To Read & To Write

Because of the ingenuity behind China Mieville's "Embassytown" (2011), the book is enormously fun to read. Like many science fiction books I've picked up before, there was a point when I was aware that I was not comprehending all of what I was "reading", but continued happily on anyway, willing to do the work, understanding what I could, while letting the story flow page by page freely. Usually the ability for the reader to do that with a complex story structure and highly intellectual content is a sign of great style. And that - amazing literary style - is something Mieville certainly does have. This is the first Mieville book I've picked up and I was absolutely mind-blown by its concept. With language as the main thematic element, I emerged myself in the wonderful linguistic games, using my own sparse knowledge of Saussurian semiotics to back-up what I thought I was "getting". Beyond that, I loved the symbolism of the book, which Mieville...

“Submergence”, written in 2011 by J.M. Ledgard (who has written for both “The Economist” and “The Atlantic”) is a novel that is shaped perfectly for the contemporary world. Its scope covers geography, philosophy, science, and politics. Though “Submergence” is all these amazing things, Ledgard manages to subtlety underscore these weighty themes with a poignant drama and romance that travels far deeper within the emotional psyche compared to how far it actually treks globally. While all this may seem in the written word - to some narrower minds - as pretentious, it is, in fact, the opposite. “Submergence” aims to illuminate how so very small, so very precious, but still small, humankind really is in the face of the natural world: which includes its technology, the subsequent wars produced by that technology, in this case the War in Afghanistan which continues to the present, as well as untouched Earthly landscapes such as the Hadal Deep, the deepest part of the ocean. Granted,...