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fookolt posted:This is how I feel as well about the Bas-Lag books. Although if you really want to talk about a PSS-style ending, Iain M Banks's Consider Phelbas is pretty much the best/worst example of it. I just finished Perdido Street Station, mostly as a result of this thread putting Mieville into my awareness. I'd say that PSS's ending is about 4 punches in the junk out of 5, as a generalized scale of "wow, this ending really sucked for the characters involved". Consider Phlebas is only 3/5 in my view, because at least there they saved the Mind, and really, a Mind is worth a whole sack of meat puppets.
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Jul 12, 2012 12:17
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Ceebees posted:I just finished Perdido Street Station, mostly as a result of this thread putting Mieville into my awareness. That's a good point! I just wish my junk didn't have to take so many punches 
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Jul 12, 2012 16:33
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Railsea question: "That Apt Ohm" feels like it must be a reference to something I'm missing. Given the eventual reveal about the godsquabble and the creditors waiting at the end of the world, I feel like there must be some reference that I'm supposed to get but I can't work it out. What does everyone else think?
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Jul 25, 2012 23:07
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Based on the reverent mentions of the Stonefaces (which sounds like Mount Rushmore) and the way the chieftan was dressed at the end I had assumed the original That Apt Ohm was some old salesman dressed up like Abraham Lincoln, promoting his trains in the same kitschy manner as modern car dealerships, who'd attained legendary status just through the natural distortions of inaccurately-recorded history. That's only an impression from a first quick readthrough, though, and it does sound like a bit of a stretch after actually typing it out. The name itself doesn't really connect with my idea.
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Jul 26, 2012 01:09
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Just finished The Scar. I think it might be my favorite Bas-Lag book. A few thoughts: -Uther Doul would be a great name for a Krautrock band. -I like that we never really get much detail on what the Avanc looks like. Just that it's mindbogglingly huge. A gigantic, inter-dimensional sea creature that is only described very loosely is more then a bit Lovecraftian. Most of the fan-art I've seen seems to go for some sort of whale but while reading I always pictured some sort of overgrown plankton. -Miéville does cities really well. It's both fantastical enough to be interesting and realistic enough to be believable. -Blood seems to be a bit of a motif what with the mosquito-women,the vampir and their goretax and the scabmettlers. Also the part of the book literally called "Blood". -Cactacæ having noses, which kept getting smashed by Doul, sort of threw me of since I had always pictured them as being pretty much exactly like this fan-art: http://njoo.deviantart.com/art/World-of-China-Mieville-48266205 -I liked how although the Grindylow were both alien and quite sinister their motive for traveling thousands of loving miles was not some sort of totem but the notes that would lead to them being invaded and subjugated by New-Crobuzon. Just because they're sinister magical fish-people doesn't mean they aren't rational. Also the magus-fin, an artifact of awesome power, being little more then a toy to them made them a lot scarier. -I was more expecting Bellis to come to terms with Armada at the end. Her going back to New-Crobuzon was a unexpected happy ending. I think the former would have been a bit more satisfying. FreudianSlippers fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 01:20
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FreudianSlippers posted:
I was always very fond of this person's fanart of not only the Cactae, but Khepri as well: Cactae & Khepri, More Cactae That Damn Satyr fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Aug 1, 2012 |
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Aug 1, 2012 03:06
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What's that? A new China Miéville book is coming out September this year?? Oh. It's just that essay he wrote about London expanded to about a hundred pages. 
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Aug 1, 2012 23:43
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I'm starting to suspect that he might like London.
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Aug 2, 2012 01:00
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FreudianSlippers posted:
There is a joke there. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin
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Aug 2, 2012 06:04
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Slo-Tek posted:There is a joke there. Holy poo poo, never noticed that. Thank you, enjoyment++.
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Aug 2, 2012 06:20
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Slo-Tek posted:There is a joke there. Mother. Fucker. I bet I missed all kinds of clever things throughout all his books.
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Aug 2, 2012 11:18
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magus-fin macguffin 
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Aug 2, 2012 11:49
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Captain_Indigo posted:Mother. Fucker. I bet I missed all kinds of clever things throughout all his books. While it isn't quite on the same level, the Garwater flagship Grand Easterly. Well, that pretty much existed. The Great Eastern Largest ship ever built to that point. With sails, screws and paddle wheels. On the first Atlantic crossing it was so fuel inefficient that they were chopping up the furniture to throw into the boilers to get it to port. Would not be the least surprised if this exact image, with all the ships rafted together inspired Armada.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Great_Eastern Was a major boondoggle at the time. Though in an interesting bit of redemption, it was also the only ship in the world large enough to haul the first successful transatlantic telegram cable across the ocean in a single piece. It had been attempted several times before by two ships each dragging half the cable and trying to link up in the middle without success. Slo-Tek fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Aug 2, 2012 |
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Aug 2, 2012 17:27
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Slo-Tek posted:While it isn't quite on the same level, the Garwater flagship Grand Easterly. God drat. I thought I loved the Bas Lag series, but just the last few posts have shown how much further that love goes.
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Aug 2, 2012 17:38
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FreudianSlippers posted:Just finished The Scar. I think it might be my favorite Bas-Lag book. Okay I'm just not a fan of this picture - aren't the Wyrmen (at least Teafortwo) meant to be really pudgy, and aren't handlingers meant to be lanky-looking corpses? (i always imagined them as the corpse-aliens from Dark City) The Khepri looks good, but everybody else looks like something straight out of Warcraft, some with strange dwarf proportions (what the hell is up with that scabmettler). And it's Rivebow, not Riverbow.
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Aug 4, 2012 18:05
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Hard Clumping posted:and aren't handlingers meant to be lanky-looking corpses? (i always imagined them as the corpse-aliens from Dark City) The Handlingers are just the hands so the hosts are bound to look different
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Aug 4, 2012 18:14
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I really like this Khepri drawing : http://fav.me/d1kjmyp
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Aug 4, 2012 18:16
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I actually really liked not knowing what the gently caress the Khepri looked like when reading the book, Mieville's descriptions of Lin had me with all this contradicting imagery in my head for the longest time, I could not figure out what the gently caress she looked like save that Isaac found her attractive, and that some part of her was a bug with little useless wings. I just don't like the idea of Bas Lag looking cartoony or stylized in any way. I want it dirty, quirky and unforgiving, which is why I don't think it could ever be turned into a movie or anything - among other things there's no way to portray the Cactacae as seriously with visuals as they are described in the novels.
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Aug 4, 2012 23:39
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Hard Clumping posted:some with strange dwarf proportions (what the hell is up with that scabmettler). And it's Rivebow, not Riverbow. Yeah. The Scabmettler looks strange as gently caress. If I remember correctly their skin is supposed to be gray and that dudes carvings make them look more like his tattooing himself with a knife rather then making blood armour.
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Aug 6, 2012 17:49
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The image I had of Scabmettlers making their armour was of the Scabmettler's blood spewing forth like molten lava and solidifying into very hard, chunky plates or something. But I don't mind granting the artists artistic licence to draw up whatever visions they see, whether accurate to the books or not.
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Aug 6, 2012 20:56
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Notahippie posted:Railsea question: Holy poo poo, somebody figured out that "That Apt Ohm" is an anagram of Topham Hatt, the controller from Thomas the Tank Engine.
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Aug 7, 2012 00:00
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Notahippie posted:Holy poo poo, somebody figured out that "That Apt Ohm" is an anagram of Topham Hatt, the controller from Thomas the Tank Engine. Oh my god
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Aug 7, 2012 03:42
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I really want to read another 800-pager from Miéville. Something to rival Perdido Street Station. Reading hundreds of pages of build-up only adds to the power of the inevitable downfall, at least in my eyes it does. With Perdido Street Station and The Scar we're given so much time in the cities that when the poo poo hits the fan it actually means something more than 'a city is reeling'; it means this city in which we have inhabited for the last 400 pages is reeling.
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Aug 14, 2012 11:36
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Beige posted:I really want to read another 800-pager from Miv0069lle. Something to rival Perdido Street Station. Reading hundreds of pages of build-up only adds to the power of the inevitable downfall, at least in my eyes it does. With Perdido Street Station and The Scar we're given so much time in the cities that when the poo poo hits the fan it actually means something more than 'a city is reeling'; it means this city in which we have inhabited for the last 400 pages is reeling. Totally loving agree. Although it'd probably be a case of choosing between either his one-book-per-year streak he's had since 2009, or bigger books with several years between each one. I can't choose Anyway, look at this loving amazing cover art for the Czech edition of Embassytown: 
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Aug 15, 2012 13:16
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Actually, I just want to take this moment to share my appreciation of Mieville's Czech publisher, who unlike the UK publisher (until recently), have kept a unified look for all of China's books. They even kept the same cover artist, the incomparable Edward Miller, instead of ditching him after The Scar like Macmillan did. The covers look loving excellent and I'd like to own them all as hardcovers (only, in English, as I can't read a word of Czech...  ) I can't wait to see what Miller paints for Railsea's cover. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 13:42 on Aug 15, 2012 |
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Aug 15, 2012 13:30
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Yeah, those PSS and Scar covers are perfect, and I'm holding onto those paperbacks just because of them.
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Aug 15, 2012 13:50
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In other news, let's talk about potential upcoming news! October 27, 2008: I create this thread with the first news about The City & The City September 5, 2009: First news about Kraken May 20, 2010: First news about Embassytown (ung so early in the year  )August 19, 2011: First news about Railsea GOSH I AM EXCITED and since the start of this month I have been checking Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Randomhouse.com and Panmacmillan.com daily for new titles  (what's known for sure is that China is contracted to release a book a year until at least 2014*, and based on the massive publishing deals some big SF/F authors have been getting lately**, this may continue further into the future) * This doesn't include the upcoming paperback release of his London Overthrow essay, or next year's Dial H graphic novel, as neither are being published by his usual publishers. ** Best example: Alastair Reynolds received £1 million in advance from his UK publisher to publish a book per year with them until 2020. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 14:08 on Aug 15, 2012 |
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Aug 15, 2012 14:00
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Jesus Christ, leave some for the rest of us, publishers! You'll burn out your talent, plus leave little for newcomers.
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Aug 16, 2012 03:55
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That artwork posted earlier is wonderful. They say not to judge a book by its cover but I found myself looking at the the covers of PSS and TS all the time while reading them and they just so happen to be the only two books I have with those gorgeous covers. Although the newer black covers with colourful spines look lovely too, the scenic ones give a graphical platform from which to begin imagining the environments in which the stories are set. On the subject of the so-many-books-per-year publishing contracts, well, I think it's a matter of where the reader stands on the 'quantity over quality' viewpoint. I think all of us agree that more books is better from our favourite authors as long as the quality doesn't suffer. Now, I haven't yet read Kraken or Railsea so I cannot comment on the quality of these compared to earlier books. Can anybody else give a comment for me?
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Aug 16, 2012 11:08
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wow, I don't know much about publishing contracts but assuming he doesn't get much in the way of royalties getting paid a million pounds in a lump sum for 8 years of work sounds terrible.
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Aug 16, 2012 11:13
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I have no idea how it works, but that Alastair Reynolds deal is always pointed to as A Big Thing, so it can't be that bad.
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Aug 16, 2012 11:21
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Paragon8 posted:wow, I don't know much about publishing contracts but assuming he doesn't get much in the way of royalties getting paid a million pounds in a lump sum for 8 years of work sounds terrible. Are you kidding? gently caress, give me a million pounds and I'll gladly sit around working on science fiction stories for 8 years. That's £125,000 pounds or AUD$186,000 per year, not to mention whatever interest it accrues. Compare this to my actual prospects of a science job once I finish my PhD, where I might get lucky and earn $50,000 a year and have to work my rear end off and not have much time to do creative stuff on the side. Reynolds has it made. And I'm sure he gets royalties too. Beige posted:On the subject of the so-many-books-per-year publishing contracts, well, I think it's a matter of where the reader stands on the 'quantity over quality' viewpoint. I think all of us agree that more books is better from our favourite authors as long as the quality doesn't suffer. Now, I haven't yet read Kraken or Railsea so I cannot comment on the quality of these compared to earlier books. Can anybody else give a comment for me? Kraken is a lot of fun but a bit bloated to be honest. If you like Neil-Gaiman-style romps through magic underworlds of modern cities, then you'll enjoy it. Railsea is pure, utter joy.
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Aug 16, 2012 11:49
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Income tax is 50% for that level of earnings so it's 500K which works out to be 62,500 a year which isn't bad, but for a top level in a field it seems a bit low. Of course he's doing something he in theory absolutely loves doing. For a blockbuster book deal it doesn't seem too good though. Again I'm not sure how much royalties he'd be getting and if he has any alternative income sources.
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Aug 16, 2012 12:02
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Hedrigall posted:Kraken is a lot of fun but a bit bloated to be honest. If you like Neil-Gaiman-style romps through magic underworlds of modern cities, then you'll enjoy it. Swish! I've had to refrain from reading the Railsea and Kraken posts here to avoid any spoilers but it looks like I'll be going for those two next. I will though be up-to-date with China's books so I'll be craving more news. Fingers crossed for an epic.
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Aug 16, 2012 12:05
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If authors can do one book a year without the quality going down then that is good, and i am delighted to hear of science fiction and fantasy authors getting such good deals, since i always seem to hear that there is almost no money to be made in writing books. But another exactly is someone like Steph Swainston (who also writes in the weird fiction category) who decided to take a break from writing a year ago because she felt that the pressure to do one book a year was making the books worse. But Embassytown and Railsea are some of China's best work, so i would be more than happy if the quality stays the same. While i like the Czech covers, i actually like the new covers more that have the same look
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Aug 16, 2012 12:36
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Oh no doubt China's still on the good end of the quality scale, but Reynolds is criticized for being quite same-y with the RS books. It's worth noting that Erickson got a million for his series as well, which turned out to be nothing but bloat and wank, so it still depends on the author. Paragon8 posted:For a blockbuster book deal it doesn't seem too good though. Again I'm not sure how much royalties he'd be getting and if he has any alternative income sources. You can bet your rear end it is. 8 years guaranteed payment if you meet the deadlines? Yeah. Most genre books make maybe ~20-25k for the author after all is said and done, being 2-3 years of work. If he's got a decent royalty rate (15%), and does the same sales for a popular SFFH work for each book a year, he's doing just fine. Not a millionaire, but fine. That's in addition to the contract, and I doubt he has to earn out against that (maybe). With combined sales too, digital and everything, that might add another 50k gross per year. *Not in the business, just read a lot about publishing.
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Aug 16, 2012 21:04
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Cool, thanks for the info. Had no idea!
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Aug 16, 2012 22:42
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SaviourX posted:Oh no doubt China's still on the good end of the quality scale, but Reynolds is criticized for being quite same-y with the RS books. Thanks for that. Never knew much about the money situation for genre writers. It's still disappointing that top writers in the field like Mieville and Reynolds only make a middle class living.
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Aug 17, 2012 16:53
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Found a prerelease uncorrected review-only copy of Embassytown at a used bookstore for $6  I am totally getting this signed on his next tour.
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Aug 17, 2012 18:54
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shrike82 posted:Thanks for that. Never knew much about the money situation for genre writers. I'm pretty sure that once you get that famous you have a lot of other potential income streams - speaking fees and teaching classes and that kind of thing. So they're probably doing better than the raw contract for their books would suggest. It's not a great field to go into if you want to be rich, though.
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Aug 17, 2012 18:59
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