I considered giving this 4 stars (I do give almost every book 4 stars anyway) but I deducted a bit because Mieville made me work so hard to get through the first 1/3 to 1/2 of the book. I would still give it 3.5 stars if I could. The first few chapters introduced us to the narrator Avice Benner Cho, recently returned to her home planet after years as an "immerser"....a sort of space/worlds traveler. The first part of the book was definitely hard to get through and turned my brain almost to complete mush because of Mieville's use of "made up" words, i.e. immerser, floaker and many more. I am sure that was probably his intent because then bam...the story got exciting and compelling and made kind of sense...and he even stopped using so many made up words. Maybe having our brains in a mushy state was necessary so that we could really enjoy the balance of the story...which I really liked. Mieville I think conveyed well what the slow end of the world scenario would be like...the violence, the hysteria, the partying and seemingly incongruously almost joy at times. I also liked how the story was told through Avice's recollection which was far from perfect, sometimes tangential, sometimes telling things that seemed to have no relevance, weaving back and forth. This is my first China Mieville but I doubt it will be the last. All the things that have been said about him...that he is brilliant...that his writing is fresh...that he is wonderful...can't be disproved upon reading Embassytown.