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 BOOK COVER!I know you guys like book covers. Here's Kraken's!  And a new blurb: Deep in the research wing of the Natural History Museum is a prize specimen, something that comes along much less often than once in a lifetime: a perfect, and perfectly preserved, giant squid. But what does it mean when the creature suddenly and impossibly disappears? For curator Billy Harrow it's the start of a headlong pitch into a London of warring cults, surreal magic, apostates and assassins. It might just be that the creature he's been preserving is more than a biological rarity: there are those who are sure it's a god. A god that someone is hoping will end the world. Merry christmas I guess 
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Dec 12, 2009 14:24
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Mahasamatman posted:At the suggestion of this thread, I picked up Perdido Street Station a few weeks ago and casually started plodding through it. The setting fastened me for the first few hundred pages until the plot picked up, and I stayed up several hours longer than I should have just now to finally finish it. The series gets better and better from here on, you're gonna have a loving awesome christmas
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Dec 14, 2009 13:17
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 US cover. Kind of generic and disappointing, just like the cover for TC&TC was. Another book coming out next year (August 4) is Before They Were Giants, an anthology of first-published short stories by lots of famous SFF authors: See how it all began! In Before They Were Giants, editor James L. Sutter collects the first published stories of 15 of science fiction and fantasy's most important authors, including winners of the prestigious Hugo and Nebula awards, New York Times bestsellers, and members of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Along with these often rare or never-before-anthologized stories, all 15 authors provide brand-new retrospective critiques and interviews discussing the stories' geneses, how publication affected their lives, and what they know now about writing that they wish they'd known then. Contributors include Ben Bova, Charles Stross, China Mieville, Cory Doctorow, David Brin, Greg Bear, Joe Haldeman, Kim Stanley Robinson, Larry Niven, Michael Swanwick, Nicola Griffith, Piers Anthony, R. A. Salvatore, Spider Robinson, and William Gibson. I believe China's story will be "Highway Sixty One Revisited" which he wrote in 1986!
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Dec 20, 2009 10:21
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Encryptic posted:Glad he did something other than another Bas-Lag book. Really? I'll lap up anything he writes, but Iron Council was released in 2004  I want my Bas Lag fix 
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Dec 29, 2009 05:43
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Hallucinogenic Toreador posted:I am certain that it's Yagharek. The description of the man as "heavily pocked" matches with him plucking all his feathers at the end of Perdido Street Station, his mouth and nose are covered to hide his beak, his voice is described as harsh because it wasn't a human voice. He even picks up the overseers whip, a weapon that Yagharek was expert with but would have been useless to Isaac. Yes, this is correct. LZEnglish posted:Yeah, that one was great, but I was referring to "The Ballroom". Honestly, all his short stories are pretty awesome. Another creepy unexplained one was about the woman in the white-painted room that the narrator has to bring a bowl of pudding to every day. I love, love LOVE that collection. The one about the white room was called Details and there was (maybe still is?) going to be a movie made of it: Wikipedia posted:In 2006 it was announced that the story Details was turned into a script by Dan Kay, and subsequently picked up by studio Paramount Vantage. The script was said to expand upon the original story's exploration of pareidolia and rework the plot to feature a father and daughter. As of November 2008, Martyrs director Pascal Laugier is attached to direct. And yeah, the Ballroom scared the gently caress out of me. Such an effectively creepy story, yet the ending was hilarious (deliberately so).
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Dec 30, 2009 00:41
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SaviourX posted:I think I'm going to have to reconcile the fact that I like fragmented narratives that have a lot more to do with imagery and language than they do with actual character, because I still love the gently caress out of IC. As much as i love good characters (which is why Harry Potter is one of my favourite series ever), IC appealed to me pretty much why you said. I can never decide whether IC or The Scar is my favourite. Usually depends on which of them I last read. Speaking of which, I'm going to re-read The Scar soon...
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Feb 11, 2010 11:54
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TONS OF KRAKEN INFO Well here is a fuckload of new information about Kraken courtesy of Amazon.com. The following may constitute minor spoilers: Amazon.com posted:With this outrageous new novel, China Miéville has written one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year. The London that comes to life in Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things. It sounds just incredible. I can't wait!
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Feb 12, 2010 09:56
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KRAKEN PREVIEW CHAPTER You can read Chapter 1 of Kraken here: http://www.panmacmillan.com/extracts/displayPage.asp?PageID=7991 Edit: i'm not going to read it, but I did skim over it briefly, and noticed that the room he's describing is one I've been in 
Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 12:47 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 12:45
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Oasx posted:I dont remember either character being particulary unlikable. Exactly. In fact Isaac in particular was a very affable character. The kind of cool, eccentric friend it's really fun to hang out with all the time. I really should reread The Scar (for the 3rd time) before the new Mieville book comes out (speaking of which, I've preordered it online so hopefully it'll arrive not long after the release date )
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Apr 14, 2010 11:07
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Captain_Indigo posted:Had to read TC&TC for university and I loved it. What course was this for? Captain_Indigo posted:I am trying desperately to burn through PSS so I can read The Scar and Iron Council before Kraken comes out. PSS is a good enough book by itself, but next to The Scar, PSS looks like a rather bland brochure introducing you to the world of Bas-Lag before you get onto the main event. The Scar is seriously one of the greatest, most mind-twistingly fantastical books I've ever read.
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Apr 15, 2010 12:26
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Off the top of my head: Isaac and the events of PSS are mentioned in passing in The Scar. There's a kind of important connection to the protagonist of that book. A major character in The Scar is likewise mentioned in Iron Council. The ending of PSS comes up early on in Iron Council in a very cool way, and you find out what happened to one of PSS's main characters after that novel ended. Something Derkhan mentions in passing early on in PSS ends up being a MAJOR plot point of Iron Council. There are a few other connections along these lines, and they don't really take away from the standalone nature of each novel, but it's fun to hunt them down. Edit: Also, gently caress, you are going to love The Scar so much
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Apr 23, 2010 12:58
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If anyone who has read all three books is wondering what those connections are, I'll spoiler-text them: Captain_Indigo don't read the below! (or anyone else who hasn't read the three novels) In order of above... Isaac is Bellis's former lover, of course. He is why she is fleeing New Crobuzon. Oh actually I have the second one the wrong way around. Tanner Sack mentions Spiral Jacobs in The Scar. In IC, the Flexible Puppeteers enact the trial/torture of Jack Half-A-Prayer, and in the play a "pock-marked man" (Yagharek sans-feathers) shows up and mercy-kills him. In PSS, Derkhan mentions hearing about a woman being Remade with her baby's arms grafted to her forehead. This turns out to be who is under Toro's helmet in IC. Also, would those of you who have read Iron Council agree that this is the best twist ever?: That Toro's plan to assassinate the mayor is a complete fabrication so she can kill the judge who ordered her Remaking, and who just happens to be having an affair with the mayor. That was mindblowing when I first read it, to realise her motives after all that build-up. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 13:12 on Apr 23, 2010 |
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Apr 23, 2010 13:07
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Kraken reviews I haven't yet read any of these, so I don't know if there are spoilers. http://nextread.co.uk/2010/04/16/green-review-kraken-by-china-miville-macmillan/ http://www.thebookseller.com/books/author-profiles/112281-a-kraken-good-read.html http://scotspec.blogspot.com/2010/04/book-review-kraken-by-china-mieville.html Also, The Guardian did a podcast about disaster fiction, including discussion of Kraken: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/audio/2010/apr/23/apocalypse-literature-volcano-krakatoa Edit: The podcast is very interesting but the mention of Kraken is a mere plug, literally about 15 seconds long. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Apr 24, 2010 |
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Apr 24, 2010 03:22
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Perdido posted:sperging over one of my favorite books I like your username They're still promising Tales Of New Crobuzon will be out this year. I really want to get it even though I don't play RPGs either. I just want the art, and the new (semi-official) canon! I think China is working with the writers, but it's more of a "yeah you can do that" kind of deal than a "I want you to put the following in..."
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Apr 27, 2010 13:52
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onefish posted:Welp, The City & the City won the Arthur C. Clarke Award for Best Novel, the preeminent British SF award, making Mieville the first writer to win the award three times (for Perdido, Iron Council, and this). I hope he's one of those incredibly prolific authors who'll still be writing when he's in his 70s. And I hope there's at least a handful more Bas-Lag novels
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Apr 30, 2010 02:30
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onefish posted:Oh totally, me too. I love Bas-Lag. But I respect the fact that he's doing other stuff, too, and it's STILL GOOD. And it's great that each Bas-Lag book stands alone, so we're not all furious waiting for the next one to continue the story like certain other authors we all could name. Let's sperg about Bas-Lag books to come I want him to write more exploration/adventure books in Rohagi and beyond, similar to the Cutter chapters of first half of Iron Council. I want to read more about the deserts and the mountains. I want to know more about Nova Esperium. I want to read a novel set in Bas-Lag's past, and one set hundreds of years after PSS/Scar/IC. I want him to do short stories featuring characters from previous books. I want him to do an atlas/bestiary/compendium of Bas-Lag. Edit: why is Nova Esperium ("new western land") called that if it's east of Rohagi? Edit 2: wait Hesperia is western land and it's in Greek not Latin, nm Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 05:58 on Apr 30, 2010 |
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Apr 30, 2010 05:51
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Perdido posted:As a Canadian who has a background in studying English lit/history, no, not really, up until Iron Council, where it seemed to be coming on really thick. Rather than having it be part of the work, the political overtones in Iron Council were frustrating...which is interesting, as I have a funny feeling that the whole concept of the train in Iron Council was based off of the TransCanada Railway. Some of the descriptions and such of the railway seemed vaguely familiar, particularly with the colonial overtones. I think there may have been 1 or 2 more direct references inserted in...I remember raising my eyebrow at them. Every Great Railway story is pretty much the same though. Iron Council could just have easily been based on Cecil Rhodes' attempted railway from Cape Town to Cairo. Rhodes is definitely a Weather Wrightby-like figure too.
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May 4, 2010 08:31
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Some Miéville goodness: China's very nice acceptance speech for his third Arthur C Clarke award: http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2010/china-mieville-at-the-arthur-c-clarke-awards/ (Can anyone catch the name of his partner, who he thanks?) An A-Z of China Miéville (seems to be an interview of sorts where he talks about a word, item or concept starting with each letter): http://www.panmacmillan.com/interviews/displayPage.asp?PageID=8119 Somebody's report of a book signing they went to last Sunday: http://www.pornokitsch.com/2010/05/postscript-sci-fi-london-coffee-with-gary-erskine-and-china-mi%E9ville.html ... where China told them that he has an entire, completed manuscript sitting around He said he had Kraken completed when he submitted TC&TC for publication, and now it seems there's a new book ready just as Kraken is coming out. My god he is prolific. Hopefully we'll see it in 2011!  ------ More junk: The French Bas-Lag covers are loving awesome:   As are the German ones:   Here's a pretty cool map of Bas-Lag someone did: http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs51/f/2009/300/9/5/Bas_Lag_by_JenJenRobot.jpg Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 13:55 on May 6, 2010 |
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May 6, 2010 13:31
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Captain_Indigo posted:I'm actually holding a copy of Kraken in my hands right now. I'm ill though and need to sleep but I know I am going to get through this in a matter of days. It's big...good big. Only read the 'prologue' page so far, and already I'm excited. UK or US edition? What's the page count? So jealous... (mine should be in my hands by Sunday)
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May 6, 2010 15:15
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Captain_Indigo posted:Uk, Hardcover. 481 pages long. Actually, with the size of the text it's probably quite a bit shorter than his other work. Hard to say. Oh I hope it's not too large text. I really look forward to reading a longer work from him, Un Lun Dun and TC&TC were both pretty short.
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May 6, 2010 16:07
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Nah, it's fan-made. The Dragon map is different, and inferior.
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May 7, 2010 01:05
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Here's Dragon magazine's interpretation. Around New Crobuzon:  Rohagi (which they spell Komagi for some reason???):  These feel wrong to me. The cacotopos should be further out, and the Cymek desert should be enormous, continent-sized. I have scans of the issue but I'm not sure if providing the whole thing (it's 40+pages of Bas-Laggy goodness) would be considered 
Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 08:45 on May 8, 2010 |
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May 8, 2010 08:41
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Anybody finished Kraken yet? I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive. I fear the Icelandic volcano fiasco has delayed its shipment Anyway, for those of you who, like me, adore every single word that that handsome man produces, here's a really good interview with Mr. Miéville: http://spaniardintheworks.blogspot.com/2010/05/knowing-how-world-isnt-conversation.html Contains no Kraken spoilers, but does have lots for his other books. No mention of any forthcoming novels, but the interview is nonetheless fascinating.
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May 11, 2010 11:09
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Aren't you glad I obsessively search the term "China Mieville", as well as related terms, on Google and Twitter and other places on pretty much a daily basis? I now present to you an interview... http://scyfilove.com/2201/china-mieville-exclusive-interview-monsters-method-bas-lag-and-kraken/ In which there is revealed... BRAND NEW BOOK INFORMATION!!! "However he revealed his next book is already with his editor – ’science fiction, aliens and spaceships, but I don’t want to give too much away’ – and should be out next year, while adding he has a bunch of books in mind that he wants to write in the future."  Whoever wanted it earlier in this thread, you're getting your wish: a Miéville space opera! Edit: there's also some talk of Bas-Lag: “I’m certainly not bored of Bas-Lag or anything like that and it would be easy for me to go back there,” he said. “But the books I wrote about Bas Lag had an arc to them and matter a lot to me. “I don’t want to undermine that, so my argument would be it would have to be a story that really needed to be in that setting. “We can all think of franchises that milked themselves dry too and can end up killing the thing you love by doing that. So I will be staying away for a while yet, although I do have a long term idea in mind,” he added, with just the right air of mystery. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 11:46 on May 13, 2010 |
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May 13, 2010 11:42
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Pompous Rhombus posted:I think I'm going to be at the Nebula book-signing thingie in Cocoa Beach tomorrow (it also coincides with a shuttle launch, so the two are probably going to be enough to drag me the two hours each way), which Mieville will be at. Anyone have a quick question they'd like me to try asking him? Ask him something about his sci-fi book
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May 14, 2010 02:51
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Well the icelandic volcano gods have finally permitted me to receive my copy of Kraken today. I'm now about 60 pages in and enjoying it so far. It's very much a dark comedy like I expected, and things have just gotten very dark indeed with the introduction of Goss and Subby. One part in the first few chapters made me realy laugh out loud: "What's this got to do with anything?" "It has the following to do with what for." Just that little exhange lets you know exactly what Baron is like. It's perfect.
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May 15, 2010 15:37
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NEW BOOK TITLE AND RELEASE DATE (?) @Paul_C_Smith is tweeting that he has a newsletter from Pan Macmillan, China's UK publisher, which says the new book will be out in May 2011 and is called Embassytown. And that Michael Moorcock has given it the thumbs up. This is so far unconfirmed, I jumped and subscribed myself to every single newsletter-resembling thing on Pan's website, so hopefully I'll have more info soon. It may be some industry newsletter thing that the public can't access though. (AFAIK publishers send those things out to sellers like Amazon which is how Amazon etc list future books so early) Edit: confirmed! http://booktionary.blogspot.com/2010/05/news-china-mieville-has-released-kraken.html
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May 19, 2010 16:02
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I love the title Embassytown, it's so evocative. I can picture it now: some huge spaceport full of the embassies of every alien race. It feels like it could be another murder mystery, only this time in a space opera setting. I hope it's a big chunky 800 page epic, or the first part of a trilogy, or something. Mainly because I want him to have written a lot of space opera.
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May 20, 2010 08:00
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http://stevesfantasybookreviews.blogspot.com/2010/05/interview-with-china-mieville-about.html A 1-hour podcast interview, mostly about The City & The City, but with some other discussion about China's explorations of genre. He mentions he's planning to write a historical novel.
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May 20, 2010 13:09
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I am proceeding quite slowly through Kraken due to having a ton of uni work. I'm on page 174 now. I just read the chapter (number 31) where the Tattoo gathers all of London's magical bounty hunters. It was totally awesome. China's creativity has absolutely no limits. edit: quotin dis from the bad sex scene thread: stupid ugly retard posted:China meiville does it ok. One time a dude almost has sex witha retarded girl with a beetle for a head and another time he talk about how hard it is to gently caress a chick bolted to a steam engine Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 12:26 on May 22, 2010 |
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May 22, 2010 12:14
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I just finished Kraken. Holy gently caress it was amazing. There were some pretty great, shattering twists in the last 100 or so pages. Yes, what people are saying is true, it was a lot like Neverwhere... but with the sheer unrestrained imagination that China Miéville has in bucketloads over Neil Gaiman. I'm not entirely sure yet but this could be my favourite Miéville book...
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May 26, 2010 07:51
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/06/01/china-mieville-swamp-thing-vertigo-series-binned/ Some minor news, for people who care about comics (I don't really): China was writing a Swamp Thing series, but it's just been scrapped. Hopefully this'll free up more time for him to write more Bas-Lag books!
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Jun 2, 2010 07:55
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Perdido posted:Adamant Entertainment has been working on a Bas Lag RPG book for about 2 loving years now. Mieville's been involved with it and will be contributing information, maps and artwork. It'll probably never be published because Adamant is really poo poo with deadlines They're still advertising on their site for artists to work on the project.
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Jun 3, 2010 02:45
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lokk posted:I'm a Mieville virgin and I just popped my cherry with Looking for Jake. Got King Rat lined up next, then will start the Bas Log series or whatever the gently caress it's called. Really enjoying this stuff Eh, skip King Rat. It's his most forgettable book. Go straight to Perdido, or even better, The Scar
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Jun 3, 2010 05:08
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Brand new audio interview with China He very briefly mentions the upcoming book, only a couple of times: once about 3 minutes in and once right at the end. He doesn't give away any details except that the prose style will be somewhere between TC&TC ("restrained and nomic") and Kraken ("rumbustuous and chaotic").
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Jun 8, 2010 06:13
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http://www.swampthingroots.com/news_06-03-10_china-mieville-hints-at-his-swamp-thing-run.html China talks about what would have been in his Swamp Thing comic series.
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Jun 9, 2010 04:16
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I've been probated for the last month, and I had something really cool I wanted to post about 2 weeks ago but I totally forget what it was. Oh well, have an awesome new interview by the AV Club! http://www.avclub.com/articles/china-mieville,43139/ Haplo26 posted:It took me literally three stabs at Perdido Street Station (I had no idea what the gently caress is going on in the world building / no discernable plot during the first arc / assloads of names and poor description of the city) and 200 pages later on the third attempt, it sunk in. Read The Scar. You will love it even more.
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Jul 15, 2010 14:16
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Pompous Rhombus posted:Yeah, she's had some really great lines so far. Goss has been my favorite though; his dialog will have me laughing out loud while at the same time having an "oh gently caress what is he about to do" feeling in the pit of my stomach. It's also been interesting reading the chapters with Leon's Leon's girlfriend (i cant remember her name) is my favourite side character. I really loved all the chapters featuring her.
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Jul 29, 2010 04:56
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SaviourX posted:Overall, I'd say that his character work has improved, but I think I personally love IC the most. (having only half-finished The Scar, of course) Only half-finished? WHAT? But yeah, IC and The Scar are still tied in my mind as my favourite fantasy books of all time. Kraken is my favourite of his non Bas-Lag books. If I had to do the cheesy thing and rate all his books from favourite to least favourite, it would go: (Scar & IC) > Kraken > PSS > TC&TC > LFJ > ULD > KR Even Un Lun Dun and King Rat I love to bits, just not as much as the others. They are the ones I am least inclined to re-read, I guess.
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Jul 30, 2010 07:14
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Here's a lovely diversion: Dispatches from a Troubled City: Art Inspired by the Works of China Miéville Featuring posters, drawings, paintings, sculptures and more. Some really really great stuff there.
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Aug 3, 2010 01:22
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