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I just finished King Rat and I can't recommend it enough. It's a light, fun, fast read with all of Mieville's trademark weirdness and a lot of unforgettable characters. I would say it makes a perfect starting point for anyone who wants to get into Mieville.
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Nov 19, 2008 00:35
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cult_hero posted:This is probably the one thing that really hooked me about Mieville's Bas-lag novels, nothing is thrown away. While every story has features that seem like trivial fluff, they eventually become important features of other books. Bellis Coldwine is mentioned very tangentially in Perdido Street Station, Spiral Jacobs is mentioned in the Scar, and reference to the wandering ambassador of Tesh is made in Perdido Street Station. there are so many interesting characters and hinted at history with potential for entire novels, and with each novel the world just gets richer and richer. Woah, when is Spiral mentioned in The Scar? I missed that one apparently!! I love the whole description Silas gives Bellis of his travels, and then later the stuff that Uther reveals about where he grew up. Mieville communicates the strangeness and mystery of these dark unknown places to the reader, drawing us in exactly the same way the characters are. In King Rat, there multiple monarchs of the species; we spend a lot of time with King Rat, Anansi the spider king, and Loplop the bird king, and they are all really cool characters. He also mentions two other monarchs, the "Queen Bitch" of the dogs and some sort of cat king, but they never make an appearance. It's his same style of creating a lot of really cool world details and then making the story a part of it, rather than the entirety.
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Dec 2, 2008 23:10
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Z. Autobahn posted:Just because Hedrigall asked, I'll crosspost my analysis of PSS from the "Unforgivable Endings" thread... This is a very good post! Now do Iron Council please  is it anti industrialism with the whole train through the swamp thing? What are the most Marxist parts of the book?
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Feb 23, 2009 02:42
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NorphTehDwarf posted:On the subject of King Rat, I got it a few days ago and tried to read it, but the entire time I couldn't shake off this feeling that I'd read it before with Gaiman's name on the cover. Only got like half a chapter or so in, though. Does it get better as it goes on? Yes, it definitely gets better. There's a really intense chase scene in particular that takes up about half the book, which I really enjoyed.
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Feb 23, 2009 18:52
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Evfedu posted:Even the end of the first one? Christ. While I disagree with your opinions on Perdido, if you liked even a little bit of it then you'll like The Scar, which is an all around better book. What I like about Perdido is the fact that it's just a hosed up story in a world full of them, and it doesn't have to have a happy ending because most stories don't. The ending wasn't engineered to make you feel bad, the ending just is what it is. It's not the type of world where a motley crew of steampunk heroes and magicians save the day from the evil empire and ride off to the next adventure in their dirigibles.
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Jan 20, 2010 03:17
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The Brucolac is the best modern vampire I've read, and I love the idea of the blood tax in his vampire-owned district. I wonder if they drink Vodyanoi and cactus sap? When an ex tried to sass me with some poo poo about Twilight I shoved The Scar in her hands and told her it features REAL vampires--the desperate addict kind! I also love that Mieville leaves the big fight between Doul and the Brucolac behind closed doors. I also loved the giant naval battle. What a scene, and poor Tanner Sack.
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Jan 26, 2010 21:13
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StabbedUp posted:Perdido Street Station grew on me. For a while it seemed pointless odd but once acclimatised I found myself fascinated by the drama. I like the way he uses allusions. The moths seemed an allusion to the film Aliens and an ingenious retelling of that story. Definitely, I would say the whole Greenhouse sequence in Perdido was a huge wink to Aliens. I enjoyed much of the book in the same spirit! King Rat is great I agree, I also enjoyed how about half the book is this giant chase scene. It's a very fun and quick read.
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Feb 23, 2010 02:53
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I just read The City and The City and it's pretty much a perfect little novel, and it's mild enough that I'm lending it to my mum now to read. It's a book that really shows how far he's come since King Rat. It's great reading along as he matures as an author, and now I'm more excited than ever for Kraken. I look forward to more of the same sense of humour we got to see in Un Lun Dun and some parts of PSS!
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May 2, 2010 23:32
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Hedrigall posted:Eh, skip King Rat. It's his most forgettable book. Go straight to Perdido, or even better, The Scar I really like King Rat and it's a fast read, I highly recommend it as a starter Mieville book before diving into Bas Lag. Un Lun Dun more so, but King Rat is fun too.
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Jun 3, 2010 05:41
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lokk posted:Yeah this is what I've heard from reading some of this thread. As I'm new to the whole fantasy/sci-fi genre and books overall, I'm trying to get my feet wet first before taking on the big stuff o.O Well it's impressive you are getting into Mieville, and in that case King Rat is definitely a good choice! It's fast, straight forward, and fun. You can tell it's one of the first things he wrote but it's not bad or anything, just less mature than his other stuff. I would compare it to Neil Gaiman's stuff, or Douglas Adams. It's a mix of urban London and supernatural shenanigans. Un Lun Dun is Mieville's more polished kinda spinoff and is a bigger adventure but written very much for young adults. It's way better than Harry Potter though
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Jun 3, 2010 16:05
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I haven't read any Chandler but I saw a lot of similarities to Kafka in TC&TCWrojin posted:Thanks, guys, that answers my question well enough to consider giving Finch a try. I liked TC&TC also, btw. To be more topical, I actually just finished Un Lun Dun at work last night, and though I felt that China was rather conspicuously giving a go at YA, it was still mostly readable. Smog, though? Cough. A bit facile with respect to the lessons for the youth, you know, but there were a couple good puns and I sort of liked the anti-prophecy slant. The carnivorous giraffes genuinely freaked me out!
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Jun 15, 2010 02:16
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That's a great interview Hedrigall, and so is the comment thread for it. Thanks for posting it, somehow even though I am an avid AV Club reader I missed it!
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Jul 15, 2010 19:04
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That was a really awesome post Thug Lessons, thanks for writing it!
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Aug 12, 2010 02:12
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I *just* missed him doing a signing next door to me in Toronto, but managed to pick up a signed copy of Embassytown after the fact. I've only read a little bit of it but it's already blowing my mind.
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Jun 5, 2011 16:10
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pkd3001 posted:Oh, wow. Did you like Solaris? I really like Philip K. Dick and enjoyed the George Clooney movie that was an adaptation of it, so I thought I would give it a try. I also like reading philosophy and I am trying to finish "Man's Search for Meaning," by Viktor Frankl, so it might take me a little while to finish Solaris but it seems like a very philosophical novel. One of the things that bothers me sometimes is that people think all sci-fi, is just this "space opera," Star Wars stuff. There are many really philosophically rich sci-fi novels and movies though. Not to knock Star Wars, because I like Star Wars, but I think sometimes people miss out on the deeper stuff like Philip K. Dick and Solaris. Agreed! In this vein, I can't recommend Mieville's 'Embassytown' enough, it's some of the cleverest sci-fi I've read in years. I would compare it closely to PKD and Iain Banks.
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Jun 21, 2011 17:51
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Sargeant Biffalot posted:I've just read it and I see why people compare it to Gaiman as the plot is pretty close to Neverwhere, in particular does anyone know if Goss and Subby/Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar are referencing some third series, because "immortal unstoppable mysteriously empowered pair of mercenaries" is an oddly specific recurring trope. Though on that note, the book makes a great companion to Neverwhere because each authors take on similar events highlights their stylistic quirks. In particular the stuff they use as iconic aspects of london is really telling. I would compare it favourably with Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman.
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Jun 30, 2012 15:01
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Hedrigall posted:Chiwetel Ejiofor if he eats like 40 cakes. First (before he gets much older) he has to play Sparrowhawk in A Wizard of Earthsea directed by Joss Whedon. In my dreams.
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Aug 25, 2013 20:30
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