China Mieville

This man sounds awesome. I've just read 'Embassytown' and am definitely going to look out for more of his books in the future.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_meiville

He also has the same birthday as me :)

'Embassytown' was a science fiction novel with a strong linguistic bent although it seems like the author practices many genres. I have a mixed record with books that focus on linguistics - I can rarely handle the non-fiction ones. They seem too full of jargon that I managed to get through primary school without ever getting a firm handle on and so I get bogged down and bored.

However, while I may not always fully understand linguistic themes when I encounter them in science fiction, I recognise that it can provide a very powerful hook for a story line. Babel 17 by Samuel Delany is one of my favourite books ever. It manages to keep the plot line simple by focussing mainly on two linguistic points:
1) How do you distinguish a language from a code via cryptography?
2) What effect it would have on a person not to be able to conceive of 'I'. Could they develop a sense of self or an ethical framework?

By repeated examination of these issues from different viewpoints the reader gets multiple chances to understand the nuances of them, bypassing the dangers of excessive jargon and high complexity.

China Meiville follows a similar line of focussed enquiry in 'Embassytown'. The 'Host' alien race in his book is incapable of speaking untruths. However, in engaging with humans they are forced to develop a limited facility for lying and they do so by physically examining individuals and objects in the world around them that they recognise as significant similes or concepts e.g. 'the man who swims with fishes' is like X or 'the girl who ate what was given to her in the dark' is like Y. I won't ruin the plot but it hinges around their learning to move from similes to metaphor, a transition which is seen as necessary for individual agency.

It is a very good book and not as heavy-going as it sounds. It reminded me a bit of 'A Case of Conscience' by James Blish but also seemed quite Samuel Delany or Iain Banks like at times.