It takes a while to sink into this, to stop being vaguely confused and no longer need to reread sentences to see if you missed some context that would make sense of the whole thing. Similar to Gene Wolfe's SF, Miéville just throws the reader into the middle of this world and leaves them to muddle things out. Which on the one hand, sort of makes sense... Though on the other hand, not, because it leaves me to wonder who the narrator's intended audience is. Other Embassytowners? Off-worlders? Is it a private journal?

Otherwise, this is a brilliant book, exploring the role of language and figure of speech in psychology, and speculating on the role it might play in the lives and interactions of extraterrestrial sentient species.
The characters, even the only briefy-mentioned or wholly alien, are extremely well-fleshed, interesting, relateable. I got teary during a certain speech at the end of the book, not going to lie. (pun intended?)