China Mieville

[Ainulindale]

Hm. I picked up THE SCAR last time I was in Powell's. Looks like I have some inventive writing to look forward to.

Loved it. Uther Doul is a really a fantastic character. Just a note Mieville has a collection of short stories coming out entitled Looking for Jake from Del-ray in August. Mieville is a pretty incredible short story author (The Tain), defintely looking forward to it.

Oh, and since I've never read anything by the subject of this post, what's a good "starter" Mieville book?

Jaymark, if your still interested interested in Mieville I have done a couple of reviews:

Perdido Street Station review

Iron Council review

King Rat review

[Dragonlily]

*bump* for Skeletal Grace

[Skeletal Grace]

Thanks for the bump kid!

China Mieveille has become one of my absolute favorite writers period. He's the kind of writer that I would enjoy whether he wrote fantasy or cook books. He's just got that touch with his prose that absolutely sucks me right into his worlds...

And what worlds...

The worlds he builds are just fantastic. His city New Crobuzon feels more concrete and real than most actual cities you visit or read about in travel guides. It's not a beautiful Never Neverland with singing elves and emerald towers, but rather a grimy dirty decadent city with racial ghettos, black rivers and exotic marketplaces. All described in the most eloquent of wordflows.

The characters are immensely deep and interesting and the plots are advanced without being too politically over dramatic. There is no "Chosen One" to lead the good forces to slay the Evil Wizard with his crystal sword. Just fat little scientists and their insectile lovers investigating the physics of flight and stumbling upon impending doom (read and find out) .

Some of my all time fantasy characters can be found in Perdido Street Station (his master piece). The Weaver taking a high seat among those... One of the creepiest creatures to ever set any of its 8 foots on a fantasy page.

Wanna start with Mieville? Start with Perdido Street Station. It rocks...

[Ainulindale]

Hell yes Skeletal Grace!

As I replied in the Currently Reading Thread, Mieville is IMHO the best current writer in fantasy. Combo of increible prose, vivid imagiantion, and realism that is currently unequalled IMHO. Agreed, the Weaver is a creation other writer's aren't even close to achieving yet, a GREAT character.

[Ainulindale]

New China Mieville interview Here

[Dragonlily]

Excellent interview, Ainulindale. Thanks.

As a kid, you grow up reading SF, fantasy, and horror and you do have that slight sense of literary embattlement. We exaggerate it for the purposes of radical chic, but nonetheless you do get a lot of shit for it.

I never did, but what the hay. It's fun wording.

I’m trying to say I’ve invented this world that I think is really cool and I have these really big stories to tell in it and one of the ways that I find to make that interesting is to think about it politically. If you want to do that to, that’s fantastic. But if not, isn’t this a cool monster?

I've moved my Mievilles up the tbr stack.

[Encryptic]

Hell yes Skeletal Grace!

As I replied in the Currently Reading Thread, Mieville is IMHO the best current writer in fantasy. Combo of increible prose, vivid imagiantion, and realism that is currently unequalled IMHO. Agreed, the Weaver is a creation other writer's aren't even close to achieving yet, a GREAT character.

I've pretty much been sold on Mieville, thanks to the Watch. That being the case, I just picked up Iron Council from the library but haven't started it yet (PSS was checked out, as was The Scar).

My question for the folks who are familiar with the 3 books written so far:

Are they more or less stand-alone or do you need to read them in the order of publication (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council) in order for them to make sense? Any spoilers for the previous books in Iron Council, or can I just read it and be able to enjoy it without previous knowledge of the earlier books?

[Ainulindale]

Are they more or less stand-alone or do you need to read them in the order of publication (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council) in order for them to make sense? Any spoilers for the previous books in Iron Council, or can I just read it and be able to enjoy it without previous knowledge of the earlier books?

They are very much stand alone novels, however that said, regarding Iron Council, I would highly recommend reading it last. It is very different thematically from Pefdido Street Station and the Scar.. and these two novels offer a much more recommended introduction into Bas-lag. Mieville's style is not common, there really is nothing like it, and because of that it takes some time to get acclamated to it, and it's best IMHO not to start with Iron Council.

In a perfect world I'd recommend reading them in order of publication, Perdido, Scar, then Iron Council, however it really doesn't make a differences in reading order with the first 2.

[Encryptic]

Are they more or less stand-alone or do you need to read them in the order of publication (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council) in order for them to make sense? Any spoilers for the previous books in Iron Council, or can I just read it and be able to enjoy it without previous knowledge of the earlier books?

They are very much stand alone novels, however that said, regarding Iron Council, I would highly recommend reading it last. It is very different thematically from Pefdido Street Station and the Scar.. and these two novels offer a much more recommended introduction into Bas-lag. Mieville's style is not common, there really is nothing like it, and because of that it takes some time to get acclamated to it, and it's best IMHO not to start with Iron Council.

In a perfect world I'd recommend reading them in order of publication, Perdido, Scar, then Iron Council, however it really doesn't make a differences in reading order with the first 2.

Thanks for the recommendation.

I stopped by a different branch of the library on the way home and snapped up PSS and shelved Iron Council for now. I couldn't get into the other book I was reading at the moment (The Knight) so I put it down and got into PSS a little bit last night before I hit the sack.

First impression: Whoa. That prologue describing New Crobuzon as well as the first couple of chapters I read definitely grabbed me. I can't say I've ever been this immersed in an author's depiction of a place within just a few pages of starting the book.

Looking forward to reading more, needless to say.

[I'm Murrin]

Halfway through Perdido Street Station, and enjoying it a lot. I'm finding Mieville's writing very easy to read for some reason.

[Ainulindale]

Let me just say. Mieville is a God in speculative fiction. There....

[Encryptic]

Let me just say. Mieville is a God in speculative fiction. There....

I don't know about "God" status yet, but 200+ pages into Perdido Street Station and I'm very impressed. If the rest of his stuff is this good, I believe Mieville will join the august company of Wolfe and others on my "Authors I'm Obsessed With" list.

[I'm Murrin]

Finished Perdido Street Station last night - amazing. The Slake-moths are a brilliant creation, and the whole book is so original and imaginative it doesn't even compare to many of the books I've read in the past. Brilliant.

[Skeletal Grace]

Amen.

[Encryptic]

Finished Perdido Street Station last night - amazing. The Slake-moths are a brilliant creation, and the whole book is so original and imaginative it doesn't even compare to many of the books I've read in the past. Brilliant.

You're ahead of me....I've still got about 150 pages left on PSS myself. Got a couple other books to read, then I'll most likely move on to The Scar.

Edit: Yes, the slake-moths are definitely one of the most fascinating creations yet, as is The Weaver.

[Encryptic]

Just finished Perdido Street Station last night. Definitely one of the best books I've read in a while and I'm looking forward to reading The Scar.

While it's still fresh in my mind....this was bugging me and I don't know if I just missed something earlier in the book that would have clued me in:

Spoiler

What was up with Jack-Half-A-Prayer suddenly showing up to help Isaac and the others fight off the militia when they were on the roof near the end? He didn't say anything to them or otherwise give any indication as to why he was there. Obviously he's no friend of the government, but why would he just show up out of the blue to help them and then disappear?

[Ainulindale]

Encryptic, you pointed out the one thing I mentioned in my review of Perdido Street Station HERE.

SPOILERS


It was the only part of the entire novel that seemed rather odd. Perhaps that in itself was it's purpose? I would hate to accuse Mieville (who as I have said I deem the current best writer in specualtive fiction) of having a contrived sequence, so I may be reaching here. Perhaps it was a way to make the ending passage (with Yagharek) invoke more meaning? Perhaps the answer is in the name:) Half-a-prayer:)

[Encryptic]

Encryptic, you pointed out the one thing I mentioned in my review of Perdido Street Station HERE.

SPOILERS


It was the only part of the entire novel that seemed rather odd. Perhaps that in itself was it's purpose? I would hate to accuse Mieville (who as I have said I deem the current best writer in specualtive fiction) of having a contrived sequence, so I may be reaching here. Perhaps it was a way to make the ending passage (with Yagharek) invoke more meaning? Perhaps the answer is in the name:) Half-a-prayer:)

Heh....glad to see I'm not the only one who thought that was odd.

Very well-done review that pretty much sums up my feelings about the book as well.

[Roland of Gilead]

My impression was that Jack Half-a-Prayer would play a larger role in a later novel. Sort of like how Steven Erikson has a bit player in one novel turn into a major player in another book in his series.

But still, this doesn't excuse the perhaps too timely rescue aspects of it.

A minor flaw in an almost perfect novel. I'll forgive him.

[Ainulindale]

Heh....glad to see I'm not the only one who thought that was odd.

It really did stick out to me, but I think it has a lot to do with how flawless the rest of novel is. The same types of rescues occur in many other novels and are hardly ever mentioend as a weakness they are so prevalen in the rest of the text.

Very well-done review that pretty much sums up my feelings about the book as well.

Thanks, I appreciate it!