embassytown, china meiville's new book is exceptionally brilliant, well worth reading as an original science fiction book, he paints an incredibly evocative alien world, where the laws of physics are somewhat advanced enough for travel within a third universe, a sort of sub space dimension where 'immersers' assist space craft, and the action takes place on a frontier planet called 'arieka' where a young girl, 'avice' becomes a diplomat between humans and the native hosts. the hosts cannot lie and it appears communicate via a symbolic metaphoric imagery, into this backdrop comes a crisis in the form of a new ambassador.
the novel looks fundamentally at symbology, language and meaning, meivilles representation of aliens is truly alien and quite imaginative, plus it's a great story.
if you like your science fiction, literate, intelligent, and imaginative, you could do no better than this.