided over twelve numbered chapters. Also includes an interesting Afterword about how the author landed at Angry Robot with his series To Hell and Back. Narration is in the third-person, exclusively via the protagonist Chesney Arnstruther. The Damned Busters is self-contained, but is the first volume in the To Hell and Back series, which has a sequel—Costume Not Included—scheduled for publication in 2012. May 5, 2011/May 31, 2011 marks the UK/North American Mass Market Paperback publication of To Hell and Back: The Damned Busters via Angry Robot. Cover art is provided by Tom Gauld.

ANALYSIS: The Damned Busters is a novel that immediately caught my attention simply because it was written by Matthew Hughes. In fact, the only thing I knew about the book going in was that The Damned Busters was the author’s first attempt at writing urban fantasy. Urban fantasy is a genre I’ve all but given up on, but I had faith that Matthew Hughes would not let me down and I wasn’t disappointed...

The Damned Busters gets off to a fast start with the protagonist Chesney Arnstruther accidentally summoning a demon from Hell, while Chesney’s amusing interactions with various inhabitants of Hell and details about the protagonist’s peculiar personality and background—loves mathematics; works as an actuary at Paxton Life and Casualty (PL&C); uses “strings of nonsense syllables” in place of profanity (follyfluke, ding-dabble, blue bling blithers); hobbies include reading superhero comix and playing poker; described as “severely introverted”—quickly establishes the novel’s whimsical nature. Where things really start to get interesting though is after Hell goes on a strike because of Chesney’s actions:

“Greed, anger, lust, gluttony—indeed, all of what used to be called the ‘seven deadly sins’—have suddenly stopped affecting our conduct. It’s as if, after having spent all our lives with a devil and an angel on each shoulder, none of our devils are showing up for work.”

The result is a world quite different from the one I had imagined if all evil was suddenly eliminated. A world that Chesney succinctly describes as “Meh. That’s what it is. Not good, not bad, just meh.” To help resolve this situation, Chesney enlists the aid of Reverend Billy Lee Hardacre—a television preacher who was once a successful lawyer and bestselling author—to act as a mediator between Satan and the Infernal Brotherhood of Fiends, Demons and Tempters (IBFDT). The solution they come up with revolves around Hardacre’s interesting theory that everything—“Heaven, Hell and everything inbetween”—is just the draft of a book that God is writing and Chesney’s unprecedented deal with Satan in which he gets to command a demon for two hours out of every twenty-four in order to “fight crime and bad guys.”

At this point, The Actionary is born and The Damned Busters ventures into more familiar territory where superheroes, droll comedy and awkward romance all collide. In short, imagine a quirky indie film starring Michael Cera crossed with the likes of Kick-Ass, Defendor and Super, but without the graphic violence and narcissism. Of course, there are a number of factors that help distinguish The Damned Busters from the competition, one of which is The Actionary’s powers. Changing into his costume, night vision, hyper speed, strength of ten, teleportation, appearing at a crime before it happens . . . Chesney can accomplish all this and much more by simply issuing a command to Xaphan—a saber-toothed, weasel-faced demon who talks and dresses like a gangster and is addicted to rum and cigars.

Another key factor is Chesney himself. A borderline autistic with practically no social skills, Chesney Arnstruther is not the kind of person one envisions as a superhero, but it’s these eccentric qualities that make him unique and endearing. Like the way he’s always questioning himself about whether or not his actions and comments are socially acceptable, resulting in some fascinating and entertaining conversations, especially with the opposite sex.

Matthew Hughes’ writing meanwhile, is superb throughout with clever prose—“So imaginative were her renditions of the sufferings of the damned that, in another life, she might have won renown as an author of fictions meant to chill the blood and shiver the spine. But fiction was far from Mrs. Arnstruther’s mind as she described the impalings, amputations, roastings, piercings, gougings and rough penetrations into intimate parts that awaited her correspondents. To her, these torments were as real as breakfast. And her contemplation of their visitation upon the recipients of her missives, far from causing her chills or shivers, always brought a rosy glow to her rounded countenance.”—amusing dialogue, and brisk pacing making it feel like I was reading a book by Dean Koontz and Terry Pratchett.

Overall, To Hell and Back: The Damned Busters is a damn good book. Chesney Arnstruther is a uniquely charming protagonist; the plot is immensely entertaining, full of wit, humor and heart; the ideas presented are original and thought-provoking; and Matthew Hughes’ writing is skillful and engaging. Best of all, The Damned Busters is a blast to read and not quite like any book I’ve ever tried before, instantly making the sequel one of my most anticipated releases of 2012...

"Embassytown" by China Mieville (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)

China Mieville at Wikipedia

Order Embassytown HERE (US) and HERE (UK)

Read FBC Rv of The City and the City (LS)

Read FBC Rv of The City and the City (FF)

INTRODUCTION: When I hear the name China Mieville, I always think of the genius author that took fantasy by storm with two masterpieces that reshaped the more outlandish parts of it and by their extraordinary success gave commercial viability to a new sub-genre that came to be known as New Weird.

The books in questions are Perdido Street Station and The Scar, and they are among my top all time standalone fantasy novels. I reread them quite a few times and I see myself rereading them for a long time to come. The unbridled imagination exhibited in both is just breathtaking.

The third New Crobuzon novel, Iron Council, was a book that I almost hated, though in time I came to view it as a perfect example of the "well written but empty" novel; many people from the sff scene whose opinion I deeply respect told me that "Iron Council" is a masterpiece of novel composition, and while it may be so technically, for me it still remains a soulless book that throws away the rich milieu of New Crobuzon by repetitiveness. I'd rather have a flawed book, warts and all, that I care about than a perfect novel that leaves me cold and wondering why I bothered...

After a YA novel Un Lun Dun, Mr. Mieville returned to the genre with "The City and the City", a police procedural with a twist and a book I would have appreciated more were I new to the mystery genre; sadly this genre is limited and across time I read too many books from it so the genre essentially is finished for me and consequently the second part of "The City and the City" where the speculative elements from the first part fade away was a huge letdown.

Next came Kraken from another subgenre I dislike, namely Urban Fantasy and while I read some 200 pages from it, I lost suspension of disbelief, got bored and stopped and I am not sure when I will finish it. But now we finally have a China Mieville novel of the kind I love and Embassytown has been one of my top five expected books from 2011.

"Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe. Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie. Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes"

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: In a strange universe, there are even stranger things than "subspace" travel, multiple human habitats and the vast unknown and its rumors. At one end of the subspace "corridors", isolated from the rest of the universe by the "Wreck", there is Arieka, a planet of sentient beings for which Language is organic and essential to their sentience as well as literal in their understanding of the world - so for example they cannot lie, they cannot understand machine talk however perfect in reproducing their sounds and they cannot understand humans unless the humans mimic the aliens physicality of speech in the person(s) of the Ambassadors.

So despite their bio sophistication, the Hosts - as the aliens are called by the inhabitants of Embassytown the human city/outpost on their planet - are less sophisticated than the experienced human operators both native and "colonial" since they cannot literally conceive of various things; add to this politics, intrigue and simple unintended consequences of inter-human power plays and we get this superb novel that partly explores the same narrative space as The City and the City but in a far more imaginative and interesting way.

The novel is narrated by Avice, an Embassytown native who as a child attracts the attention of the Hosts and is offered the role of a human simile in the aliens' strange culture. Despite the pain and discomfort involved, Avice accepts and she becomes forever part of the Hosts "language" as "a girl ate what was given to her".

In return, the colony powers - the weird humans known as Ambassadors and their staff - approve her "immerser" application and she becomes a qualified starship crew and leaves Embassytown for the larger universe. In a fast whirlwind tour we get a glimpse of the intricate creation by the author, until for various reasons Avice somewhat unexpectedly returns home and soon becomes involved in the events that will shake the world to its core.

The structure of the novel is nonlinear for the first half so we move between the present of the crisis and the past as narrated by Avice, but once things get going in earnest, Embassytown becomes in large part a typical example of sf about aliens with a strange biology that makes their interaction with humans tricky and to be managed carefully, the humans' misstep - by chance, mistake, malice - the consequent imbalance and tottering on disaster and the solution if any - and there is indeed such sf where there is no solution and the planet in cause goes boom at the end.

Very familiar stuff from tons of sf novels, executed perfectly by the author, but quite predictable in many ways as the big picture goes; from a pure sfnal point of view the least sf you've read the more you will appreciate the novel and it will keep you in suspense. On the other hand as a literary achievement, Embassytown is superb and for me that was enough to greatly enjoy the novel despite reading its sfnal content of the second half for the nth time.

I really loved the glimpses of the larger universe of the novel and I wish that the author will expand them in a series of novels set there - the ending of Embassytown offers a great hook for that, but there could be something completely unrelated - while the main action of the book is handled masterfully, however the main strengths of the book are in language and characters.

The book just flows perfectly and you cannot stop turning its pages, while the cast is just superb. Outside Avice, the main characters are the Ambassadors CalVin and EzRa, her husband Scile - a semi-professional non-native linguist whose fascination with Avice's home-world partly led to their return - various other human similes as well as several Hosts that slowly start taking center stage as the novel progresses.

Avice's journey from a young naive child, to a jaded former spacewoman at the margins of the power centers of Embassytown and then to her becoming central in the action when the crisis comes and both Ambassadors and colonial representatives are passed by the events spinning fast out of control, forms the narrative axis around which the novel revolves and I think this choice paid off big time since it kept the book unitary.

Above I mentioned three major aspects of the novel - the outside universe, the aliens culture and its biological underpinnings, the humans' interaction with them - and there are several more which are somewhat peripheral though they have their roles in what happens - most notably the power play between the humans of Embassytown and their leaders, the Ambassadors, versus the colonial masters in the far away Bremen - and Avice is the main glue that keeps them in a whole.

Overall, Embassytown (A++) is a superb literary achievement of the author set in an imaginative universe with fascinating aliens, though the sfnal content is relatively predictable in the second part of the novel when the action starts centering on the human-Hosts interaction, rather than the aliens themselves or the humans by themselves for that matter.