Bas-Lag

China Miéville, "Iron Council"

2014-03-15 · in Books, Bas-Lag · 76 words

Revolution in New Crobuzon — and a truly epic train journey. This reads as rather less enthusiastically strange than the previous two books, and the Wild West-inspired settings didn't really work for me, but the parallel stories are very effective and the ending's neatly-engineered.

Unfortunately, Miéville hasn't written another novel in this universe in the last decade (although Railsea looks promising). My recommended reading order for this series: Perdido Street Station, Iron Council, The Scar.

ISBN 0330534203.

China Miéville, "The Scar"

2014-01-29 · in Books, Bas-Lag · 78 words

Much like Perdido Street Station in general style, and I enjoyed it greatly for all the same reasons: if you described the setting out of context then it'd obviously be completely ridiculous (our protagonist starts by being press-ganged into being a pirate librarian), but it's played straight, and the worldbuilding and characterisation all hangs together nicely. The result is a world that I don't so much want another story about as a holiday to. Highly recommended.

ISBN 0330534319.

China Miéville, "Perdido Street Station"

2012-12-18 · in Books, Bas-Lag · 50 words

Despite the odd bit of rather over-the-top writing, this is a really impressive bit of ("hard"?) fantasy worldbuilding, with some great characters.

I might have preferred this as two separate books -- one on Yagharek and one on the moths. I'll look out for more stories in this universe.

ISBN 0330534238.