[maynard]

I bought the Iron Council a while back. Won't buy another book by Mieville. Far too preachy for my taste. I did like the world though. Different from most things I've read.

[Red_orbiT]

Just read Perdido street station. Really good. I'll definitely read the next book too. I don't find him overly descriptive. He's using big strokes with his mental pencil when describing, he shows feelings rather than details in the surrounding. Really liked New Crobuzon. Fantastic creation.

[Sir Thursday]

The intro to Perdido Street Station was so good I gave it to my English teacher to read!

I did enjoy the rest of the novel, so I will look for The Scar at my local library.

I found that one of the principle characteristics of Mielville's writing is the way in which the focus of the story changes so rapidly. This can be considered to be positive or negative: either you ride the rollercoaster and enjoy it, or you fall off and lose track of the plot.

Vox

[polishgenius]

My topic's dying

vox said:

The intro to Perdido Street Station was so good I gave it to my English teacher to read!

Odd. I gave it to my mum to read, and I'd never recommend my mum a book like that normally. It is really attention-catching.
I also love the first part of the first chapter proper, it's a great example of how to fit in description with the story rather than break off to ramble on about how grim a place is or the beautiful tiles on the floor. Not naming any names.




One of my favourite things about Mieville is the way he weaves the plot together, so that although you know it's building towards something it's never quite clear what, and seemingly seperate plot strands eventually make come together to make perfect sense.
Also, how he links the books - it's a series of standalone books but the events and characters from one may get a passing mention in another - one major plot point from Iron Council is pre-empted by, literally, one sentence in PSS.
Also, the monsters.

[drinksinbars]

although i dislike china as a person, for every interview i have read with him is pretentious and quite insulting of other authors. i think his work is quite mesmerizing. i especially enjoyed scar. the imagery at the end is astounding!

[Dolorous Menhir]

Perdido Street Station was really good, will read his other books at some point.

Is Jack-half-a-Prayer in any of his other books?

[polishgenius]

He's mentioned, but he's not a character or anything. The Scar doesn't take place in New Crobuzon anyway.
His absence is more then made up for by some of the new characters though... Abyss will agree with me *coughdoulcough*.

[Abyss]

polishgenius said:

He's mentioned, but he's not a character or anything. The Scar doesn't take place in New Crobuzon anyway.
His absence is more then made up for by some of the new characters though... Abyss will agree with me *coughdoulcough*.

Doul was pretty amazing, altho in all honesty, i thought some of the other supporting characters... The Twins, the Brucoluc, the dude who's name i forget who made himself into a fish... were more innately interesting.

But 'The Scar' remains my favourite Mieville book by far.


- Abyss, wants a possible pudding.

[polishgenius]

He's hanging up his Bas-Lag boots for now, he wants to try something else. Though he probably will come back to it at some point.

[polishgenius]

Do read The Scar and Iron Council though, they rock ones socks.
And I agree. I first heard of Mieville and Bakker here, and was persuaded to read Martin by the good opinions it got too.

[Aptorian]

Strange, it sounds like most people accuse him of not being able to connect his the plot lines and such well enough. Yet I also see lots of praise for Iron Counsil.

I loved the first two, PSS and Scar but I absolutely HATED Iron Counsil. The first two had lots of political, social and historical themes but neatly disguissed them under a thrilling plotline.

But the Iron Counsil threw caution to the wind and just throws the reader into China's political convictions and tries to win the reader by being as outlandish and choking as possible. I had a feeling when I read it as though the author had pages and pages of raw backgroundmaterial and really wanted to use it for something. So he just threw it all in there with some stupid story about a a couple of gay socialist lovers and a trip that has no purpose what so ever besides letting China use all that material he wrote about the catatopic stain, the other races and the social system in Crobuzon.

I really tried to like that story but it just... sucked.

[drinksinbars]

maybe because she repressed so many people they had to retreat into their minds for solice:)