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Hedrigall posted:Two early reviews! This is me btw. Saw the pingback links from SA, small world. It is indeed really good. It's funny you mention Säcken and Strappado (my favorite Barron story in Occultation); They're not actually that similar in the way they are told and unfold, but Säcken is probably the closest story in style and content to Barron.
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May 5, 2015 16:21
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ultrachrist posted:This is me btw. Saw the pingback links from SA, small world. It is indeed really good. Haha, awesome. How did you manage to score a galley? I applied and was rejected (maybe because it was the US publisher and I'm in Australia). Any more info to impart on the stories? 
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May 5, 2015 16:31
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Yeah, it's probably just because I am in the US. For stories, one of my favorites I didn't mention in my review is The Junket. You kind of have to read it and watch it unfold but the baseline premise is that a screenwriter of 'jewsploitation' films goes missing and the protagonist is a reporter investigating. The Bastard Prompt is also really good. It uses standardized patients as its central plot point. Actually, now that I think about it, unlike basically all of his novels I've read, nearly all these stories take place in the real world (with weird stuff happening), not made up worlds. There's a handful of exceptions like this one I am forgetting the name of about a slave tasked with polishing God statues. That's good too. Really, there's only a couple of duds or ho-hum stories in the collection.
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May 5, 2015 17:10
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 Coming in January 2016: This Census Taker, a new novel! http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/533992/this-census-taker-by-china-mieville/hardcover
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May 10, 2015 15:41
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yesssssss 
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May 10, 2015 16:56
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I was hoping it would be a Bas-Lag book, but i will take anything by Mieville.
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May 10, 2015 19:18
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If anything, the name makes me excited for another Kafkaesque ride like City and City. Of course, it could be anything.
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May 10, 2015 19:53
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Oh what a day, what a lovely day!
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May 11, 2015 04:41
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Dude's not going back to Bas-lag for a long time, if ever. I don't blame him. He did great work there, but it'd be a real waste if he got pigeonholed as that man who writes those books.
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May 11, 2015 06:42
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General Battuta posted:Dude's not going back to Bas-lag for a long time, if ever. I don't blame him. He did great work there, but it'd be a real waste if he got pigeonholed as that man who writes those books. I understand that, Embassytown and Railsea are two of my favorites among his work, so I am happy to read any books from him. But it has been 11 years since he last wrote a Bas-Lag book, so I doubt he is worried about about being pigeonholed into any one universe. I figure he just writes what he wants.
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May 11, 2015 08:50
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His recent stand-alone works have been so fully realized that to me it'd be a waste to go back to Bas-Lag, as much as I enjoy the world and those books. Mudville has such a talent for world building that I really look forward to the new ideas in each book. I'd much rather he return to Bas-Lag in short story form - shame there aren't any in the new collection
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May 11, 2015 08:56
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General Battuta posted:Dude's not going back to Bas-lag for a long time, if ever. I don't blame him. He did great work there, but it'd be a real waste if he got pigeonholed as that man who writes those books. After the ending of iron council I don't really want to read bas lag anymore anyway and I got the impression that he was similarly burnt out on writing it. Isaac remains one of my favorite fantasy protagonists ever though.
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May 11, 2015 21:21
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So been thinking about Mad Max: Fury Road a lot over the weekend. They need to get Miller to make a Railsea movie. Miller and Mieville share a similar imagination. Mostly inspired by this concept art. 
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May 18, 2015 03:37
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thehomemaster posted:So been thinking about Mad Max: Fury Road a lot over the weekend. Yeah a few times during the movie I thought about Railsea. The settlements amongst the wasteland, the outlandish vehicles with crews riding on top like men on a ship, etc. If this movie rekindles a wasteland subgenre of post-apocalyptic movies (because seriously, cityscapes are so overdone now in this genre) then Railsea could be a big YA & PG13 hit. Edit: leave Miller to the Mad Max sequels though, Railsea needs to be a G Del Toro movie  Edit 2: no wait, Terry Gilliam. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 03:59 on May 18, 2015 |
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May 18, 2015 03:53
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I could settle for Terry Gilliam.
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May 18, 2015 04:12
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thehomemaster posted:I could settle for Terry Gilliam.
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May 18, 2015 11:32
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I still think the perfect Miéville film adaptation would be if Hayao Miyazaki came out of retirement to adapt Un Lun Dun. The young female protagonist, the bizarre supporting cast, the potentially-cute living words and garbage, the scene with an impassive female bureaucrat antagonist, the heavy environmentalist themes, the big flying-vehicle setpiece: it's seriously got everything Miyazaki loves.
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May 19, 2015 00:16
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OK so: Railsea - George Miller Un Lun Dun - Miyazaki TC & TC - Gilliam (I likeeeee) What about his others? Who dares take on PSS?
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May 19, 2015 03:05
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Maybe Del Toro for PSS then.
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May 19, 2015 03:15
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Yeah sorry was that even a question actually? Christopher Nolan or Ridley Scott for Embassytown.
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May 19, 2015 05:50
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Del Toro for The Scar, come on man.
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May 20, 2015 00:51
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Gore Verbinski would do a pretty good job of The Scar. Like Pirates of the Caribbean, but rated R. Get Del Toro in to consult on creature design.
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May 20, 2015 00:54
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IMO The Scar demands a TV mini-series format.
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May 21, 2015 04:30
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So it's been a good while since I read the city and the city, but I don't get the reading of the cities existing concurrently with nothing supernatural. Why would they have that changing station where you move into the other city? What was up with the weird magical policeman who called himself Breach if he wasn't magical? What even is the concept of Breach supposed to mean if there's really only one city?
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May 25, 2015 06:53
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pile of brown posted:So it's been a good while since I read the city and the city, but I don't get the reading of the cities existing concurrently with nothing supernatural. Why would they have that changing station where you move into the other city? What was up with the weird magical policeman who called himself Breach if he wasn't magical? What even is the concept of Breach supposed to mean if there's really only one city? You really missed the entire point.
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May 25, 2015 07:00
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pile of brown posted:So it's been a good while since I read the city and the city, but I don't get the reading of the cities existing concurrently with nothing supernatural. Why would they have that changing station where you move into the other city? What was up with the weird magical policeman who called himself Breach if he wasn't magical? What even is the concept of Breach supposed to mean if there's really only one city? Here's a little nudge: conditioning
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May 25, 2015 09:04
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pile of brown posted:So it's been a good while since I read the city and the city, but I don't get the reading of the cities existing concurrently with nothing supernatural. Why would they have that changing station where you move into the other city? What was up with the weird magical policeman who called himself Breach if he wasn't magical? What even is the concept of Breach supposed to mean if there's really only one city? Have you ever noticed how most people can and will completely ignore a homeless person on a busy street? How they pretend to mentally edit out that "problematic" image from their surroundings and hence their perception of what inner-city life "should" look like? How it's almost an unspoken taboo to do otherwise? That's what Beszel does to ul-Qoma, and vice versa.
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May 25, 2015 11:27
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I've been plugging away at Perdido Street Station on and off for a few years now, on the basis that I was strongly recommended to read it before Iron Council, Which was the book by Mieville I was most interested in. But every time I try I lose interest because it feels like extremely slow going, with what feels like the vast majority of the text of the novel being spent talking about the setting rather than actually advancing the plot. I've considered skipping it anyway and going to Iron Council, but to some extent reading Perdido Street Station has made me reluctant on the basis that I'm not sure these books are really for me. Do I really lose much by not having finished PSS, if I read Iron Council? And if my major gripe with PSS was that the plot of the novel seemed almost secondary to exposition on the setting, am I likely to feel the same about IC? For context, my primary interest in Iron Council was the fact that rebellions in fantasy stories always follow the exact same "depose the tyrant, crown the rightful king protagonist who rules justly ever after" and Iron Council had been described to me as a story about a working-class revolution without that rightful king bullshit. If it doesn't sound like I'd like Iron Council or if it really is detrimental not to have read PSS, is there a more, uh, accessible book you'd recommend?
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May 28, 2015 23:55
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Reveilled posted:I've been plugging away at Perdido Street Station on and off for a few years now, on the basis that I was strongly recommended to read it before Iron Council, Which was the book by Mieville I was most interested in. But every time I try I lose interest because it feels like extremely slow going, with what feels like the vast majority of the text of the novel being spent talking about the setting rather than actually advancing the plot. I've considered skipping it anyway and going to Iron Council, but to some extent reading Perdido Street Station has made me reluctant on the basis that I'm not sure these books are really for me. Reading PSS before Iron Council is mainly beneficial so you know the layout of the city. Introducing the city is a huge part of PSS; New Crobuzon is pretty much that book's main character. In IC Miéville just assumes you're familiar with the setting. For a first-time reader IC would be quite bewildering. How far are you into PSS? You might have a handle on how the world works already so you'd be okay to jump in to IC. There's not really any direct plot continuation between the books. Just some minor characters and easter eggs, and the very beginning of IC (the puppet scene, you'll know it when you read it) has a small but significant reference that you won't understand unless you've read the very end of PSS. Iron Council feels like a very different book to PSS, too. It's shorter, and the writing style is a lot more sparse. People say it reads a bit like the Cormac McCarthy novel of Bas-Lag. It's good, especially if you're interested in politics. The rebellion is half the story, the other half takes place concurrently and is kind of a frontier adventure (with a lot more setting-based exposition, but it's fascinating as the wilderness of Bas-Lag is such a freakishly alien place). There's also a 150-page flashback in the middle of the novel which really ties both the rebellion and the adventure portions together. Don't be put off by the change of characters and writing style when you get to it: it's the best part of the book! Honestly though the best Bas-Lag book (and best Miéville book) is The Scar, which you can definitely read with no knowledge of PSS. It's an exciting high-seas adventure with tons of monsters and magic and it's very accessible. Absolutely enthralling book. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 00:10 on May 29, 2015 |
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May 29, 2015 00:07
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How far did you get, roughly? A thing to keep in mind about a lot of his writing, especially Perdido since it was one of his first and is so weird, is that he likes to front-load exposition so once the plot gets going, it can really get going. So, often, people will feel it kind of plodding along in the beginning, they read in dribs and drabs, and then the plot starts moving and they have to marathon the book and can't put it down. (Sample size of me and a dozen or so people I've gotten hooked.) It always felt like a roller coaster : you're slowly going up this gently caress off big hill and then WOOOOSH! So, like, if Isaac is still loving around with the flying animals, hang in there buddy, it's worth it later. It also helps if you are interested in the setting but that's just taste.
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May 29, 2015 00:37
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The first half of Perdido Street Station is people seriously loving up everything they will ever do in very subtle ways.
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May 29, 2015 01:00
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Hedrigall posted:Reading PSS before Iron Council is mainly beneficial so you know the layout of the city. Introducing the city is a huge part of PSS; New Crobuzon is pretty much that book's main character. In IC Miéville just assumes you're familiar with the setting. For a first-time reader IC would be quite bewildering. How far are you into PSS? You might have a handle on how the world works already so you'd be okay to jump in to IC. Looking at my Kindle it looks like I got 80% of the way through the book last time, the actual events of the plot had definitely kicked in by that point but I'd honestly just gotten burnt out on discussions of the nature of the tissue transition between humanoid skin and chitin that takes place on a kephri's neck, and other such matters. A book with sparser prose which leaves stuff like that out sounds a lot more like what I want, I'll give Iron Council a go (followed by The Scar), thanks.
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May 29, 2015 01:03
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Xiahou Dun posted:A thing to keep in mind about a lot of his writing, especially Perdido since it was one of his first and is so weird, is that he likes to front-load exposition so once the plot gets going, it can really get going. So, often, people will feel it kind of plodding along in the beginning, they read in dribs and drabs, and then the plot starts moving and they have to marathon the book and can't put it down. (Sample size of me and a dozen or so people I've gotten hooked.) This. I'm not gonna lie, as Hedrigall said New Crobuzon is the main character of PSS and that is what makes it my favorite Mieville book, New Crobuzon is just the greatest fictional city I've read but the book's pace and tone does take an unexpected turn about 1/3rd in, by the time Isaac is doing experiments and [very minor spoiler]gets a box with a caterpillar in it. From there on out it's a roller coaster of  and  .e: oh never mind, you've already got through that, maybe Mieville just isn't for you. If you loathed PSS that much I doubt you'll like IC but I'd still give Embassytown a go, he doesn't "characterize the setting" nearly as much. No proletarian revolution though, just an anti-colonial one and it's a minor plot point. MeLKoR fucked around with this message at 11:02 on May 29, 2015 |
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May 29, 2015 10:53
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Reveilled posted:Do I really lose much by not having finished PSS, if I read Iron Council? And if my major gripe with PSS was that the plot of the novel seemed almost secondary to exposition on the setting, am I likely to feel the same about IC? That's funny; the only thing I really disliked about PSS was that it dropped a lot of the interesting characterization and worldbuilding once the action plot kicked into gear (while there's a lot of awesome flavor, the plot is a pretty straightforward genre affair). The Scar, while unpleasantly frontloaded on worldbuilding, did a much better job of weaving everything together and achieves a far more interesting character arc. Having gotten to Iron Council yet but I'm looking forward to it; if Kraken is any indication, Mieville has learned to make worldbuilding more fun and less tiresome/indulgent over time.
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May 29, 2015 21:16
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Something about PSS that still kinda bugs me (ending spoilers): Jack Half-a-Prayer seems to come out of nowhere to save the day and feels very deus-ex machina-y. The very first time I read it, my brain was going, "Wait, who? Who is this guy?" I saw on a second read that he's mentioned once or twice elsewhere, but even then his appearance seems super convenient and cheap to me. Maybe I missed some intricate detail that better explains that? It's really my only complaint with the book, though. I love it otherwise.
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May 29, 2015 21:30
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There's a short story detailing his backstory but yeah, it feels pretty random when he shows up. Then again, it fits the character - shady underworld legend no one is sure even exists and so on.
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May 29, 2015 22:37
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anilEhilated posted:There's a short story detailing his backstory but yeah, it feels pretty random when he shows up. Then again, it fits the character - shady underworld legend no one is sure even exists and so on. I've seen that same complaint a number of times, yet no one complains when the Weaver shows up out of nowhere and starts collecting ears. I just accept both and love PSS.
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May 29, 2015 22:50
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:Something about PSS that still kinda bugs me (ending spoilers): Jack Half-a-Prayer seems to come out of nowhere to save the day and feels very deus-ex machina-y. The very first time I read it, my brain was going, "Wait, who? Who is this guy?" I saw on a second read that he's mentioned once or twice elsewhere, but even then his appearance seems super convenient and cheap to me. Maybe I missed some intricate detail that better explains that? If I remember, plot-wise, there isn't anything that Jack needs to deus-ex-machine, he delays/distracts the bully-boys for a few minutes. Far less "god gets me out of this corner I have written myself into" than any of the times The Weaver shows up, and replaceable by slightly slower bully-boys, or a bit of derring-do by any of the other named characters. I expect that China was pleased with his punny freedom fighter, and wanted to put him in the mix for a bit, show that while the moths were a big drat deal to Isaac and to the Powers that Be, there was a whole lot else going on in the big complex world, and other agendas in play, and so on.
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May 29, 2015 22:51
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Benson Cunningham posted:I've seen that same complaint a number of times, yet no one complains when the Weaver shows up out of nowhere and starts collecting ears. I just accept both and love PSS. The Weaver doesn't so much bother me though because there's a bunch of scenes with it before hand and its established early on that coming out of the fabric of space-time to randomly gently caress poo poo up is just something it does. loving love the Weaver me
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May 30, 2015 00:21
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The Weaver is way better established than Jack. For the former you've got people being more scared of it than Satan and a personal introduction, while the latter has some guys going "good on yer" a bit.
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May 30, 2015 00:54
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