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Perdido posted:Adamant Entertainment has been working on a Bas Lag RPG book for about 2 loving years now. Mieville's been involved with it and will be contributing information, maps and artwork.  wow, what the hell is the hold up I wonder? I hope it'd be a good read for non-RPGers without a bunch of crap about dice rolls and such nonsense.
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Jun 2, 2010 23:29
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Perdido posted:Adamant Entertainment has been working on a Bas Lag RPG book for about 2 loving years now. Mieville's been involved with it and will be contributing information, maps and artwork. It'll probably never be published because Adamant is really poo poo with deadlines They're still advertising on their site for artists to work on the project.
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Jun 3, 2010 02:45
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This is incredibly depressing to hear. 
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Jun 3, 2010 04:13
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I'm a Mieville virgin and I just popped my cherry with Looking for Jake. Got King Rat lined up next, then will start the Bas Log series or whatever the gently caress it's called. Really enjoying this stuff 
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Jun 3, 2010 05:04
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lokk posted:I'm a Mieville virgin and I just popped my cherry with Looking for Jake. Got King Rat lined up next, then will start the Bas Log series or whatever the gently caress it's called. Really enjoying this stuff Eh, skip King Rat. It's his most forgettable book. Go straight to Perdido, or even better, The Scar 
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Jun 3, 2010 05:08
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Hedrigall posted:Eh, skip King Rat. It's his most forgettable book. Go straight to Perdido, or even better, The Scar I really like King Rat and it's a fast read, I highly recommend it as a starter Mieville book before diving into Bas Lag. Un Lun Dun more so, but King Rat is fun too.
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Jun 3, 2010 05:41
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Turpitude posted:I really like King Rat and it's a fast read, I highly recommend it as a starter Mieville book before diving into Bas Lag. Un Lun Dun more so, but King Rat is fun too. The book by the same title by James Clavell is also a pretty good read, albeit sans anything supernatural (it's about POW's in Singapore during WW2).
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Jun 3, 2010 06:12
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Hedrigall posted:Eh, skip King Rat. It's his most forgettable book. Go straight to Perdido, or even better, The Scar Noooo don't read The Scar before Perdido Street Station ever
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Jun 3, 2010 06:30
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I read PSS first, but can't see how reading The Scar first would really hurt. I mean sure the main character begins her arc because of something that happened in the other novel, but what exactly that something is is never mentioned beyond "poo poo went down and now I must go blahblahblah" (Mieville writes better than me but you get the idea). Of course, you don't really get a tour of New Crobuzon like you do in Perdido, and that's the important part of Bas-Lag, I think. By the way, have any of you read Joe Abercrombie's books? Their styles are like polar opposites but I love 'em both.
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Jun 3, 2010 07:30
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Turpitude posted:I really like King Rat and it's a fast read, I highly recommend it as a starter Mieville book before diving into Bas Lag. Un Lun Dun more so, but King Rat is fun too. Yeah this is what I've heard from reading some of this thread. As I'm new to the whole fantasy/sci-fi genre and books overall, I'm trying to get my feet wet first before taking on the big stuff o.O
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Jun 3, 2010 11:05
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lokk posted:Yeah this is what I've heard from reading some of this thread. As I'm new to the whole fantasy/sci-fi genre and books overall, I'm trying to get my feet wet first before taking on the big stuff o.O Well it's impressive you are getting into Mieville, and in that case King Rat is definitely a good choice! It's fast, straight forward, and fun. You can tell it's one of the first things he wrote but it's not bad or anything, just less mature than his other stuff. I would compare it to Neil Gaiman's stuff, or Douglas Adams. It's a mix of urban London and supernatural shenanigans. Un Lun Dun is Mieville's more polished kinda spinoff and is a bigger adventure but written very much for young adults. It's way better than Harry Potter though
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Jun 3, 2010 16:05
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Grand Prize Winner posted:By the way, have any of you read Joe Abercrombie's books? Their styles are like polar opposites but I love 'em both. Ugh, I can't stand the neckbeard circle-jerkery over Abercrombie. His style is of the 'I don't actually write prose, but here's some craaaazy poo poo I thought of that no one else ever has about the fantasy genre, here you go!' school. Wish more people would go for the 'I'm entirely too wordy for my own good and am going to employ my themes as densely and college paper-y as possible' Mieville style. 
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Jun 4, 2010 01:43
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I was surprised it took this long for someone to mention Un Lun Dun, even though its mostly aimed at a younger crowd it was pretty good, although it read more like Gaiman than Miéville. Jeff VanderMeer's books were mentioned earlier in this thread, i really liked Veniss Underground, but i am about a third way through Shriek: An Afterword, and i have a hard time keeping an interest in it, does it get any "better, or should i just realise that it is not a book for me and give up? Oasx fucked around with this message at 08:16 on Jun 4, 2010 |
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Jun 4, 2010 08:13
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Brand new audio interview with China He very briefly mentions the upcoming book, only a couple of times: once about 3 minutes in and once right at the end. He doesn't give away any details except that the prose style will be somewhere between TC&TC ("restrained and nomic") and Kraken ("rumbustuous and chaotic").
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Jun 8, 2010 06:13
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Hedrigall posted:the prose style will be somewhere between TC&TC ("restrained and nomic") and Kraken ("rumbustuous and chaotic"). Does that mean literally nothing?
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Jun 8, 2010 17:16
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Oasx posted:
Finch is incredible.
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Jun 8, 2010 17:16
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http://www.swampthingroots.com/news_06-03-10_china-mieville-hints-at-his-swamp-thing-run.html China talks about what would have been in his Swamp Thing comic series.
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Jun 9, 2010 04:16
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Danger posted:Does that mean literally nothing? That quote means literally something completely coherent and sensible. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/rumbustious http://www.thefreedictionary.com/nomic
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Jun 9, 2010 05:15
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It may mean something, but it doesn't make me want to slap the academic dissertation-giving nonce right the gently caress out of him (at times) any less.
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Jun 10, 2010 00:06
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Danger posted:Finch is incredible.
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Jun 12, 2010 20:13
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Wrojin posted:I was wondering about that. I liked Veniss Underground, I liked (parts of) City of Saints and Madmen, though I thought some of it was overblown, but I bogged down early in Shriek. So what book of VanderMeer's is Finch most like? It's really quite different than his other stuff. Vandermeer did a much better job at writing like Chandler on drugs than Meiville did with TC&TC.
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Jun 14, 2010 05:40
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Danger posted:It's really quite different than his other stuff. Vandermeer did a much better job at writing like Chandler on drugs than Meiville did with TC&TC. ...which wasn't really what Mieville was going for in that book, but ok.
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Jun 14, 2010 10:51
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Thanks, guys, that answers my question well enough to consider giving Finch a try. I liked TC&TC also, btw. To be more topical, I actually just finished Un Lun Dun at work last night, and though I felt that China was rather conspicuously giving a go at YA, it was still mostly readable. Smog, though? Cough. A bit facile with respect to the lessons for the youth, you know, but there were a couple good puns and I sort of liked the anti-prophecy slant.
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Jun 14, 2010 16:34
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elentar posted:...which wasn't really what Mieville was going for in that book, but ok. I have no idea what he was going for. The City was my favorite book of his by far, mainly because I'm more of a crime fiction guy than sci-fi, though I much preferred Vandermeer's style of writing.
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Jun 14, 2010 18:26
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I haven't read any Chandler but I saw a lot of similarities to Kafka in TC&TCWrojin posted:Thanks, guys, that answers my question well enough to consider giving Finch a try. I liked TC&TC also, btw. To be more topical, I actually just finished Un Lun Dun at work last night, and though I felt that China was rather conspicuously giving a go at YA, it was still mostly readable. Smog, though? Cough. A bit facile with respect to the lessons for the youth, you know, but there were a couple good puns and I sort of liked the anti-prophecy slant. The carnivorous giraffes genuinely freaked me out!
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Jun 15, 2010 02:16
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Turpitude posted:The carnivorous giraffes genuinely freaked me out! I hope China skips any more kid stuff, because he's much better at the new weird; especially in Bas Lag. I want more like The Scar.
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Jun 15, 2010 12:39
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After reading some more of his stuff, I kinda feel that this guy isn't that great at writing prose. He has some amazingly creative ideas but the writing itself is for the most part bland and at times downright bad. I find myself drawn to read more just because of how cool his stories and ideas are, I just really wish he wrote better.
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Jun 16, 2010 15:24
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Just finished Kraken. Took me ages cause it has been a busy month. I loved it. I love the story, the overall arch of the plot, I love the characterisation and character concepts, particularly Goss & Subby, Simon and The Sea and I really like some of the conceptual magical elements like the sentence about Billy being an accidental messiah and how else are they chosen? The language was complex and flowery, but I think it worked. The words kept telling you how grotty and grimy London was, but the language gave it the feeling of a more traditional fantasy setting. Ending - I guessed that Vardy was involved somehow because he was used so much to start with, then vanihsed. I didn't guess the whole Beagle thing, which I liked. Good read. Now to start on The Scar.
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Jun 16, 2010 16:36
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Danger posted:After reading some more of his stuff, I kinda feel that this guy isn't that great at writing prose. He has some amazingly creative ideas but the writing itself is for the most part bland and at times downright bad. Some writers are more about ideas than flowery or fluent prose. Philip K Dick was a bit like this too but, in my opinion, a better writer than Miéville who has great ideas, but his prose (Miéville's) can be a bit clunky and awkward at times and he's not very good at writing characters. His characters tend to be spokespeople for his ideas rather than catalysts of his story's plot. But, all those criticisms aside, he's probably the most original fantasy author writing just now. And he seems to be pretty prolific too. Varicose Brains fucked around with this message at 16:43 on Jun 16, 2010 |
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Jun 16, 2010 16:40
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my least favourite thing about bas-lag was the handlingers. It's always "OH MY GOD IT'S A HANDLINGER THEY'RE ULTIMATE BADASSES" and then they get their asses handed (hurr) to them. Also I thought the scar was great, AMAZINGly good, and Iron Council was a massive disappointment to me. I love the sense of the weird that you get from his books. Anyway, starting The city and the city so I hope it's decent!
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Jun 17, 2010 23:37
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redreader posted:my least favourite thing about bas-lag was the handlingers. It's always "OH MY GOD IT'S A HANDLINGER THEY'RE ULTIMATE BADASSES" and then they get their asses handed (hurr) to them. Also I thought the scar was great, AMAZINGly good, and Iron Council was a massive disappointment to me. I love the sense of the weird that you get from his books. I think it made sense, the handlingers were shown to be badasses and thus proved how powerful the slake moths were when the slake moths annihilated them. Squidbeak fucked around with this message at 05:10 on Jun 19, 2010 |
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Jun 19, 2010 01:17
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Just read my first, Iron Council. Definitely loved it. It was artful and had a nice break-up between the different portions in terms of theme and tone. However, I found the novella in the middle of the novel to have been a grotesquely foolish decision, structure-wise. I appreciate backstory as much as the next person, but that was arduous. For a section about the Iron Council, it focused too much on Judah, and for a section about Judah, he was horribly flimsy and under-utilized. I don't mean that in terms of "HAY WHY AIN'T HE FIGHTIN' THE FINAL BOSS," I mean that his characterization felt weak. Other individuals in the book received much less screen time but were still significantly stronger, notably in terms of how successfully they communicated the value of novel as an entity. I realize that Judah had to remain somewhat enigmatic, but if that was an important facet to his character, I didn't need to know about his childhood, quite frankly. It's difficult to explain precisely.... It felt unfocused and overindulgent. I feel like he should have written it, just to place down these things in his head, but that the book wasn't sufficiently strengthened by its inclusion to warrant its entirety. Or perhaps the section should have come sooner or later.... The middle just seemed like exactly the wrong spot. Don't let me whining misrepresent me, though: I'm glad I heard about this book! One of the best I've read in a LONG damned time.
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Jun 19, 2010 04:02
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Yeah, structurally, it felt weird at the time, and even though Judah comes off as you say, I still enjoyed it for what it was. Essentially a novella of backstory with its own little twists and turns. Then again, IC is still my favorite thus far, since there's something new or happening/changing every few pages. So, your complaint is valid, but its also just how China is--full of ideas and 10-dollar words and wanting to get them out in any way possible.
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Jun 19, 2010 09:17
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I just started reading Perdido Street Station this weekend. It seems like a lot of the beginning of the book is just world building for the city and world he has created, is that about right? In fact it seems like most of the book will really be just about this weird world he's created and the stuff that goes on in it, rather than having a big plot idea driving the whole thing. Then again I haven't gotten to whatever this giant moth monster actually does yet It's pretty interesting though, at least
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Jun 28, 2010 14:08
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Levitate posted:I just started reading Perdido Street Station this weekend. It seems like a lot of the beginning of the book is just world building for the city and world he has created, is that about right? In fact it seems like most of the book will really be just about this weird world he's created and the stuff that goes on in it, rather than having a big plot idea driving the whole thing. Then again I haven't gotten to whatever this giant moth monster actually does yet The plot takes a long time to build up pace in Perdido but once it does it speeds up significantly. There is a lot of world building though, and that continues right through the book; but this is the main attraction of Miéville's books. His imagination is brimming with ideas and his inventiveness is immense. After reading stodgy kitchen-boy-becomes-king fantasy novels for years I found Miéville to be a breath of life on a tired genre.
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Jun 28, 2010 14:24
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Kraken's shipping to me soon; I look forward to seeing what all the fuss was about.
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Jun 28, 2010 15:41
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Levitate posted:I just started reading Perdido Street Station this weekend. It seems like a lot of the beginning of the book is just world building for the city and world he has created, is that about right? In fact it seems like most of the book will really be just about this weird world he's created and the stuff that goes on in it, rather than having a big plot idea driving the whole thing. Then again I haven't gotten to whatever this giant moth monster actually does yet The city really is a character unto itself in PSS. The plot takes a while to get moving and still meanders around with some less-than-essential subplots; there's definitely some stuff that could have been cut but I guess Mieville has a pretty generous editor. I still really enjoyed the book, but I don't get all huffy if other people say they didn't.
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Jun 28, 2010 16:00
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Pompous Rhombus posted:The city really is a character unto itself in PSS. The plot takes a while to get moving and still meanders around with some less-than-essential subplots; there's definitely some stuff that could have been cut but I guess Mieville has a pretty generous editor. I still really enjoyed the book, but I don't get all huffy if other people say they didn't. I can't remember now where I read it (I think it may have been on Brandon Sanderson's blog), but fantasy/sci-fi publishers tend to like larger manuscripts. Have you ever noticed that you don't see many slim fantasy novels on the shelves these days? Fantasy and sci-fi readers tend to prefer larger, epic, stories, which is why wordy manuscripts aren't slim down when they get the OK from the editor. Not only this but the publishers can sell them for a higher price. I'll have to try and dig that article out sometime.
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Jun 28, 2010 16:15
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Yeah, it's not that I'm not enjoying it, I'm just having a bit of trouble figuring out what stuff is plot related (like, oh this will be useful in whatever the upcoming conflict is) and what is setting the scene. But since it's interesting enough, it's not a impediment to my enjoying the book. The Remade and Torque stuff is pretty grotesque
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Jun 28, 2010 17:32
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It's been mentioned before in the thread, but the first and second halves of PSS are very, very different. The first half is slow world-building, the second half is much more of a fast-paced plot adventure.
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Jun 28, 2010 18:28
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