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Aw poo poo, you just made my muthafuckin' day. Wait, is that a US or a UK release date?
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Oct 27, 2008 16:42
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Anyone read Un Lun Dun? I haven't gotten to it yet, but I told my mom to read it; she's a childrens' librarian and hardly ever reads anything beyond YA these days. Anyway, she loved the poo poo out of it, and actually wants to read some of his adult novels, which is a pretty big deal for her. Also, for Miéville fans that are hungry for some similar stuff, a good starting point is The New Weird, another excellent short story anthology compiled by Jeff and Anne VanderMeer. The recommended reading list at then end of the book is worth the purchase price alone. I'm currently reading Punktown by Jeffery Thomas, which I picked off that list, and I'm completely gay for it.
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Oct 28, 2008 01:58
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Eejit posted:Also, how about the Anophelii, the mosquito people. I thought that they were a really awesome invention since it just comes straight out of left-field. The coolest part about them is how the male half of the race is incredibly brilliant, but the female part of the race is all animal and violent, barely sentient. I looooved the Anophelii. They were so tragic. The she just wanted to talk scene was heartwrenching. "How many did you kill?" "One." "That is not so bad." Jesus christ...
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Oct 28, 2008 18:42
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Eejit posted:Gah, I just can't get over how two-sided the race is, yet how they still operate and live together. They are definitely in some sort of society with eachother, but they are also two very different sides to the proverbial coin. It's the understanding of the males that got me. They have full knowledge of the reason they're kept so isolated, and they accept it and try to go on with their lives. On the topic of bloodsuckers, how about his vampires? In contrast to pretty much everything ever written on the subject, his vampires are nothing more than junkies (except for in Armada); shunned, detested, given the occasional handout out of pity. Lurking in New Crobuzon, terrified of discovery, or living in hovels in High Cromlech. In fact, High Cromlech as a whole is ridiculously intriguing. Ruled by elderly zombies with their mouths stitched shut, some live humans kept around for various tasks that the undead are unfit for, and the vamps in the gutter. Liveman Doul and Deadman Brucolac . . . just typing that makes me shiver. VVVVV Oh hell yeah, I'd forgotten about them. Really innovative, with the differences between sinistrals and dextriers. Ballsworthy fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Oct 28, 2008 |
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Oct 28, 2008 20:12
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duckspeakeasy posted:Does anyone know if he is specifically not writing more Bas-Lag books, or has it just not happened yet? He's so tight-lipped about that sort of thing, we'll find out for certain that he's stopping Bas-Lag when he dies and not one second before.
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Oct 28, 2008 22:25
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Hedrigall posted:PSS is my least favourite of the Bas-Lag novels. Whenever I read The Scar, it becomes my favourite, and whenever I read Iron Council, it becomes my favourite instead. Possibly because I find the ocean/arid-wilderness much more interesting settings than a city. But he does the gritty urban setting so well. Everything he does is unmistakeably urban, from King Rat's London to New Crobuzon and Armada to the various dark cities of his shorts. I'm going to go ahead and call The Scar my favorite, but I like them all for pretty different reasons. PSS for the aforementioned gritty urban setting and bitchin' horror elements, The Scar for, well, everything, and IC for the Western, gunslinger-style elements. Things I don't like about the books: IC: A little disjointed and a little heavy-handed with the social commentary (but just a little, and I half-rear end agree with a lot of it anyway). Scar: Speaking of heavy-handedness, here's another major plot point involving some sort of scar. PSS: Nothing. I'm sure there's something, but I can't think of anything off the top of my head. VVV That's a good point about Lin's story, but bleak endings are A-OK with me. The last few pages did feel like a let-down for me on the first read, now that you mention it, but really just right at the very end. Ballsworthy fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Oct 29, 2008 |
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Oct 29, 2008 01:10
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mcustic posted:It's just that I find some of the political issues explored in IC somehow too close to our reality... This is what makes it good scifi, IMO. It's supposed to hold a funhouse mirror up to our world.
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Oct 29, 2008 22:42
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mcustic posted:
It still kinda gave me a hardon. Pretty excited.
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Oct 31, 2008 03:16
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That blurb is exceptionally badly written.
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Pious Pete posted:Is "Looking For Jake" worthwhile? I've enjoyed Perdido, The Scar, and Iron Council so far. poo poo yeah. I mean, if you like horror stories, because that's what most of the book consists of, but yeah, they're awesome. A ghost story set in IKEA, for poo poo's sake. My favorite's probably the one with the old man and the window. On the other hand, I think the graphic novel was a waste of space. I didn't understand it, and couldn't make myself care enough to try.
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Dec 2, 2008 17:26
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Hedrigall posted:Reports Of Certain Events In London Crap, forgot about that one. First thing of his that I read, in a McSweeney's anthology, and it blew my freakin mind.
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Dec 2, 2008 23:13
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Substar posted:My only complaint is that I haven't heard about these books until now! This is such a cliche, but really do I wish I hadn't read them yet so that I could have the joy of that first reading all over again.
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Dec 18, 2008 19:01
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Casimir Radon posted:How overt is it? It seems to depend how much of a red-hater you are. I barely even noticed, but then, I'm some kind of half-assed leftist myself, on the rare occasion I can bring myself to give a poo poo. It makes some people absolutely outraged, though.
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Jan 22, 2009 20:05
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Can we discuss other New Weird here, too? I've read some other stuff lately that was pretty drat good, and I'd like to read some more. Jeffrey Thomas's Punktown stories are some of the better genre fiction I've read recently, and while he's definitely on the SF side of the spectrum he captures the same dark, desolate urban weirdness as China, just with aliens instead of China's animal/human hybrids. Punktown is almost as alive to me as New Crobuzon. Also worth checking out is Anne and Jeff VanderMeer's anthology, The New Weird. In true VanderMeer style it examines the roots of the movement, starting with some Moorcock, Ligotti and Barker before getting into the more contemporary stuff. It doesn't bat 1.000, of course, but I think any China fan would enjoy the majority of the stories. It also has a really good recommended reading section at the end.
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Feb 4, 2009 00:27
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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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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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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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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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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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Hedrigall posted:Just finished TC&TC, I liked it. People here are saying that it turned out there were no supernatural elements at all, but i'd like to know how Breach knows even when you simply look at something in the other city. Clearly Breach has some sort of power that goes unexplained. I don't think Breach was that powerful, a lot of that unseeing stuff was more in the heads of the citizens than anything, but they had extremely good surveillance and response time in the case of anything actually happening, i.e. the car accident mentioned early in the book. I may be wrong but I don't remember any reference to Breach actually nailing someone who just saw what they shouldn't, and in fact I think Tyador mentions something about how you could get away with a quick glance if you were careful.
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Jul 7, 2009 17:07
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Encryptic posted:Probably better he took a break from it instead of milking the poo poo out of the Bas-Lag world. My brain knows this is true but my nerd-bones want some goddamn Bas-Lag. edit: also those VanderMeer covers kick rear end. I've read some of his shorts and some anthologies he's edited and have been wanting to pick up a novel, which would you recommend?
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Dec 29, 2009 16:45
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LZEnglish posted:Speaking of Mieville dropping hints, does anybody else think that the man who killed Jack Half-A-Prayer before he could be publicly executed might actually be Isaac? ??? Please explain. LZEnglish posted:In his short story collection, there's a very traditional, very non-fantasy ghost story that is probably one of the best ghost stories I have ever read Was this the one about the stained-glass window? Because yeah that loving owned.
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Dec 29, 2009 20:06
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LZEnglish posted: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. poo poo I forgot all about that one. I need to find out who I lent that book to and get it back.
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Dec 29, 2009 21:31
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Oasx posted:I think i will check out some of those Jeff VanderMeer books, i really liked the New Weird & Steampunk anthologies he edited... My favorite parts of both of those were his introductions, actually. Muthafucka knows his poo poo.
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Jan 8, 2010 20:51
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 02:25 |
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I am not gonna mince words I wanna play that fucken game
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Apr 27, 2010 16:14
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