This Census-Taker, by China Mieville

This Census-Taker is my first read for the Hugo Awards this year.  The Hugos are a clean enough list this time that Free SF Online is listing them again.  The book is up for a novella award.

Mieville is inconsistent, which drives fans nuts in some ways.  The City and the City was one of the most brilliant social speculative fiction books I have ever read.  He is incredibly daring in the topics he takes on, and his style is unique.

But sometimes he just misses, and gets published anyway.  This is one of those time.  This Census-Taker is set in a place with a recent chaotic past, where there is some technology but it's not all tied together.  I thought of somewhere like Croatia when I read it.  The protagonist is a young boy in a family that seems schizophrenic in a very detached sort of way.  The father is definitely mentally ill.  Neither mother nor father seem comfortable at all with the rest of their town, or the world.  The father has a talent for making "keys" that make wishes come true in a limited way, thus the speculative element.  He also has a thing for killing small animals.  The book opens as the narrator, as an adult, describes himself running into town shouting about his father killing his mother.

The perspective of the book is supposedly adult, as I said--the narrator refers to himself living in another country, writing in a different language.  But the point of view of the book never seems to depart from that of the boy.  A series of sad events are described in the limited perspective of a seven year old, and aren't really informed by the adult perspective of the narrator.  It just kind of ploughs along.  I kept waiting for the action, or resolution, or something to start.  It eventually does resolve, but you feel like it never really got started.

So I'm not real sure why it was nominated for a Hugo, beyond name value, and I can't really recommend it.  Two stars for me.

Embassytown, by China Mieville

Embassytown is nominated for a Nebula for 2011, and I think it's the one to beat.  Here's why:

China Mieville's novels are great examples of "idea" SF.  But not just any ideas, or explorations of technology--Mieville goes after philosophy.  In The City and The City he very purely explored ideas of place, and how one knows where one belongs.  Embassytown has more of the tropes of SF--it's set on an alien planet, with alien beings and technology--but it's every bit as idea driven.  The core idea being one of semiotics.

A perennial problem in philosophy is that of reference, significance and anaphora--how we come to associate things in the world with our language.  A pretty tough idea to convey as problematic, but Mieville will give you an introduction with his Ariekenes, a race where language does not signify and there is no anaphora.  Ariekenes speak Language, with two mouths (which makes for some interesting typography), and the words are wired directly into their nervous systems.  They construct "similes" out of living humans and other things to give substance to comparisons, their thinking tools.  The central trouble comes when they are sent an Ambassador (pair of humans) from Earth that speaks Language in such a way that they become addicted to it.

It takes a lot of work for Mieville to get this across, but it comes clear as the drama unfolds.  He has fun with other words--he introduces the term "floaking", for a certain sort of taking advantage of what one knows and being acceptably productive without working hard.  It's kind of unattractive or it would make its way into the vernacular.

The human characters are harder to appreciate, though they are worthwhile.  The protagonist, Avice Benner Cho, is a starship navigator and accomplished floaker, kind of drifting until the crisis peaks in Embassytown.  She proves acceptably sympathetic to drive the plot.

It took a bit for the book to get going, but it's definitely worth the work.  You will think differently after you read it, just as the Ariekenes do.  Read it for fun, and particularly appreciate it if you enjoy thinking about what words do.  We haven't had this much fun with semiotics since The Name of the Rose. I give it 4 stars.

The City and The City, by China Mieville

Just finished The City & the City, a Hugo-nominated novel by China Mieville. This is the first book of his, so I have not experienced his style--it's not for everyone, but I didn't mind. And the book itself is fascinating. The setting dominates the story completely, and drives it effectively. It consists of two cities, Beszel and Ul Qoma, that are barely civil to each other and intricately interleaved. Citizens are trained from birth not to notice the goings-on in the "other" city spliced through. The division is mostly maintained by psychology and behavior, though there is a possibly supernatural element thrown it that supposedly watches constantly for transgressions. In this bizarre setting a murder mystery takes place.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and found the speculative elements very strong. I think it's a real contender for the prize. I found myself looking for real-world analogues--in the book, the characters specifically reject comparisons to Jerusalem or East and West Berlin, though I think the situation in the Palestinian territories might somehow compare. Settlements interleave intricately with Palestinian territory, most likely creating a mix of ostentatious ignoring, violence, and some secret trade. It's well worth a read, in that it does what speculative fiction should do--make you think.