Looking for something new and was wondering on experiences, opinions and recommendations of the authors books
Edit: A further point and question I should've mentioned, I don't get the time to read physical books and instead listen via audible, are the books ok in this form or are they better to be read?
The City and the City by China Miéville is a weird fiction murder mystery set in two cities that somehow exist in the same geographic space. It won the Hugo award in 2010 and I can see why - such an interesting mystery within a mystery!
On the surface, the story is a murder mystery. However, the real mystery for the reader is how do these two cities work? Is it magic or technology, or something else entirely? And who or what are the agents of breach that arrest, expel, or even execute people who ‘breach’ and pass from one city to the other?
Inspector Borlu is a smart, likeable, no-nonsense detective who is assigned to investigate the murder of a young woman. The case quickly proves to have interested parties across both cities. As Inspector Borlu digs deeper into the case, it also exposes the workings of the cities, and shadowy, all-powerful agents of Breach that patrol the border and enforce the separation. Miéville never tells us how the system works, instead he lets the story itself show us the truth, slowly giving you the pieces you need to put together the puzzle, which makes it so fun to read and feels like you’re solving a mystery of your own.
Prior to the resolution, it really feels like sci fi (or at least that it might be - it could also be magic making the rules of the cities and Breach) - but after the big reveal, I saw why they call it weird fiction. It didn't feel like a perfect ending (and is why I give the book a 4 out of 5) because it just didn't feel as exciting or big as it was led up to be. On the other hand, it was also so much more impactful because of the way it ended - the resolution carries much bigger ideas than you’d expect as you move through the book. The story itself isn’t one that will stick with you, but the setting, and everything it implies about the way we live and organize our lives – these are ideas that will keep knocking around in your head for months.
So what do y'all think? I personally really like this book (and weird fiction in general) being a subgenre of sci fi because I think that big tent definition of sci fi let's us introduce more people to the genre and get them excited about speculative fiction in general - what do you think? Does weird fiction belong within traditional sci fi? Feels kind of like how alternate history gets pulled under the big sci fi tent as well.
>!And finally I'd love to have a conversation under spoiler tags more specifically about the ending for those who've read it. If you
... keep reading on reddit ➡[EDIT: Thanks for all the great answers. I think collectively all my questions have already been addressed in just the dozen or so comments! This is an amazing community.]
Miéville's name keeps coming up and I've gotten intrigued.
His work seems to be quite special. What kind of reader would he appeal to? What would be a good place to start? His New Crobuzon / Bas-Lag books (are these wrapped up?), a stand-alone novel or maybe a story collection?
Also, I've noticed that he hasn't finished any fiction since 2016 and in that year only four pieces came out: two novellas, one co-written novelette, and an illustrated short story for children.
Does anybody know what happened to him? Has he stopped writing? Is he working on a long series he intends to finish before starting publishing it (unlikely but Abercrombie's done that, IIRC)? Does he suffer from illness, depression?
Lots of questions, I know. I'll be happy about feedback on any of them. Thanks!
I won’t spoil things, but you can check out the Wikipedia article here. Both the book and the game revolve around a murder to be solved, but I find the whole vibe of the game really reminiscent of how the author describes the city (and the city) in the book.
Anyone else read it?
As of today, I’ve finished a quite enjoyable three month long dive into the work of China Miéville. So, I’ve decided to briefly review, well all of it:
Some thoughts generally:
Writing Style: Miéville cites both pulp and Peake (of Gormenghast) as inspirations, so it is no surprise his prose is more than a bit heavy and intricate. He enjoys playing with words, he enjoys trotting out obscure and specific ones. He is good at it, but he is neither aiming for sparse elegance nor poetic lyricism. He’s baroque and pulpy and revelling in the energy of language. He loves adjective and many syllables.
More generally, the strongest aspect of his work in my opinion is the raw sense of place that he builds. It’s not exactly worldbuilding in the typical sense, history is a shred of a sketch, distant lands are a brief-mentioned milieu suggesting the world is grander than the slice we see. But he will ground you in his cities, in the beats and rhythms of their day-to-day, their industries and ephemera and particularities and neighborhoods and restaurants and fads and slang.
Politics: So, lets not beat around this bush. He’s a Marxist. I’m not but I lean in that direction.. I don’t find him didactic, you might. I think he mostly shows how he sees the world without telling you how to think about it. You might feel otherwise.
The headline ratings: novel edition
Superlative (5/5): Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Embassytown.
Very Strong (4/5): The City and the City, Iron Council, Railsea
Enjoyable (3/5): Un Lun Dun, Kraken, King Rat
Bas-Lag.
Well this is r/Fantasy, so let's get this fantasy monstrosity out of the way. Perdido Street Station and the Scar were the first two Mieville books I read, and Iron Council was the last.
Perdido Street Station (5/5): This is really a book about New Crobuzon, a burbling grimy joyous angry industrial cesspool of a city inhabited by a bewildering array of fantasy beasts you’re unlikely to see elsewhere (though many are drawn from real folklore). It’s got cactus people, its got waterbending amphibious vodyanoi, its got bird people, its got a spider to put Ungoliant to shame. It’s industrial, its cruel, its callous, its got sorcery running in the sewage. It’s got a penal code drawn from the darkest nightmares of Dr Frankenstein. A bunch of artists and academics and rebels in the city’s working class try and live their lives as disaster unfolds on a bewildering scale around them. This has creepy monsters, bleaknes
... keep reading on reddit ➡After I finished his book Embassytown (which I loved), I started searching for other works by China Miéville. I stumbled across this collection of free audio horror stories by a variety of authors, including him. (I searched this sub to see if it had been posted before, but didn't find anything; if it is a repost, sorry): https://play.google.com/store/books/theme/promotion_audiobooks_tor_nightfire_CTP
The City and the City is my very first China Miéville novel. It's low on horror and written in the style of a hard-boiled, noir detective story. A perfect introduction for a scaredy cat like me, in other words. It starts with a murder, and through the eyes of Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Beszel Extreme Crime Squad, we get to explore two neighbouring cities that co-exist in a bizarre kind of geographical superposition.
Set in post-Soviet Eastern Europe, the titular cities feel incredibly real, once I got to grips with Miéville's neologisms. Beszel and Ul Qoma exist in a world that's a perfect replica of ours, as far as I can tell. There are references to Microsoft Windows, Chuck Palahniuk, and Michel Foucault. The vivid and sensual imagery evokes memories of the sprawling city of Budapest. There's also a relentless sense of paranoia, of being watched by forces unknown, that I've rarely encountered in other books. I was struck by how plausible it all seems, how no fancy magic or technology is really needed to recreate such a society.
This story is predominantly about the setting, but everything else is excellent. The plot is well-paced, requiring some attention while still being easy to follow. The prose is crisp and punchy without being skeletal, and really emphasises the "noir"-ness of the setting and genre. The characters, while fairly one-dimensional, are nicely written and keep the spotlight firmly on the intriguing setting. We're able to inhabit Borlú's character and really experience the cities. The dialogue feels remarkably natural. The storytelling is organic, free of clumsy exposition and info dumps.
Overall, The City and the City is an incredible read that deserves every bit of hype it gets. It's thought-provoking without being preachy, with echoes of Orwell's 1984. For those of you who have read other stuff by Miéville, how different is this one from the rest? Is the horror element more prominent?
I have devoured everything he has written, and have yet to find something even remotely similar - the uniqueness of the world he created, vivid characters, & fascinating concepts that drive the plots. He hasn’t written any new fiction in years, and I’d love to find another author with a similar vibe.
Yes, I've read his other books, "The Scar" stood out to me.
Also a fan of Max Gladstone, particularly "Three Parts Dead"
Big fan of Jack Vance.
Presently reading Gareth Hanrahan's "Shadow Saint" which I'm enjoying so far (more than I liked "The Gutter Prayer").
I really dig magic/alchemy that is advanced to the point of being an industrial technology. Imprisoned or insane gods are fun. No orcs.
I am enthralled by Miéville’s prose, particularly the dialogue. It’s so snappy and creative, and it flows with a unique upbeat cadence you don’t get in a lot of other writing. It is slightly reminiscent of Pynchon.
Just wanted to see if anyone else agrees/disagrees, and if anyone might know any other authors with similar offbeat writing styles.
I recently finished Miéville's The Kraken and loved it! While it's maybe not technically SF, I discovered it via this amazing subreddit so I figured I'd ask you folks for my next read. If this isn't the right sub for this kind of ask, I'd be grateful for some directions.
What I'm looking for is something that blends the inscrutable conspiracy and paranormal of the X-files with the character-driven mystery of the Kraken.
**Edit: So many amazing recommendations! You folks are awesome haha I love this sub! Thank you!
Read that book a year ago and still think about the bizarre (but oddly...cool?) system of two cities co-existing of one another while ignoring each other in the same space. Also loved how it had the pace of a thriller, plus solving a crime within it? Awesome.
Some suggestions of the likes of that book would be kindly put in my forever growing TBR list or maybe even be a fast shipped asap read?? Who knows.
I'm looking for New Weird, creepy, and maybe vaguely Lovecraftian horror. China Miéville and Stepgen King are my top two authors.
My sister once described me as liking books that are "gently unsettling" if that helps at all
this post really has no great purpose, but I felt I wanted to share these thoughts
I usually choose a relevant text to read on the holidays (for Rosh Hashana last year I read Moses and Monotheism, by Sigmund Freud). Doing this puts me in a good mindset for the holiday and makes me think deeper about my traditions, heritage, faith, etc.
Tuesday night, I was not feeling it. I tried reading the book I'd gotten for the holiday but just couldn't do more than a chapter of material more dense than osmium, before falling asleep. So, with my house internet unplugged and all phones and computers turned off, I grabbed one of my favorite books off the shelf: The City and The City by China Miéville. I hadn't read it in years. Like, a full decade, and the only reason I knew that was the note taped on the inside cover from the friend who gave me the book, way back when.
I read about five chapters before falling asleep (for real - like at a normal bedtime without the blue light), and then in between meditation and prayers the next day I read the entire thing. I don't think I've done that in years, either: usually I break up a book over three or four or five days, but I was propelled by my love for the author and this book, and by being perplexed at some of the subplots and facts I didn't recall. It was very much like exploring a redesigned building where I recognized the architecture and layout, but the furniture was new and there were some walls recently added.
A few days ago there was a post about a user's attention span being diminished by technology: I whole-heartedly agree, but it was astounding to me how much I got done without even the inkling of a technologic escape. I "turn off" social media on Shabbat and other days, but this was a full-on black out. With that in mind, it was surprisingly easy to just sit and fall back into the Kafka-Carroll-Orwellian world of Miéville and his alternative-political plots.
(Next up will be re-reading Miéville's Kraken - that was a more recent read, but it's still been at least five years.)
Welcome to March! This is our discussion group thread for Miéville's short story collection Three Moments of an Explosion. What do you think of it? Best stories, worst stories, weirdest stories?
In a week or two, I'll open up a thread to vote for the next few discussion groups, so keep your eyes open for that as well!
Edit: HERE is the voting thread for Q2 discussion group books, please post what you'd like to discuss there!
I loved the first two Bas-Lag books (Perdido Street Station and The Scar) but I'm really struggling to get through Iron Council. I also made a concerted effort to read The City and The City but I just couldn't get started. Anyone else having difficulty with his newer works?
