I had posted a week or two back, that I was reading Perdido Street Station.
Despite a busy few weeks, I was able to finish it.
For all who said it was a horrible book, I have to disagree to the ends of the earth. It was the best book I have read since Hyperion.
I found the end to be incredible. The fact the Yag doesn’t get his wish to fly was fitting. The end result of Lin’s captivity was also great. I am not a sadist, but a realist. Not every story has a happy ending.
China Mieville weaves prose like no other. The book is still in my head and will not leave.
I just started The Scar and it is looking to be more of the same great stuff. Can’t wait to tear into it.
Also, if anyone cares (for you RPG nerds), Dragon Magazine issue 352 has an entire section on the Bas-Lag world, including race notes, stats, etc. I have been dragging on D&D, and have never actually bought an issue of Dragon…but now I am inspired
I don’t slag Mieville like some others on the board but this sentences bugs me.
Now, I enjoyed PSS and Scar as entertaining imaginative adventures, but Mieville’s prose tends to be overwrought, hyper-serious melodrama hacked out by edgy angst. He is by no means a great prose writer, just a decent one. A good prose writer, at the very least, is capable of writing characters that have different personalities and bringing those out in their actions, thoughts and motivation. Most of Mieville’s character are just wolves in different clothing.
Ironically, I’m like the biggest Mieville hater out there (even though I’ve read all his fiction), and it’s his prose that keeps me coming back. His characters are banal and one-dimensional (not on a Max Brooks level, but close enough), and his stories have no sense of direction or cohesion. PSS had entire sections that were completely irrelevant and could have been pulled. And, of course, big chunks of deus ex machine IIRC.
But his writing style I happen to like a lot, and I’m also a big Dan Simmons fan (at least, the not-shitty Simmons stuff, like Hyperion).
I think that this is your opinion and I respect it. I have to disagree.
I think that Mieville is to this generation what Gibson was to Cyberpunk.
I felt that the characters had wide ranging personalities, actions and thoughts. I especially thought that they had different motivations. Hell, Yag wouldn’t do crap for half of the book…even during critical moments.
Again, I would have to respectfully disagree about the characters, and the “useless” chapters. I think that he is showing you a life as it exists in his city. I didn’t find that boring, I found that it made the city alive.
I also think that there is alot of depth to the characters, and alot of difference. Lin and Derkhan seem like completely different people to me. Even the team that they hired for the Glass House…each had a quirk. Not an annoying one (IMO), but certainly different. You “got” that the big dude with the pistol was pretty respected by the other two, and that they would follow him anywhere (not that this makes the book deep by any means). Isaac, while skeptical of the team, certainly learned respect.
Mainly, I enjoyed the “gray” of everything. Isaac is a good guy…but one who is willing to put a crazy ass helmet on a helpless old dude to defeat the moths. Good enough that he walked away from Yag at the end (with thoughts of what happened to Lin).
I think in the end that this will come down to opinion. I really do respect what you guys have to say, regardless of what side you take.
As far as Simmons, I have only read the four Hyperion books (Hyperion, Fall of H., Endymion and Rise of E.), Olympos/Ilium and…damn, the name keeps escaping me. The one where the characters wife dies in the beginning, and he struggles with his telepathy.
I found out recently that I live about ten miles from Dan Simmons, and then ran in to him at a concert the other night. He seemed like a very cool guy.
So far I am liking the Scar as well. This one actually seems more adult than Perdido. The characters are interesting so far as well, and I like the way their relationships have developed.
