January book review: Un Lun Dun
I will start out this post by saying that Charissa had nothing to do with the book selection whatsoever, even if she is a word nerd. :) I chose Un Lun Dun based on a very, very vague memory of wanting to read it at some point, even if the why of that want was completely unknown to me.
No one is ever going to let me pick a book again, are they? Ah well.
I enjoyed Un Lun Dun. It had delightful plays on words and good use of language - my favourites are probably the utterlings (because who hasn’t wondered what words would look like, if given physical form?) and the binja. The upside-down car must have been interesting to set up for printing, too. I liked that some of the jokes were only apparent if you said names or places aloud, and consequently mumbled my way through the last half of the book.
I liked that not all of the characters were solely good or bad - Zanna didn’t think of other people, Lectern defected to go with the stronger side, and even Deeba was at one point willing to just go home and forget about UnLondon’s problems. Mortar’s stubborn belief in his friend falls into this category as well - a good man, but behaving in a way that hinders the good guys. Yes, some of the villains were unabashedly evil, but there was room for depth: the interactions between Bastor and Bon outside the Abbey are another good example.
Beyond the language and the characters, I liked the idea of the story - the unchosen hero, the idea that the chosen hero isn’t actually the salvation that was planned. I suppose that leads to the only question that it occurred to me to ask:
1. What would have changed, if anything, if Zanna showed up in UnLondon after Deeba climbed into the Wordhoard Pit?
I think that this would have made things more difficult - that despite Deeba’s abilities and ingenuity, it would have been a far harder battle to get people to listen to her. Part of the reason that people did listen, I think, was simply because the Shwazzy wasn’t available. I think it’s also possible that if the Chosen One had been there, they would have lost the battle against the Smog through distraction and argument.
Reading through other reviews of the novel, I agree that the author set out to toy with fantasy tropes - not only the chosen one (and the chosen one being the fair-haired white girl, for that matter), but also the quest made up of set tasks that must be completed in order. The political/environmental commentary felt a bit heavy-handed, but it didn’t overwhelm the narrative
I give this book a 4/5. It was quite entertaining, but I don’t find myself racing out to get my own copy.