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I dont think it was mentioned but Dragon (the Dungeons and Dragons magazine) did a Bas-Lag special some years back, it is probably of most interest if you are interested in D&D, but it had some nice art and a talk with Miéville himself. Am i the only one who thinks that The Scar is his weakest Bad-Lag book? I just felt like the ending made the entire book invalid, it's still a great read but i enjoy the two other much more.
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May 20, 2009 11:18
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Oasx posted:I dont think it was mentioned but Dragon (the Dungeons and Dragons magazine) did a Bas-Lag special some years back, it is probably of most interest if you are interested in D&D, but it had some nice art and a talk with Miéville himself. I think the ending is what makes an already-amazing adventure/horror/pirate story into a mindblowing one.
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May 20, 2009 13:05
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Hedrigall posted:Well The City & The City comes out this week, in the UK at least. US should get it soon and Australian bookstores will only have the UK imported version until July - so it'll be expensive. I'm going to buy it online myself, it'll be much cheaper. Got a link to that interview (if it was on the web that is)? I think the other book may have been "Kraken"; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kraken-China-Mieville/dp/0333989511/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242830601&sr=8-8. It's the only book of his that isn't out currently.
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May 20, 2009 15:45
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Slothapotamus posted:Got a link to that interview (if it was on the web that is)? I think the other book may have been "Kraken"; http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kraken-China-Mieville/dp/0333989511/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242830601&sr=8-8. It's the only book of his that isn't out currently. some guy on a mailing list in 2007, re: Kraken posted:Someone asked China about this at the signing in Washington D.C. in withak fucked around with this message at 16:25 on May 20, 2009 |
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May 20, 2009 16:19
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But Mieville himself saysChina Mieville posted:This is what happens in a world of rumor. I never talk about work in progress, and then the next thing you know some hint gets released, some misunderstanding generalizes, some whisper fractals, and then Amazon is trying to sell a non-existent book. My position is as follows: Kraken may or may not exist. If it does, it may or may not be called Kraken. Whether it exists and whatever it's called, it may or may not be out next year or the one after or another time. Sorry to be a pain! That's from this interview. Here is the one (blog post, not an interview) by his editor/agent/whoever, which mentions two manuscripts. Bolded the best parts: person posted:I shouldn’t admit this, but I am always a little surprised when an author meets a due date. Being a good writer requires a lot of thinking and planning, and those acts are often indistinguishable from their unruly stepcousin procrastination. So it should be no surprise that writers are late with their work sometimes. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 23:50 on May 20, 2009 |
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May 20, 2009 23:47
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You know I didn't want to like this guy after reading Perdido Street Station. It had a completely unsatisfying ending and Mieville goes waaaay out of his way to use the most obscure and cryptic phrasings possible. It was fun at first because it reminded me of stopping every ten minutes to check a dictionary while trying to read Tolkien as a child, but that was an issue of time and localization. The thing is his articles and essays keep popping up and I always agree with what he has to say. He's almost like the opposite of Orson Scott Card in this manner. Here's hoping he migrates over to nonfiction.
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May 22, 2009 21:03
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FuriousThird posted:You know I didn't want to like this guy after reading Perdido Street Station. It had a completely unsatisfying ending and Mieville goes waaaay out of his way to use the most obscure and cryptic phrasings possible. It was fun at first because it reminded me of stopping every ten minutes to check a dictionary while trying to read Tolkien as a child, but that was an issue of time and localization. If you didn't like the ending of PSS you probably wouldn't like the endings of The Scar or Iron Council either, but I personally loved them. Steer away from Haruki Murakami too.
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May 24, 2009 03:00
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Just a reminder that his new book, The City & The City is out today. I just went and picked up my copy 
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May 26, 2009 21:53
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Mine's coming in the mail soon. I probably won't get to read it until after my exams though.
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May 26, 2009 22:06
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Except that I would say that China has about 1000x times the imagination and excitement of Murikami. gently caress that guy.
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May 26, 2009 22:37
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I finished The City and the City the other day, and although it was a departure from his Bas Lag books, I did think it was very good. I'm not normally a fan of first person narratives, but I can't imagine the book working any other way. I'd reccomend it heartily.
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May 28, 2009 12:41
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SaviourX posted:Except that I would say that China has about 1000x times the imagination and excitement of Murikami. gently caress that guy. That comparison is like getting pissed off at Hemmingway for not writing about Space Marines. I'm 4th in line for City at the library.
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May 29, 2009 04:24
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Oasx posted:Am i the only one who thinks that The Scar is his weakest Bad-Lag book? I just felt like the ending made the entire book invalid, it's still a great read but i enjoy the two other much more. The City & the City sounds awesome and I'm really glad it's not fantasy, to be honest (I think the mention of 'magick' makes me wince these days). That's probably why The Scar's my favorite novel from him (although bits of Looking for Jake are better). Noricae fucked around with this message at 09:10 on May 29, 2009 |
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May 29, 2009 09:03
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Noricae posted:The City & the City sounds awesome and I'm really glad it's not fantasy, to be honest (I think the mention of 'magick' makes me wince these days). That's probably why The Scar's my favorite novel from him (although bits of Looking for Jake are better). I would still put The City & The City in the fantasy category, though still different from his previous books. Even though it's set in the "real" world it requires quite a bit of suspension of belief to make the whole conceit of the novel work. I thought it started out with promise but ultimately there's no payoff. The procedural side of the story works fine, but I think it would have worked better if it was set on some other world where the dynamic between the two cities could have been carried further. As it is it feels more like a not-so-subtle psychological allegory.
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May 29, 2009 20:01
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Just picked it up, going to start it tonight. It's kinda weird, I feel like I should be excited, but I'm not really. I imagine that'll all change inside of a chapter or two, though.
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May 29, 2009 20:44
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I'm finding that the more books that China Mieville adds to his resume the more well-rounded he becomes as a writer. After having finished The City & The City I think it's his most complete novel to date and it just sort of shows his natural progression. I don't mean to say that he's an absolutely amazing author but if you look at Perdido Street Station, it had some holes and the ending was pretty weak, the Scar was great but I found the ending once again wasn't too hot, Iron Council (and I'm probably in the minority) I thought was his best but once again it sort of was flat at times. Where as with his newest I really can't find too many flaws with it, it's definitely not my favourite of his but everything is wrapped up neatly in the end, the characters aren't too cliched (which seems to be a tendency for a lot of authors when writing murder/mystery thrillers), and the story is interesting. I liked it.
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May 31, 2009 03:23
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queenoffarts.edu posted:Iron Council (and I'm probably in the minority) I thought was his best I agree with you, Iron Council is his best (haven't read City & the City yet but I got it in the mail today!)
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May 31, 2009 08:56
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I liked Scar the best. I enjoyed a lot of aspects of PSS and Iron Council, but IC in particular didn't gel with me. His worldbuilding is definitely the best part of his books, especially the different races. Also, maybe I'm dense but I never understood how the train in IC was supposed to move. My impression was everyone had to keep on laying track in front of the train, presumably picking it up from behind. How could the thing ever move faster than people (even FANTASY people) can pick up the track from behind and move it to the front? I very well could have completely missed an obvious piece of the book, but that wouldn't stop bugging me. Also it seems like the evil forces just needed to put a bunch of pennies on the existing rails to completely gently caress up everything.
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May 31, 2009 10:11
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Noricae posted:Yes and no. The story was sort of a wash, but he introduced a few neat characters and talked about places (the city full of dead) that weren't mentioned in the world so far, so I found the book to be overall worthwhile. I mostly care about his world and history though (so that Dragon magazine special sounds interesting, and I should track it down). There honestly isn't a lot in that Dragon special that is new or revelatory. I was pretty disappointed when I finally got my hands on a copy and flipped through it. Most of it is just statting Bas-Lag stuff over to D&D.
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May 31, 2009 12:55
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Pascallion posted:I liked Scar the best. I enjoyed a lot of aspects of PSS and Iron Council, but IC in particular didn't gel with me. I agree with you, there was definitely some stupid poo poo in Iron Council. To be fair though, it's a science fiction/fantasy book and you sort of have to toss aside the semantics for the duration and suspend your belief. It's been awhile since I read it but I just assumed that they could regulate the speed of the train which allowed them to bring up the track from the back so that it didn't outrun them. As far as their return goes, when they reconnect to the existing line, I don't know what stopped New Crobuzon from just putting a big girder across the rail gauge. But hell, if they did, it would have been a pretty lame ending.
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May 31, 2009 19:53
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Pascallion posted:Also, maybe I'm dense but I never understood how the train in IC was supposed to move. My impression was everyone had to keep on laying track in front of the train, presumably picking it up from behind. How could the thing ever move faster than people (even FANTASY people) can pick up the track from behind and move it to the front? I don't recall him ever saying anything about the train moving faster than the rail could be laid, I don't see how this is a problem.
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May 31, 2009 20:00
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I think the whole point was that it could only move as fast as they could pick up and re-lay the track.
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May 31, 2009 20:11
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The City and The City has a very strange beginning. To me it's as if Mieville wanted to distance himself not only from writing fantasy, but his writing style in general. What we get here reminds me very much of Kafka's The Castle.
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Jun 1, 2009 11:50
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Grand Fromage posted:I don't recall him ever saying anything about the train moving faster than the rail could be laid, I don't see how this is a problem. Well yeah, it just takes them a gently caress of a long time to get anywhere, thus deliberately going through smokestone and the Torque; they also have a bunch of remade working day and night. I see it as about a mile of track, and they crawl about a mile an hour. Also, I don't think the militia sabotaged their return because A) they were too busy with the war, B) they thought the elementalists would stop them, and C) the industrialist had other ideas.
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Jun 2, 2009 07:40
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SaviourX posted:Well yeah, it just takes them a gently caress of a long time to get anywhere, thus deliberately going through smokestone and the Torque; they also have a bunch of remade working day and night. I see it as about a mile of track, and they crawl about a mile an hour. Weather Wrightby is one of my favourite antagonists of the Bas-Lag books. He's only in like 3 scenes of Iron Council (plus he has the awesome prologue) but he's just so bad-rear end. I hear his voice as Daniel Day Lewis's character in There Will Be Blood.
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Jun 2, 2009 07:53
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Argali posted:The City and The City has a very strange beginning. To me it's as if Mieville wanted to distance himself not only from writing fantasy, but his writing style in general. What we get here reminds me very much of Kafka's The Castle. I am halfway through The City and The City But I get a distinct Budayeen feel from the book. It is probably just a coincidence due to the locale but it really resonates a combination of that and The Castle.
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Jun 2, 2009 11:36
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Heads-up for Oregoons, China's going to be at Powell's this coming Sunday at 7:30. Haven't been getting much reading done the last few days so I'm not too far in, but so far I'm really enjoying The City and The City. I kinda wish he hadn't gone with the initialism ECS, though, I keep expecting Ian Cormac to pop in and kill some dudes. Also I spent about 50 pages reading Ul Qoma as UI Qoma, wondering what the hell UI stood for until I realized I was a fool.
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Jun 2, 2009 18:12
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Ballsworthy posted:Heads-up for Oregoons, China's going to be at Powell's this coming Sunday at 7:30. He did a reading and signing in Harvard Square today for Harvard Books, it was very cool. Only about 100 people, only a few inane questions "So like, how are you so awesome?" and he talked about his band names when he was younger. One was "Look at that Peanut Go"
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Jun 4, 2009 02:12
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Well jesus christ, it would have been nice for this to actually be announced somewhere; I could have actually driven down to Seattle today to see him.
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Jun 5, 2009 20:24
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Is there a place with all his tour dates posted?
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Jun 6, 2009 06:17
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Yeah, I'd really like to know about this. Is Miéville gonna pass anywhere near LA? edit: here we go! http://www.suvudu.com/2009/05/china-miville-on-tour.html I don't wanna go to San Diego! Oh gently caress everything it's the day before my French final? Grand Prize Winner fucked around with this message at 05:25 on Jun 8, 2009 |
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Jun 6, 2009 19:16
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Holy crap, i have to go to this. Never been to a book signing before, but i love Mieville, and this is literally five minutes from my house.
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Jun 6, 2009 21:48
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The Powell's event was very fun and had surprisingly few horrible nerd questions that I associate with fantasy author Q/A sessions. China said my Quixote tattoo was "wicked badass"  Anyone catch the name of the book/author of the book he recommended that is "half horror novel half philosophy text"? He said it was an Iranian author and it started with an N but he said it way too fast. ShutteredIn fucked around with this message at 06:21 on Jun 8, 2009 |
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Jun 8, 2009 06:03
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ShutteredIn posted:The Powell's event was very fun and had surprisingly few horrible nerd questions that I associate with fantasy author Q/A sessions. China said my Quixote tattoo was "wicked badass" Cyclonopedia, by Reza Negarestani http://www.amazon.com/Cyclonopedia-Complicity-Materials-Reza-Negarestani/dp/0980544009 The best thing is that when he did get a horrible nerd question he managed to turn it into something interesting to talk about. Very funny and intelligent man. VVV No problem, thanks for reminding me about it. Also, I had forgotten how goddamn horrible those chairs are. Ballsworthy fucked around with this message at 20:47 on Jun 8, 2009 |
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Jun 8, 2009 16:18
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Ballsworthy posted:Cyclonopedia, by Reza Negarestani Wow thanks that was fast. This sounds pretty awesome.
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Jun 8, 2009 18:59
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Finished TC&TC. It was good. Characters were always his weakest link but it seems that in this book first-person perspective coupled with his writing have managed to overcome this flaw of his. The last act didn't quite live up to the buildup of the first two, but I didn't mind.
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Jun 9, 2009 03:31
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Megazver posted:Finished TC&TC. It was good. Characters were always his weakest link but it seems that in this book first-person perspective coupled with his writing have managed to overcome this flaw of his. The last act didn't quite live up to the buildup of the first two, but I didn't mind. I think the big problem with the ending was just his inexperience with the detective novel. If you separate out the book into a detective aspect and a surreal aspect, the surreal aspect, unsurprisingly, flourishes towards the end "Schrodinger's pedestrian" was awesome, while the detective aspect suffers. Seriously, a five-page, Mike Hammer-esque conversation with the villain?
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Jun 9, 2009 16:39
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Ballsworthy posted:I think the big problem with the ending was just his inexperience with the detective novel. If you separate out the book into a detective aspect and a surreal aspect, the surreal aspect, unsurprisingly, flourishes towards the end "Schrodinger's pedestrian" was awesome, while the detective aspect suffers. Seriously, a five-page, Mike Hammer-esque conversation with the villain? Honestly, I thought that the Orciny stuff would've actually made a more interesting book if it didn't turn out to be fake. Also, I was kind of disappointed in what the Breach turned out to be. As in, some assholes with advanced weaponry thugging people around to make them pretend that half of their city doesn't exist for what basically is their own amusement. Yeah, it's a hyperbole, but if the split was a bit more, uh, supernatural in its origin it wouldn't look so ridiculous. As it stands, I just can't imagine anyone actually bothering to stay in the city.
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Jun 10, 2009 19:55
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Megazver posted:Honestly, I thought that the Orciny stuff would've actually made a more interesting book if it didn't turn out to be fake. Also, I was kind of disappointed in what the Breach turned out to be. As in, some assholes with advanced weaponry thugging people around to make them pretend that half of their city doesn't exist for what basically is their own amusement. Yeah, it's a hyperbole, but if the split was a bit more, uh, supernatural in its origin it wouldn't look so ridiculous. As it stands, I just can't imagine anyone actually bothering to stay in the city. See, I liked that he explained it all away and the fact that the split was an entirely human invention. Normally I don't like it when authors do that, keep that poo poo inscrutable, I like to say, but for some reason I thought it worked here. I was actually delighted when it turned out Orciny was bullshit. Maybe it's just the fact that, in a book set in the present day, people doing stupid poo poo is more believable to me than, say, an ineffable force that splits a city into two. I can definitely see how you could feel that way, though.
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Jun 10, 2009 20:06
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ShutteredIn posted:The Powell's event was very fun and had surprisingly few horrible nerd questions that I associate with fantasy author Q/A sessions. China said my Quixote tattoo was "wicked badass" I went to the signing on Tuesday, and it was a cool experience. We did had a few slimy nerds ask some retarded non-questions though. China mentioned that he has no plans to write another bas-lag story unless he is certain he can top iron council, which he considers his best work so far, and that he was worried of running the series into the ground, and would prefer it to be unfinished than overdone.
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Jun 11, 2009 05:20
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