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This entry in our SciFi book club goes through the end of Part 6 of the book Embassytown by China Mieville. Spoilers abound. Continue reading at your own risk.
I feel sorry for the buildings. The living, biorigged buildings which, like the Hosts, have become addicted to the missing EzRa. Even sadder when Cho sees their skeletons lining the ground. Do they, I wonder, even know what it is they were searching for? What they were longing for?
I felt even worse for Vin, as in love with Avice Cho as much as, I assume, Scile was in love with Cal. What a torrid, sad turn of events. Of all of the people who dwell in Embassytown, the Ambassadors are truly the most tragic. How much it feel, I wonder, to be genetically engineered for a particular purpose. And not only that, to be forced to become the exact duplicate of your clone, to whom you have to spend your whole life with. Sure, the Ambassadors have power, but do they have agency, I wonder? It's no surprise that so many of them were driven mad by the Host's addiction. To be grown for a purpose, and then have that purpose taken away from you must be a double kick in the gut.
And of course, it was power that led to this entire catastrophe in the first place. We learn, as I've suspected, that EzRa was engineered by Bremen in the hopes of replacing the Ambassador's completely. And the technology still exists, allowing Cal to once again have a doppel, albeit in the form of the pathetic, sniveling Ez.
There are still mysteries, of course. Why was EzRa, and now EzCal, a drug to the Hosts? What has Scile been doing this whole time, and is he truly dead? Can the Hosts survive as nothing more than addicts to the Liar-Gods that humans see fit to bring before them? Unlike Erik, I haven't read to the end of the book yet. I'm experiencing this in the time we're reading it. So I'm eager to see what happens next.
What do you think of the novel so far?
And in case you missed them, here are previous entries in the bookclub:
- SciFi Book Club: Embassytown Part Five - Notes - comments by Erik Kain
- Embassytown and the Drug of Language, comments by Alex Knapp
- Embassytown And The Garden Of Eden – comments by Erik Kain
- Embassytown and the Invention of Lies – comments by Erik Kain
- Better Than EzRa (Part Two: Festivals) – comments by Alex Knapp
- Latterday, Formerly and the Ambassadors (Part One: Income) – comments by Erik Kain
- Proem: The Immerser – comments by Alex Knapp
