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Hedrigall posted:
Nice find. I'd be sort of surprised to see that, to be honest - most of the time you see a short story collection come out from a well-known author, they're either earlier pieces previously published in assorted magazines (I wouldn't be surprised if Miéville had some short stories from his early career that didn't make it into Looking for Jake, though) or they've otherwise surfaced recently. It's uncommon for short story books to truly contain more than one or two stories' worth of actually hitherto unseen material. When I last corresponded with him a few years ago, he did mention that he's got some ghost-story stuff that was a few years out, so even if, Dial H aside, there does seem to be something of a Miéville hiatus at the moment (and a short story collection would in some senses prolong that hiatus), he does usually have his next few projects plotted out in a vague sense at the very least. I sort of suspect that the split in the British SWP has taken a great deal of his attention, though.
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Aug 25, 2013 19:42
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Railsea came out a year ago so it is not like it has been a long time since we had a new book, i would of course love to have more Mieville, but i would hate for him to feel pressured to write a book a year, like some publishers are supposedly asking many authors.
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Aug 25, 2013 20:24
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Hedrigall posted:
I remember reading Looking for Jake specifically for the story about Jack Half-a-Prayer and I'd love for there to be another featuring him or Toro. But I realise there's a fine line between appeasing the fans and running certain characters into the ground. You know what I mean? Some characters are best left alone. I'd still read it though.
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Aug 25, 2013 20:30
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Hedrigall posted:Chiwetel Ejiofor if he eats like 40 cakes. First (before he gets much older) he has to play Sparrowhawk in A Wizard of Earthsea directed by Joss Whedon. In my dreams.
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Aug 25, 2013 20:30
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Have some things while we wait for book news    They look good tiled as wallpapers. edit: The US got the shittiest book covers  (except for The Scar, that cover's pretty cool) edit: More pretty things.       
Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 04:22 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 4, 2013 04:05
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Is there anywhere in the US I can get copies with the cover art in the top set? I would pay to have them shipped to the U.S. If not, just don't know where the best place to get them is.
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Sep 4, 2013 05:59
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Benson Cunningham posted:Is there anywhere in the US I can get copies with the cover art in the top set? I would pay to have them shipped to the U.S. If not, just don't know where the best place to get them is. http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/sea...rtBy=popularity With free shipping worldwide. edit: Or just go to your favourite book website, search for China Miéville with the publisher set to Macmillan. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 06:05 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 4, 2013 06:02
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Oasx posted:Railsea came out a year ago so it is not like it has been a long time since we had a new book, i would of course love to have more Mieville, but i would hate for him to feel pressured to write a book a year, like some publishers are supposedly asking many authors.  (it's worth reading).Definitely agreed though, British politics have probably accounted for the rest of the focus. I'm interested in more short stories from him though since I think some of his best stuff was in Looking for Jake (the story with the secret codes found in tins of food especially). Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Personally I would read a whole book of "Tanner Sack's adventures under the sea." Noricae fucked around with this message at 10:07 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 4, 2013 10:03
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Hedrigall posted:Have some things while we wait for book news I also like this one: 
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Sep 4, 2013 20:03
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Reiterating from the general thread, and raising the dead: Speaking of The Scar, it really is an amazing book in so many different ways. Reread it for the 3d time last week, purely based on this thread. First of all, the Bas-Lag world is totally different from basically all other fantasy worlds. The races are imaginative and not another versions of typical elves, orcs and dwarfs. Races are not explained in detail, which just brings flavour to it. I like the fact that everything in Bas-Lag doesn't have to be explained (looking at you Sanderson). The moral ambiguity of all characters is another great thing of Mieville. And finally the plot in The Scar is so good, layers upon layers of intrigue that works together quite seamlessly. Rereading it a third time really made appreciate the whole story. Speaking of Bas Lag, is it a dead chapter for Mieville? The whole world is basically contained within PSS, The Scar, IC + some novels in an anthology(?). In that case, it is sort of sad since the world is hardly explored at all. Even considering that part of the charm of Bas-Lag is the mystery of various races and places. Also, looking at his wikipedia entry he has written this: "Floating Utopias", in Davis, Mike and Daniel Bertrand Monk (eds.), Evil Paradises: Dreamworld of Neoliberalism (New York: New Press), 2007.
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Sep 10, 2013 10:26
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Cardiac posted:Speaking of Bas Lag, is it a dead chapter for Mieville? PSS, The Scar, IC, the short story "Jack" in Looking for Jake. That's it. He said he will probably write more Bas-Lag books one day when he can justify (with a good enough plot) returning to the world. There's also a semi-canon RPG sourcebook in the works called Tales of New Crobuzon, for which Miéville apparently contributed tons of background info about Bas-Lag, as well as official maps. But it was announced like 8 loving years ago, and will probably never get finished  Cardiac posted:Also, looking at his wikipedia entry he has written this: It's a non-fiction article about libertarian floating cities, in which he calls out libertarians a hell of a lot. Kinda funny. You can read it online.
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Sep 10, 2013 11:21
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Oh I forgot... For those of you who enjoyed Dial H (RIP  ) remember to grab the coda issue out on the 18th of this month: http://www.dccomics.com/comics/justice-league-2011/justice-league-233-dial-eblurb posted:You can’t stop dialing! In a special VILLAINS MONTH coda to the fan-favorite DIAL H series, a lost E-dial is discovered by four young criminals on the run in Littleville. But who is chasing them? And will they figure out how to control this nefarious dial before it’s too late? Hindsight is twenty-twenty when you’re sprinting through dark alleys! This issue features 20 new villains, 20 pages of creative insanity—and 20 top artists, each drawing a page of the action!
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Sep 10, 2013 13:27
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I genuinely hope we never get to see any of the mysterious off-stage Bas-Lag stuff like the Torque. Best left imagined, I think, though if anyone could pull it off it'd be Mieville.
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Sep 11, 2013 04:00
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General Battuta posted:I genuinely hope we never get to see any of the mysterious off-stage Bas-Lag stuff like the Torque. Best left imagined, I think, though if anyone could pull it off it'd be Mieville. Agreedo, I like that he generates new unknowable horrors for every book, without ever explaining any of them. Torque, unknowable horror poo poo. The Weaver, unknowable horror poo poo. The Demons, unknowable horror poo poo. The Scar, unknowable horror poo poo. Whatever the grindylow were up to, unknowable horror poo poo. Whatever the Teshi were up to, Unknowable horror poo poo. I also like the implication that it is actually knowable, to somebody, just not to our protagonists or to the reader, who are entirely out of their loving depth with unimaginable powers grinding them up with no more attention than a nacreous puissant constantly folding fractal tesserae mill stone gives a to an individual kernel of adjective adjective barley.
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Sep 11, 2013 06:22
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Its a shame, because I'd like to see more about the grindylow, but at the same time, I love their characterization in the Scar and don't really want that malevolent mystery gone. Torque, the Teshi, the Weaver, whatever (though more Weaver would be cool), but the grindylow just got me wanting more while the others just made for awesome background.
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Sep 11, 2013 07:26
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The Grindylow were the best. If Miéville ever does a sequel to The Scar, it should be called The Loch 
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Sep 11, 2013 07:39
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God drat, I'm going through the Bas Lag wiki again (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bas-Lag) and it's just astonishing how loving good the worldbuilding and everything is. Are there any other similar weird as hell series out there? I tried the Ambergris series, but all the damp fungus mentions just made me feel like I needed to take a hot shower 
fookolt fucked around with this message at 08:22 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 08:08
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Occurs to me that the Anopheli are striking because they are so contrastingly understandable. They are just Hungry.
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Sep 11, 2013 09:00
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Hedrigall posted:The Grindylow were the best. If Miéville ever does a sequel to The Scar, it should be called The Loch Although with the Grindylow, I felt like they became less mysterious when you realized the motivations for getting Fennec back was more material than anything else. At least based on the Scar it seemed that the Grindylow say New Crobuzon as a major threat to their nation. Also, drat you thread  , now I have to reread Iron Council again just to read about The Torque. Slo-Tek posted:Agreedo, I like that he generates new unknowable horrors for every book, without ever explaining any of them. Torque, unknowable horror poo poo. The Weaver, unknowable horror poo poo. The Demons, unknowable horror poo poo. The Scar, unknowable horror poo poo. Whatever the grindylow were up to, unknowable horror poo poo. Whatever the Teshi were up to, Unknowable horror poo poo. Yeah, it's like Mieville is doing like Lovecraft. Only he's a communist instead of a racist.
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Sep 11, 2013 11:08
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fookolt posted:God drat, I'm going through the Bas Lag wiki again (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bas-Lag) and it's just astonishing how loving good the worldbuilding and everything is. Are there any other similar weird as hell series out there? Ambergris is really good if you stick with it, I had a lot of trouble getting into the first book but once I got into the historical notes "story" I was completely hooked and finished the entire trilogy in a weekend. He does very similar worldbuilding to Mieville in the sense that he lays out an entire timeline of events that the protagonists would know about but includes an undertone of weirdness that both the characters and readers discover whenever they look past that thin veneer of sanity. The other big recommendation I usually make to Mieville fans is Felix Gilman's The Half-Made World, which is a weird western story about a few people who get caught up in an ongoing war between a council of god-engines that run a train cult, a group of demonic gunslingers who report to a hunting lodge that's stuck between dimensions, and all kinds of other random bizarre poo poo. Think Mark Twain meets Michael Moorecock. It is kind of a love it or hate it story though, half the folks I recommend it to devour it and the sequel and the other half end up tossing it aside after a few chapters if it doesn't click with them. Beyond that, Gene Wolfe and Jack Vance do some weird-rear end dying earth stuff that's a little more medieval than Mieville's Victorian stuff but includes fantasy, science fiction and everything in between.
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Sep 11, 2013 12:05
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I don't know how long it'll be up for, but Book Depository has a signed, slipcase hardcover edition of Railsea for approximately the price of the unsigned slipcaseless version. http://www.bookdepository.com/Railsea-TBD-Exclusive-Edition-China-Mieville/9780230767560
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Sep 12, 2013 01:53
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I've been trying to read Railsea for a month. In that same time frame, I've read 4 other books, including Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Guess I should have skipped past the young adult novel.
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Sep 12, 2013 05:18
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Benson Cunningham posted:I've been trying to read Railsea for a month. In that same time frame, I've read 4 other books, including Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Guess I should have skipped past the young adult novel. You suck, Railsea is his best non-Bas-Lag book that isn't called Embassytown.
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Sep 12, 2013 05:27
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Hedrigall posted:You suck, Railsea is his best non-Bas-Lag book that isn't called Embassytown. Pretty much this. Railsea does have a... slower middle? I felt like the beginning was good, and moving well... and the last half was... but the whole time it took him to end up on the train to find the end did drag a bit. Still a really good read though.
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Sep 12, 2013 05:38
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If you didn't fall in love with the book when Sham gets drunk then I'm afraid you just don't like things that are fun.
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Sep 12, 2013 05:42
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Finagle posted:Pretty much this. Railsea does have a... slower middle? I felt like the beginning was good, and moving well... and the last half was... but the whole time it took him to end up on the train to find the end did drag a bit. Still a really good read though. Its the only one I've only read once. I don't remember which part that is.
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Sep 12, 2013 05:44
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Dial H wraps up with its coda "Dial E" piece in six days, and then we'll have no forthcoming Mieville projects known. I wonder if that possible book of short stories will get officially announced anytime soon.
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Sep 12, 2013 18:20
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Hedrigall posted:Oh I forgot... For those of you who enjoyed Dial H (RIP I haven't read Railsea yet... I don't know why really (YA tag? seemed short?). I guess I'm doing that this weekend! I want more Torque too. Most of all.
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Sep 12, 2013 21:15
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I'd love to read something taking place in the days before the Ravening but that's probably better left unexplored so I'd settle for something in the Immerverse.
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Sep 13, 2013 01:31
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MeLKoR posted:I'd love to read something taking place in the days before the Ravening but that's probably better left unexplored so I'd settle for something in the Immerverse. This is actually sort of interesting with Mieville, he could easily have milked the Bas-Lag Universe for a number of books like any other writer. There are just so many interesting things which are mentioned offhandedly and not expanded upon, but Mieville just says gently caress it and does something else which is equally great. I don't actually know whether to applaud or bemoan this, so I guess I'll do both. Also reading the wiki, I realized I forgot about the handlingers.
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Sep 13, 2013 09:49
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Handlingers vs. Slakemoths might have been the sickest thing I have ever read.
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Sep 14, 2013 18:13
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Benson Cunningham posted:Handlingers vs. Slakemoths might have been the sickest thing I have ever read. Lot of buildup for the Handlingers getting their poo poo tore up almost immediately though. MontJohn Rescue is such a loving cool name
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Sep 14, 2013 21:28
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Hard Clumping posted:Lot of buildup for the Handlingers getting their poo poo tore up almost immediately though.
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Sep 15, 2013 02:17
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Ravenfood posted:That's part of why I loved it so much, though. I was just excited about Rescue talking poo poo to other powerful beings. Imagine a group of handlingers and the Construct Council having a philosophical head-to-head about immortality.
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Sep 15, 2013 23:58
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So what do people think of the Dial H coda issue? It's okay, a nice little chance for Miéville to squeeze off another few dozen puns. But the different artists on every page, the nobody characters (apart from Centipede), and the confusing plot make it otherwise a disappointing purchase. But then I'm not really sure what this "villains week" mini-series is meant to be. Does this issue relate to any of the other ones (or the Justice League in general)? Also the issue's title/numbering is a gigantic confusing clusterfuck: DC Unleashes: Justice League (Villains) #23.3: Dial E #1: Dial Q for Qued Is Dial E going to be a thing or is that just a joke?
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Sep 19, 2013 08:30
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Hedrigall posted:So what do people think of the Dial H coda issue? I thought it was okayish but was clearly more of a coda than a real story. And no, if it were getting continued we'd know. Bummer, though. I was hoping Centipede with his dial would become a recurring DC villain.
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Sep 20, 2013 19:12
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Benson Cunningham posted:Handlingers vs. Slakemoths might have been the sickest thing I have ever read. It's been about seven months since I read Perdido (my first Miéville novel, too - can't wait to dive into another), and that scene is still one of the most vivid in my memory. The fact that it worked out the way it did served as a wonderful punctuation; I really like it when authors set up certain expectations and then just completely screw with the reader! Great stuff.
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Oct 9, 2013 14:40
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I've read the Bas-Lag series over the past few weeks and I really enjoyed them. I think Iron Council is my favourite but that might only be because that's the last one I finished. Judah Low is totally a reference to this guy, isn't he? I think a cactus protagonist in any potential Bas-Lag sequel would be interesting; from memory we only get a tiny glimpse inside that one Captain's head in The Scar. Which one should I read next? I was thinking Railsea because the premise looks fun
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Oct 14, 2013 11:18
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Exclamation Marx posted:I've read the Bas-Lag series over the past few weeks and I really enjoyed them. I think Iron Council is my favourite but that might only be because that's the last one I finished. Judah Low is totally a reference to this guy, isn't he? I would suggest Embassytown and then Railsea, they are both similar to the Bas-lag series.
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Oct 14, 2013 11:29
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Exclamation Marx posted:I've read the Bas-Lag series over the past few weeks and I really enjoyed them. I think Iron Council is my favourite but that might only be because that's the last one I finished. Judah Low is totally a reference to this guy, isn't he? Since Bas-Lag seems to be a closed chapter, Railsea is probably the book that is most similar to Bas-Lag. The rest of his books span a number of genres from Gaimanesque-London Noir (King Rat, Kraken), Gaimanesque-children's book (Un Lun Dun), detective story (The City & The City) and scifi (Embasssytown). It's all good though, so well worth reading.
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Oct 14, 2013 11:37
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