I have a niche interest in “sci-fi books about language” (give me all your recommendations!) and so this one came my way. China Miéville is a pretty highbrow author, and this is a pretty literary SF book. It is pretty focused on its own theoretical linguistics and the xenology behind language. It doesn’t go so much for major character development or plot, but it’s not annoying in the way that it can be when a fictional structure is just a lazy device to deliver a […]
The Review and the Review
This is my first ever double-review! I have borrowed the wonderful extra brain that is my friend Amy. We met briefly in England and now she’s in Georgia and I’m in Denmark. We’ve read the same book and then I’ve bombarded her with loads of questions in an effort to ensure that she’d do most of the work, because well Amy’s brilliant and I love hearing what she thinks. I, of course, stole these questions shamelessly from the internet so there is nothing original about […]
Slime beneath me/slime up above/ooh you’ll love my…toxic love
This *sniff* was my last *sob* China Mieville. I discovered him three-ish years ago, and have been rationing his books, but now I’m done! And now I have to wait till he writes something new! Woe is me! Ahem. Anyway. I didn’t adore this one, which makes it all the more woeful, but so-so YA China is better than no China at all. Deeba and her friend Zanna are in high school, and manage to make their way to a mysterious hidden land full of […]
The weirdest afterschool special I’ve never seen
This book was an impulse purchase on a long airport layover a few years ago. I’d heard good things about China Miéville and wanted to give him a shot, and I figured a quick kids’ book read would be a good place to start, and then — classic me — I let it sit on the shelf for nearly two years before getting to it. Un Lun Dun has a lot going for it. The protagonists, Zanna and Deeba, pre-teen girls and best friends, have […]