Hoo boy. There is a LOT going on in this one. It’s Paris, World War II. The Nazis are trying their best to occupy the city, but it’s a little difficult, because some mystical bomb went off in a café, and now there are creatures (manifestations, or ‘manifs’) from Surrealist paintings and poems walking around the city, casually eating or dismembering Parisians and Nazis alike. Tables with wolf heads, puddles in the street with carnivorous plants living in them, giant stone statues walking around bashing […]
A brief visit to New Crobuzon and other exotic locales
Books of short stories are always hard to review, and China Mieville books are also hard to review, so I’m not sure how much I have to say about this one. I love China, and his books always make me think, and he’s amazing at atmosphere. He’s in this weird in-between limbo where I’d almost call him one of my favorite authors, but none of his actual books would make my favorites books list. I’ve been spacing out and savoring his stuff since I discovered him two Cannonballs […]
The Most Bizarre City
China Mieville is one of the most unique writers you will come across and this book is a prime example. Essentially a police procedural/murder mystery, what makes it very different is the fact that it takes place in the paired cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma. And by paired, I mean overlaid and by overlaid I mean that if you are in one city, you must not “see” the other city and vice versa. You must “unsee”. If you violate this, you are in “breach”, a […]
Weirdly Good Comic
Target: China Miéville’s Dial H, Vol. 2: Exchange. Art by Alberto Ponticelli, David Lapham and Dan Green. Collecting issues #7-15 and Justice League issue #23.3 Profile: Comics, Mystery, Science Fiction, Fantasy When last we left Dial H, Miéville was busy adding weird fiction and horror tropes to a little known corner of the DC Universe. The events of the last volume have raised the stakes and opened the door to a multiverse of possibilities. Unfortunately, while Dial H was an incredible critical success, its sales numbers left something to be […]