Author Recommendation: China Mieville

[Ladybee]

I have to rave about the works of China Mieville, an author whose work has completely seduced me of late. He's a British writer of...well, i guess they haven't been able to pigeonhole it--some people call it steampunk, some call it urban fantasy, some call it "new wave fabulism" [1], he himself prefers the term "weird fiction." He writes some of the most twistedly creative, grotesquely beautiful novels I've ever read, in a style reminiscent of Mervyn Peake on speed doing shots with Tim Powers on acid while writing an Exquisite Corpse writing-exercise together. Or something.

His two best known books are Perdido Street Station and The Scar, both of which take place in the alternate-reality/parallel-universe/fictitious world called Bas-Lag.

I stumbled onto Perdido Street Station through a number of people making statements like "If you like Tim Powers' books [2], you'll love Perdido Street Station." It takes place in the dystopic metropolis of New Crobuzon, where humanity exists alongside a number of other highly evolved sapient races: if humans are sapient primates, other New Crobuzoners include the garuda (sapient bird-people), the khepri (sapient beetle-people), the cactacae (sapient cactus-people), etc. It follows the biomechanical and crisis-theoretical experiments of a renegade researcher named Isaac in his quest to restore flight to a garuda named Yag whose wings have been cut off as punishment for an unnamed crime.

The Scar is touted as the "sequel" to Perdido Street Station, though it's really more of a companion piece, or perhaps better described as "another novel set in Bas-Lag" instead. It traces the story of Bellis Coldwine, a writer fleeing New Crobuzon unjustly pursued by the corrupt government military forces. Her ship is captured by pirates, and the passengers and prisoners below-decks are taken to the floating pirate city of Armada, a oceanopolis ruled by a fanatical pair known as the Lovers, a couple disfigured from their addictive passion for bloodplay/scarification.

Mieville has two other published works out, a post-apocalyptic novella entitled The Tain, about a different kind of "vampire", and King Rat, a subterranean horror novel rooted in the drum and bass music genre.



[1] which sounds like a really gay 80s-music subgenre comprising artists like Dead or Alive or something to me, but whatever

[2] Tim Powers being another author i totally adore, but he deserves his own post so perhaps i'll write one about him later.[/i]

[JaNell]

I got a trade paperback of The Scar as one of my freebies at World Fantasy Convention this past fall and loved it.

Mr. Mieville has a message board over at TTAlkback on The Third Alternative Press site.

[Ladybee]

Mr. Mieville has a message board over at TTAlkback on The Third Alternative Press site.

A couple more net resources for him--

Unofficial Homepage: http://runagate-rampant.netfirms.com/
Yahoo discussion group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/runagate-rampant/
LiveJournal Community: http://www.livejournal.com/community/bas_lag/ {1}

{1} I maintain/moderate this one.