|
Alhazred posted:It also shows how evil and brutal the city government is. They have relations with Hell and no one there thinks that's kinda weird. Honestly, it felt a little too on the nose for me.
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2022 21:05
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 21:03 |
|
|
I mean, if hell existed I'd drat well want an embassy available too, regardless of what my government was.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2022 21:42
|
|
|
I couldn't finish Iron Council, it was kind of a slog. Maybe I should revisit it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2022 16:45
|
|
|
Ravenfood posted:I mean, if hell existed I'd drat well want an embassy available too, regardless of what my government was. I think we could trust the Devil not to abuse his diplomatic immunity.
|
|
#
?
Jun 28, 2022 18:32
|
|
|
Oasx posted:I think The Scar is great, but it’s my least favorite Bas-Lag book by far, mostly because I really hate the ending. yeah same. iron council is the best of the three.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 12:09
|
|
|
exmarx posted:yeah same. iron council is the best of the three. Totally this, the same, except the exact opposite.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 14:53
|
|
|
I came into the book from playing Fallen London, where Hell's embassy is common knowledge and devils give public lectures on the value of souls, so it felt comparatively understated.
|
|
#
?
Jul 2, 2022 16:14
|
|
|
Iron Council is the best, although a bit Trotskyist. I’ve read Scar first, enjoyed all three. Don’t be afraid and just dive into Bas-Lag, it’s one of the truly unique and weird fantasy settings.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2022 20:35
|
|
|
I found myself wondering what had happened to China Mieville not long ago, and found a rather unpleasant answer: scroll down to Sablefool's comment that begins with 'Whilst we do not live in...' I read through the last 2-3 pages and it hasn't been mentioned, so the claim put forth on that reddit thread is that CM was accused of untoward behavior similar to what has been attributed to Warren Ellis, but has thoroughly scrubbed a lot of it from the Internet. It's suggested that his low profile could be related to that situation. Pretty disappointing if true. He has a notice on his personal site about being stalked which is probably a response to what I've mentioned, so I have no idea really. Tosk fucked around with this message at 20:31 on Sep 7, 2022 |
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2022 20:29
|
|
|
Tosk posted:I found myself wondering what had happened to China Mieville not long ago, and found a rather unpleasant answer: scroll down to Sablefool's comment that begins with 'Whilst we do not live in...' This has come up before in the thread. The thing is, assuming it's the same person at least, what she appears to accuse China Mieville of is, being an rear end in a top hat. Her whole article is a lot of words about manipulation and gas-lighting and stuff, but I remember reading and not actually understanding what she was accusing him of, more or less cheating on her and lying about it, which is lovely but like... The article referenced in that Reddit is the one I read a year or more ago, from 2012. So, I don't know what to believe. Often in cases like this, there is more than one accuser, and there's a pattern of behavior. The complainer alludes to many other cases and says he's doing it to other women and then says he's using legal threats or whatever to keep them from talking about it. It's certainly plausible. I think it's also plausible this was an ugly relationship that ended badly. I'm not saying I hope another accuser comes forward, but Also, it seems like he's mostly just writing non-fiction right now. Er I don't want to seem like I'm white-knighting the guy, I'm not saying do or don't believe her or him, just it's hard for me to want to memory hole someone over some fairly vague allegations that appear to be unsubstantiated and unique - it's entirely possible he's a serial abuser and so proficient at it that he's keeping people from reporting or talking about it. I know the UK has very different laws about libel and such.
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2022 20:57
|
|
|
Tosk posted:I found myself wondering what had happened to China Mieville not long ago, and found a rather unpleasant answer: scroll down to Sablefool's comment that begins with 'Whilst we do not live in...' It has come up here in the past (the original blog post from 2012, not the reddit recap). It's difficult to really establish what happened in any concrete detail - could just have been a nasty breakup, maybe he's just a lovely boyfriend, could have been a genuine abuse situation. Sablefool (whose writing here is broadly insufferable lol) compares him to Ellis but there's no real specificity as to what he actually did - it does sound like there's a similarity in that it's about gaslighting and power imbalance but I'm not sure we have enough to really compare him to how serious the issues were with Ellis? Not that we need every gory detail and I don't want to downplay it, but I don't really know what to take from what we do have. It does seem fairly clear that part of the reason it's all so vague is that he made legal threats which is undeniably lovely and that alone makes it hard to trust him. It's the first time I've seen his low profile connected to the situation and I think that's a reach to be honest; he's pretty successfully cracked down on the whole thing and it was 10 years ago, he went quiet much more recently than that. e: yeah it was a good few years ago we discussed it: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=2994531&pagenumber=61&perpage=40#post485568937
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2022 21:00
|
|
|
I had no idea the situation was that old! I hadn't checked the dates involved and as that reddit post is from less than a year ago, just assumed it was fairly recent. I would definitely agree it's all too vague to compare to what happened with Warren Ellis. I appreciate being corrected, thanks!
|
|
#
?
Sep 7, 2022 21:55
|
|
|
pseudanonymous posted:Also, it seems like he's mostly just writing non-fiction right now. I think this is really all there is to it. He’s still writing and publishing, so I don’t get the impression he’s trying to keep his head down because of the allegations and such (which, as noted, are from a while ago). He’s just not writing and publishing the stuff that fans of his fiction necessarily want to read. It’s a bummer but 
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2022 00:26
|
|
|
Mieville could be making big cash by just pumping out Bas-Lag, the fact that he chooses to spend his time writing non-fiction to me is positive, because I am not interested in his half-assing his work. I do hope he gets back to fiction some day.
|
|
#
?
Sep 8, 2022 03:59
|
|
|
https://twitter.com/KELLYWEILL/status/1663616544167829506
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2023 19:44
|
|
|
Embassytown 2, let's gooooo
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2023 21:11
|
|
|
Oh my god. I can't wait, I was just thinking today actually after I saw that Planescape is being revived that Bas-Lag is due something too.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2023 21:25
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:Embassytown 2, let's gooooo Embassytown 2 : Homophones.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2023 21:27
|
|
|
I usually one-and-done books but I think I've re-read Embassytown cover to cover 5 times so far.
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2023 21:48
|
|
|
Written entirely in fraction words this time
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2023 21:49
|
|
|
In some interview last year he said finishing this book was his "white whale"
|
|
#
?
May 30, 2023 21:49
|
|
|
General Battuta posted:Written entirely in fraction words this time Maybe he apostrophe ll spell out all punctuation this time period
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2023 01:04
|
|
|
I recently read The Scar followed by Railsea. Real mirror image books in a lot of broad thematic ways, it feels like a friend telling the same story, but in The Scar they're depressed and in Railsea they've had a few beers and is a happy drunk. Definitely loved the reveal around the Captain's arm.
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2023 04:02
|
|
|
I know that many people don’t like YA, but I still give a big recommendation to Railsea.
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2023 05:43
|
|
|
Give me a sequel to Embassytown or a book in Bas-Lag about the Ghosthead Empire, you coward.
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2023 10:13
|
|
|
Vanderdeath posted:Give me a sequel to Embassytown or a book in Bas-Lag about the Ghosthead Empire, you coward. No way, I want a High Cromlech book first.
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2023 10:59
|
|
|
Guess there's no better time to note this bit from a critical internet commenter review of PSS that caught my eye recently.some rando posted:Ending spoiler:And then it follows with a whole lot of magical mathematical gobbledegook that makes no sense, in part because it's supposed to make no sense, because the magic system is supposed to sound scientifically rigorous even though it lacks scientific grounding
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2023 15:02
|
|
|
That's almost as good as the review of embassytown where an apparent linguist/brain surgeon said that it was impossible for a species to be biologically unable to lie.
|
|
#
?
May 31, 2023 15:07
|
|
|
Literally punched the air in excitement. Hell yeah. Also I didn't see anyone posting about this before, but back in December of last year, Miéville was on Chris Hayes's podcast Why Is This Happening?, of all things. They had a rather nice and respectful conversation about the Communist Manifesto.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2023 03:24
|
|
|
Tekopo posted:That's almost as good as the review of embassytown where an apparent linguist/brain surgeon said that it was impossible for a species to be biologically unable to lie. Lol. If you can find that I’d love to see how dumb it is.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2023 03:35
|
|
|
I was pretty sure it was in goodreads but I can’t find it now.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2023 07:00
|
|
|
I finished The Scar a couple of nights ago and I just need to say that the chapter where they descend to investigate why the avanc is sick scared the absolute bejeezus out of me
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2023 15:00
|
|
|
Gertrude Perkins posted:Literally punched the air in excitement. Hell yeah. Thanks for linking that, really enjoyable listen.
|
|
#
?
Jun 1, 2023 15:28
|
|
|
Idk if this tempers expectations at all but the new book is publishing under Pan Macmillan's literary imprint Picador so it might not be as outwardly sf/f as we hope Might be more like Census Taker/New Paris
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2023 02:20
|
|
|
Maybe it’s a classy horror. Dude does good horror.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2023 02:22
|
|
|
SFF guys giving non-SFF novels a go is often an interesting thing.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2023 10:16
|
|
|
Hedrigall posted:Idk if this tempers expectations at all but the new book is publishing under Pan Macmillan's literary imprint Picador so it might not be as outwardly sf/f as we hope that's quite a range, as I really liked This Census-Taker but despised New Paris. I will get it when it is out but I hope its more the former
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2023 15:29
|
|
|
FPyat posted:SFF guys giving non-SFF novels a go is often an interesting thing. The City & The City has some unnatural aspects but I’m not sure I’d describe it as Sci-fi or fantasy. It’s more like Balkan speculative fiction.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2023 21:02
|
|
|
Sandwolf posted:The City & The City has some unnatural aspects but I’m not sure I’d describe it as Sci-fi or fantasy. It’s more like Balkan speculative fiction. It's sci-fi in the sense that imagining a parallel Earth with different geography and history is always going to be. Even if you're realistic outside of that.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2023 21:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 28, 2024 21:03 |
|
|
Sandwolf posted:The City & The City has some unnatural aspects but I’m not sure I’d describe it as Sci-fi or fantasy. It’s more like Balkan speculative fiction.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2023 21:14
|
|
