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If you find the world and ideas intriguing but the pace and story don't hold you, try The Scar. Same world, much tighter plot.
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Jul 18, 2015 22:46
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grilldos posted:Yes. I'd say that or Embassytown.
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Jul 19, 2015 00:05
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Dienes posted:I'd say that or Embassytown. I think embassytown is his best novel, personally.
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Jul 19, 2015 06:52
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For a starting point, the rest of the catalogue is earned after Perdido, with all the many connotations of "earn" applying to both the reader and the author.
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Jul 19, 2015 13:24
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Second story-by-story thoughts post (stories 11-19): https://outtherebooks.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/three-moments-of-an-explosion-stories-by-china-mieville-my-thoughts-on-every-story-part-2/ Again, no major spoilers. But I do talk about the overall premise of each story.
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Jul 20, 2015 03:03
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And I finished the book, so here's part three (stories 20-28): https://outtherebooks.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/three-moments-of-an-explosion-stories-by-china-mieville-my-thoughts-on-every-story-part-3/ That post also has my overall review (which is also my Goodreads review) which I will share now! My review posted:It's easy to see why China Miéville took three years to release a new book after Railsea. Apart from a monthly comic series, he was beavering away on a huge variety of novelettes, short stories, and pieces of flash fiction. And that's the key selling point of this collection: variety. There is an enormous wealth of creative ideas bursting from the seams of this book, and while the execution doesn't always live up to the promise, I guarantee you that with each of the 28 stories of this book you will be presented with a new and unusual fantasy, SF, horror, or weird fiction idea, which will worm its way inside your head. I won't inundate this thread with the individual story thoughts, you can go to the blog posts for those. Goddamn I can't wait for you all to get this book.
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Jul 21, 2015 16:14
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Woo, I'm getting a review copy this week!
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Jul 21, 2015 21:40
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Here's a 50 page preview of the book, for those who can't wait! http://www.scribd.com/doc/272380004/Three-Moments-of-an-Explosion It has the first four full stories and part of the fifth.
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Jul 29, 2015 00:25
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Of what I've read so far I've only enjoyed Polynia.
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Jul 29, 2015 00:40
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It really feels like he's been writing it in one sitting and switched stories whenever he got bored of one idea - without ever coming back. There's good stuff in there but very few stories are fully realized. In the Slopes and Estate in particular I'd love to have seen more of.
anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Jul 29, 2015 |
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Jul 29, 2015 05:38
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There is a problem with lack of endings, but it doesn't pervade the whole book. "The 9th Technique", "Säcken" and "The Rabbet" all had delicious endings. I admit the majority had ambiguous or abrupt endings, but they're still good stories anyway. IMO the only ones where the complete lack of resolution hurts the story were "After the Festival" and, to a lesser extent, "Keep" and "The Junket". For what it's worth, the stories I loved the most in the collection were: • Polynia • The 9th Technique • The Rope is the World • Säcken • The Bastard Prompt • A Second Slice Manifesto • Four Final Orpheuses • The Rabbet • The Design That's a mix of ones with definite endings, and ones without. The strengths of all of them are the incredible ideas and the excellent writing.
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Jul 29, 2015 06:26
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So this was written as his Next Book, rather than it being a collection of stories he's written here and there over the last few years?
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Jul 29, 2015 11:56
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Junkenstein posted:So this was written as his Next Book, rather than it being a collection of stories he's written here and there over the last few years? 10 or 12 of the 28 stories were published elsewhere first, but only 2 of them were published before Railsea. So yeah, AFAIK this is the bulk of what he's been working on since 2012 (along with This Census Taker).
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Jul 29, 2015 12:58
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Hedrigall posted:There is a problem with lack of endings, but it doesn't pervade the whole book. "The 9th Technique", "Säcken" and "The Rabbet" all had delicious endings. I admit the majority had ambiguous or abrupt endings, but they're still good stories anyway. The main problem with this novel collection, which you also note on your blog, is the lack of good endings. I was expecting more from Mieville both in terms of storylines and intricacies. Nothing from Bas-Lag, so that universe should be definately dead now. I came away lacking something in this novel collection, in contrast to Looking for Jake. As for Säcken, I felt like I had read it before in a better version by Stephen King. Nice reviews. My favourites were: Polynia Dowager of Bees Dreaded outcome Keep Covehithe (the best one) Four Final Orpheuses (or rather the last one of them ) The Design Come to think of it, all of these are kinda similar. Dowager, Dreaded and Design are all modern day stories with a fantastical element. Polynia, Keep, Covehithe are all apocalypse scenarios with fantastical elements. The Junket was kinda hilarious when the film title was presented.
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Jul 29, 2015 13:33
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Guess I'll add my favorites while we're at it: -Three Moments of an Explosion. Flash fiction, but extremely evocative, got me thinking of ghosts of buildings and explosions as a short-lived sentient lifeform for quite a while. Miéville really shows how loving amazing he is in adding magic to the mundane here. -New Death. I think I shared my interpretation of the story here before, and the idea and some of the imagery are disturbing as hell. -In the Slopes, the story that really needed an ending was nonetheless a joy to read. I'd love to see this extended. -Buzzard's Egg. It's a fantastic exercise in worldbuilding while deliberately avoiding the "show don't tell" rule. We don't see anything but it's evocative nonetheless. -Säcken. As I said before, it's Miéville doing King or early Barker. He manages to be a lot more subtle and implicit than either. -Dreaded Outcome. I got some experience with psychotherapy on both ends and the idea of TVT is amazing - exactly something a sociopath psychologist could concoct. It's absurdly humorous and yet chillingly close to real - reminds me of City And City that way. -Keep. Literalizing the concept of personal space is, again, classic Miéville mundane turned magic. I don't even mind the lack of ending here, it works pretty well on the metaphorical level. -Second Slice Manifesto, probably my favorite of the bunch. Simple but amazing idea, gets your mind toying with the whole concept of whether artists see the world in the same way as other people theme. -The Design, not a very strong story on its own but a perfect coda to the book. There's not much to the story but the poetic way it's told in will absorb you; almost like it's not a text but a picture - or scrimshaw...
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Jul 29, 2015 14:14
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My copy is delayed, it won't be here until the 12th 
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Aug 4, 2015 12:27
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Just finishing up my first draft for the Lifted Brow.
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Aug 4, 2015 21:30
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My copy got delivered to my parents' house by mistake. Guess I know where I'm going this weekend.
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Aug 4, 2015 22:20
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Hey guys, would you like to hear about ANOTHER NEW 2016 NOVEL?? THE LAST DAYS OF NEW PARIS is an intense and gripping tale set in an alternative universe: June 1940 following Paris’ fall to the Germans, the villa of Air-Bel in Marsailles, is filled with Trotskyists, anti-fascists, exiled artists, and surrealists. One Air-Bel dissident decides the best way to fight the Nazis is to construct a surrealist bomb. When the bomb is accidentally detonated, surrealist Cataclysm sweeps Paris and transforms it according to a violent, weaponized dream logic. Confirmed by Tor.com in the last paragraph of their Three Moments review: http://www.tor.com/2015/08/04/book-reviews-three-moments-of-an-explosion-stories-by-china-mieville/
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Aug 5, 2015 01:19
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Ooft, that sounds pretty good.
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Aug 5, 2015 01:26
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Skirting around writing another Bas Lag book by throwing Torque Bombs into an alternate-history novel? I'm wicked excited for that based on the brief description.
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Aug 5, 2015 02:37
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Now this sounds great.
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Aug 5, 2015 02:40
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loving hell, CM owns
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Aug 5, 2015 02:49
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Got my copy of Three Moments in today, now if I can just tear myself away from Bloodborne...
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Aug 5, 2015 03:10
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Hmm.. Does this mean a mechanised Hitler, some melding of guns, tanks and the Fuhrer?
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Aug 5, 2015 03:18
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That man needs to write faster.
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Aug 5, 2015 08:25
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Hedrigall posted:
I started with 'great some more wwii alternate history, at least it might be weird' to 'holy gently caress that is an insane premise' within the span of a blurb. Good god drat, such envy.
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Aug 5, 2015 09:11
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That sounds Mieville as gently caress. I want it now.
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Aug 5, 2015 14:27
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I need that right now. e: Maybe time to reread City and the City since I've binged Scar basically every summer for the last 3 years.
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Aug 5, 2015 23:24
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You wait 4 years for a new Mieville book and then three turn up at once.
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Aug 7, 2015 11:57
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Skelicopter posted:You wait 4 years for a new Mieville book and then three turn up at once. The struggle is real.
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Aug 7, 2015 15:08
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Skelicopter posted:You wait 4 years for a new Mieville book and then three turn up at once. Three?
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Aug 7, 2015 17:52
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MeLKoR posted:Three? 3 Moments of an Explosion, Census Taker (technically a novella but still counts), Last Days of New Paris
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Aug 7, 2015 17:55
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Cpt. Mahatma Gandhi posted:3 Moments of an Explosion, Census Taker (technically a novella but still counts), Last Days of New Paris Ah yes, forgot about Census Taker.
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Aug 7, 2015 18:07
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When it rains, it pours.
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Aug 7, 2015 21:59
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Le prince frais d'Air-Bel
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Aug 8, 2015 13:38
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Reading through Three Moments right now, quite enjoying it. Just finished In the Slopes, what, er, uh, happened? I didn't really understand any of the significance of the later plot developments. What happened to Gilroy? What were the shining jewels in the resin casts? I can't tell if it was left intentionally vague or I'm a bad reader.
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Aug 10, 2015 11:45
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Hedrigall posted:Hey guys, would you like to hear about Andre Breton posted:“The purest surrealist act is walking into a crowd with a loaded gun and firing into it randomly” Really looking forward to this one.
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Aug 10, 2015 12:00
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NicelyNice posted:Reading through Three Moments right now, quite enjoying it. Just finished In the Slopes, what, er, uh, happened? I didn't really understand any of the significance of the later plot developments. What happened to Gilroy? What were the shining jewels in the resin casts? I can't tell if it was left intentionally vague or I'm a bad reader. It had an enigmatic New Weird ending, which is to say I didn't really get it either  ... but at least it was a well-written story
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Aug 10, 2015 12:26
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I didn't get that either. Also i didn't really understand the ending to Three Moments of an Explosion.
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Aug 10, 2015 20:00
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