The Embedding

In terms of interesting ideas, this book is one of the best in SF I have read. If you are even vaguely interested in language theory, you will like the interesting twists the author gives to the ideas in that field. In terms of developing these ideas to their full potential, the book is not so good. It makes a v fine start but leaves you a little dissatisfied in the end. If you like SF for ideas, this is a good choice. But if you are looking for characterization or action, there are lots of other far better ones.

Ian Watson's first novel, published in 1973, was one of his best, and an acknowledged classic of science fiction. Its theme is not a traditional sf topic, but a very intellectually challenging one: language as the means to bridge the gap between human consciousness and the otherness of the objective world. In Watson's fictional "embededed" language of the Xemahoas, a Brazilian Indian tribe, "This-Reality" is converted into the transcendent pattern of "Other-Reality," which is the world of pure being. The Sp'thra (who represent the essential otherness of the objective world, everything about it that we do not understand) bargain for the brains of speakers of this language, which they desire to learn. At the end, the main character experiences a breakdown of reality and a cognizance of a new state of being, reminiscent of such occurrences in the work of Philip K. Dick.

There are tons of great ideas expresed in this book, must of them have to do with the way that the languaje can twist reality and how everithing we perceive is perceived thru the use of language. I think that the characters are much better built than the ones done by the late Isaac Asimov, I don't agree with the bad review given below. If I ever write a novel I hope that it will be as good as this one ( yes, this was his first novel, an incredible achievement). A must read.

Contrary to the other reader review of this book I found it to be one of the most thought provoking SF novels ever (this from a thirty year afficianado of Clarke, Asimov, Bradbury et al). Watson weaves an engrossing tale with tanatlising sub plots and questions the very fundementals of language and communication with massive implications for SETI planners and participants. I heartily reccomend this novel to any reader capable of discerning original SF thought from Star Wars 9. It is dissappointingly currently out of print so get down to your library or nag the publisher!