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I did! Posted about it in the other thread but forgot to cross post it here. Only my own opinion, and would like to hear what other people think.RoboCicero posted:I recently read This Census Taker (wasn't it 'The Census Taker' a while ago?) and quite enjoyed it, even if it's not in the same vein as many of his other books. If Mieville is trying to write a book in a different genre each time, he's certainly succeeding. A slower, more unresolved story about a boy who lives on a mountain with his father that focuses on atmosphere more than it does on concrete explanations. I enjoyed how everything in the world is just slightly askew, from the fact the narrator tells us the book isn't written in his first language, to how the seasons are named differently, to the fact that when you hear guns in the distance there is a sound for hunting, and a sound for killing.
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Mar 5, 2016 20:00
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Hedrigall posted:
Ew, Zak S
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Mar 6, 2016 14:50
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gently caress another new book
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RoboCicero posted:I did! Posted about it in the other thread but forgot to cross post it here. Only my own opinion, and would like to hear what other people think. It was OK, but way too short. When was the last time Mieville actually wrote a longer story? Checked Wikipedia and it was Railsea 2012 which was pretty good, but hardly his best.
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Mar 7, 2016 07:39
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Warren Ellis recommended This Census Taker in his latest newsletter :quote:THIS CENSUS-TAKER is the new book by China Mieville. It's a novella, and I do like a novella. I've been saying for a few years that I think the novella is where the rich vein currently lies, and this book doesn't contradict me. It's a finely-tooled story of, in its most prosaic sense, a grim childhood in a post-(near)apocalypse landscape. It's also, in a way, a rumination on childhood fantasy, and also a consideration of the nature of power. The language is frequently eccentric, but never ever sloppy. Mieville doesn't do drunken reels -- every one of those steps is intended and exact. In other writers, it may come off as mannered, but Mieville gathers his tools for each book with extreme care. There's a fuzzy nature to much of it, in plot and motive and world, but to me it's the precise fuzzy nature of childhood memory: looking at the past through the thick, fogged glass of imperfect recall. To some degree, the book is about a world that's forgetting and the things that are remembered, too. Strongly recommended. I read the whole thing in a single sitting.
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Mar 7, 2016 11:07
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I just finished This Census Taker. I found it very enjoyable; it engrossed me the entire way. I have several things I'd like to talk about. the first of which is the relationship between the eponymous census taker and his government. His previous trainee apparently left him because he was cooking the books. Her final catechism also indicates(?) her loyalty to the government above the census-taker. This jives with what the boy's father said about all the other census takers being recalled. So I was wondering whether this census taker might be some sort of rogue bureaucrat with his own mission--which he is clearly very dedicated to, risking his life by going down into the hole. I also assume that the gunshots the boy heard were the census taker killing Droge and/or the previous trainee; isn't it described as a pair of blasts, like those that would come from the census taker's peculiar weapon? Any one have ideas about : 1. What the shifts in the person of the narration indicate (especially with regards to the chapter written in the present which discusses that verbatim, and also that the current manuscript contains portions of his predecessor's work) 2. Who was the first census-taker the boy encounters when he flees the house for the second time 3. The fate of the goat. Poor goat.
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Mar 21, 2016 04:22
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I read Census-Taker as well, took me a while to get around to it. I'll have more to say once I gather my thoughts for a blog post, but first of all: So apparently The Last Days of New Paris is illustrated! (not my image)
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Mar 27, 2016 13:06
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So here's that long-ish blog post I've been working on. It's a disjointed kinda argument in which I ask the question, Is This-Census Taker set in Bas-Lag? Believe it or not there are a bunch of clues that point to the possibility!
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Mar 29, 2016 12:05
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Hedrigall posted:I read Census-Taker as well, took me a while to get around to it. I'll have more to say once I gather my thoughts for a blog post, but first of all: That's a Max Ernst painting 
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Mar 30, 2016 08:56
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Deltron 3030 posted:. Collingswood is probably my favorite character so far. "What do you know about making big poo poo little?" Don't you mean kollywood?
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Apr 3, 2016 19:13
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(Re)Posting this here, because things have been dead and I agree about 80-85% on these depictions. Iron Council could have just been about that one Remade.  
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Apr 18, 2016 02:52
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Railsea is a lot of fun. Is it Shroake a'clock? Not yet because holy poo poo Sham just got kidnapped by pirates! Lets read about that instead!
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Apr 18, 2016 15:13
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SaviourX posted:(Re)Posting this here, because things have been dead and I agree about 80-85% on these depictions. Iron Council could have just been about that one Remade. Two of my favourite Mieville fan arts :  http://fav.me/d427g7g  http://fav.me/d1kjmyp
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Apr 18, 2016 16:15
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Khepri are so gross
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Apr 18, 2016 16:31
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Why is the first pic numbered 11-24, is there more?
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Apr 18, 2016 16:34
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Benson Cunningham posted:Khepri are so gross They don't make a heck of a lot of sense either but hey.
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Apr 18, 2016 16:47
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I reread Kraken recently and it's truly a very bad, overly long, poorly paced, and embarrassingly self indulgent book with a brilliant ending.
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Apr 18, 2016 18:34
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Turdis McWordis posted:I reread Kraken recently and it's truly a very bad, overly long, poorly paced, and embarrassingly self indulgent book with a brilliant ending. What makes a book self indulgent? I've always wondered. Or rather, how could a book not be self indulgent?
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Apr 18, 2016 18:40
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mallamp posted:Why is the first pic numbered 11-24, is there more? There are. They are illustrations from the Dragon issue that was dedicated to Bas-Lag.
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Apr 18, 2016 18:42
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Turdis McWordis posted:I reread Kraken recently "Turdis McWordis" Uhhh... huh. Benson Cunningham posted:Khepri are so engrossing Fixed that up for ya.
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Apr 18, 2016 19:43
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Turdis McWordis posted:I reread Kraken recently and it's truly a very bad, overly long, poorly paced, and embarrassingly self indulgent book with a brilliant ending. Sell me on "brilliant ending" because I was with you up till there.
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Apr 18, 2016 20:37
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SaviourX posted:"Turdis McWordis" Uhhh... huh.
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Apr 19, 2016 11:30
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Well, in that case, he sure is, and also Kraken is bad in the way that TCandTC is, which is to say, both written in haste aping other novels, but with that supercilious Mieville charm.
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Apr 20, 2016 08:50
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SaviourX posted:Well, in that case, he sure is, and also Kraken is bad in the way that TCandTC is, which is to say, both written in haste aping other novels, but with that supercilious Mieville charm. What novel does TC&TC ape?
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Apr 20, 2016 09:31
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:Sell me on "brilliant ending" because I was with you up till there. After the interminable nonsense that led up to it, I actually really liked the bad guy(s) plot(s) and how they fit in the metaphor-made-real magic  system.
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Apr 26, 2016 19:33
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Dirty Frank posted:What novel does TC&TC ape? Not any specific one: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/26/crimes-grand-tour-european-detective-fiction
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Apr 27, 2016 06:24
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Dang I just finished Kraken and start tc&tc hoping it was going to be better, ohhh well. Was pretty disappointed with Kraken after Embassytown.
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Apr 29, 2016 20:48
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Reason posted:Dang I just finished Kraken and start tc&tc hoping it was going to be better, ohhh well. Was pretty disappointed with Kraken after Embassytown. I like TC&TC a lot more than Kraken for what it's worth.
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Apr 29, 2016 20:51
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Reason posted:Dang I just finished Kraken and start tc&tc hoping it was going to be better, ohhh well. Was pretty disappointed with Kraken after Embassytown. I enjoyed TC&TC, but not as much as Embassytown or Railsea. I haven't read Kraken.
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Apr 29, 2016 21:41
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Reason posted:Dang I just finished Kraken and start tc&tc hoping it was going to be better, ohhh well. Was pretty disappointed with Kraken after Embassytown. In fairness Embassytown is by far the best thing he's written, almost anything would be a letdown after that.
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Apr 29, 2016 21:57
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Yeah, Embassytown is a classic, up there with Dune and stuff, IMO. Although I removed it from my must read fic list on Goodreads because it kept drawing silly recommendations.
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Apr 29, 2016 22:10
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SaviourX posted:Not any specific one: Have people here not heard of genre?
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May 1, 2016 04:56
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I'm going through China Mieville's back catalogue, plugging up my gaps and I started with King Rat. Well, uh, it's certainly his freshman novel all right. I dunno, it pretty much read like a grittier Neil Gaiman book, who I'm no huge fan of in the first place. It's missing Mieville's signature weirdness and wild imagination, and the characters are all pretty dull and one-dimensional. While Kraken is also considered one of his weaker works, it definitely made for a more exciting take of his supernatural London. Also, was I the only one who felt faintly embarrassed with the D&B motif? I'll say this much; PSS is an impressive jump in scope and quality considering it only came out a year later. Anyway, next up is The City & the City which I'm excited to get into, despite knowing the big twist.
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May 16, 2016 20:57
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Mordja posted:Anyway, next up is The City & the City which I'm excited to get into, despite knowing the big twist. I don't think that will take away from your enjoyment very much, it's only a twist in the sense that you're expecting there to be some typical CM weirdness going on and it turns out that it's just the fruit of good old totalitarian craziness. It's also addressed halfway through the book, it's no "The Sixth Sense" reveal that changes your perspective on everything.
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May 16, 2016 22:05
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Oh, neat. Somehow that's the only spoiler I know too, I know next to nothing about the book otherwise.
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May 16, 2016 23:34
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Mordja posted:Also, was I the only one who felt faintly embarrassed with the D&B motif? Not the only one. I thought it was cheesy in general, but the way it was used in the big climactic dance made my roll my eyes so hard they about fell out of my head.
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May 18, 2016 22:17
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First review of The Last Days of New Paris: http://publishersweekly.com/978-0-345-54399-8 Publishers Weekly posted:Miéville (This Census-Taker) takes on the surrealists in this gritty and erudite fantasy. In 1941, a surrealist bomb exploded in Nazi-occupied Paris, unleashing thousands of manifs—physical manifestations of images taken from surrealist paintings. Some were merely whimsical; others were terrifying and dangerous. Now it’s 1950 and New Paris, as it’s called, is the epicenter of the continuing war. The chaotic city is fought over by Nazis and Parisians, both sides constantly bedeviled by the chaotic manifs. Worse still, the Nazis have made contact with hell and unleashed demons to aid their villainy. Thibault, a soldier in the surrealist cause, fights the Germans using the powers of chaos while attempting to monitor the manifs. While patrolling the city, he observes a manifestation of Carrington’s famous Amateur of Velocipedes and meets Sam, a woman with the unusual plan of photographing all of surrealist New Paris, despite the danger. Thibault soon discovers that Sam is someone much more powerful and dangerous than she seems. Knowledge of surrealist art is not necessary to enjoy this odd, action-filled tale, but it helps. An appendix explains the sources of the dozens of manifs mentioned in the story.
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May 22, 2016 01:45
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quote:Worse still, the Nazis have made contact with hell and unleashed demons to aid their villainy. It's a Bas-Lag prequel  (I'm sure it's not but it'll be awesome to see Hell as political entity explored once more.)
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May 22, 2016 01:52
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Another review: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/china-mieville/the-last-days-of-new-paris/ Not entirely a positive one, sadly.
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May 23, 2016 09:13
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Finally got around to reading Perdido Street Station... not bad at all. Should I check out The Scar next?
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Jun 1, 2016 00:41
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Yes. The Scar is probably his best book in the Bas-Lag world. Be warned, though; it is not a sequel to PSS and it does not follow up on that story.
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Jun 1, 2016 00:57
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