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Sci Fi Book Club: Embassytown by China Mieville

  • Solid State Books 600 H Street Northeast Washington, DC, 20002 United States (map)

Join us for Sci Fi Book Club discussing Embassytown by China Mieville. This is an IN PERSON EVENT that will take place on the Apollo Building rooftop! Visit the front desk of the Apollo lobby for roof access. For the health and safety of our members and community, this event is open to fully vaccinated individuals.

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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. Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. 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. When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. 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.