Perdido Street Station
So I finally finished Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. This was one of those where I moved really slowly through it for a long time, and then finished off the whole last half last night. Needless to say, I thought it was pretty good.
It wasn't "standard" fantasy (standard meaning medieval high fantasy), which is several points in its favor right there. The world is interesting, well-developed, and most importantly, not infodumped all over the place. The author created a three dimensional world and was secure enough with it to let the reader figure things out for themselves. It's always refreshing to read things like that.
It was unlike most fantasy stories I've read, and once it got going really kept my interest. Some of the exposition was a bit dense and not altogether necessary: by halfway through I was getting kind of weary of almost every chapter starting off with yet another several chunks of heavy description. The author did very well with the description, but the problem was that after awhile the description became merely bearble instead of a pleasure to read, as it was when I started reading.
Mieville's favorite word is, apparently, "vertiginous," since he uses it practically every chance he gets. It became like a drinking game the further I got into the book, and after awhile was the easiest way to snap the story's suspense for me. I'd be really getting into a scene, and then "vertiginous" would show up, and I'd just start laughing. I know authors have their pet phrases and words; I know I have my own. But there's reason why we should resist using them as often as we might be inclined.
The story itself I thought was a top-notch one that got a little let down by the ending. It's so rare to find a book that has a satisfactory ending, though. What Mieville was able to do was create this ridiculous, squalid little world and make it utterly living and convincing, and to populate it with equally convincing characters. The writing was gorgeous in a lot of places, and the suspense woven well enough that the central premise was tense and exciting. This is saying something because after I was finished reading, I realized what an absurd plot it really kind of was: basically, a city is being terrorized by giant brain-eating moths. That something so patentedly ridiculous still held my complete attention, made me feel the tension and peril, and got me emotionally invested in the characters speaks to the quality of the writing.
The ending...well, the ending wasn't so hot. There was an exciting climax that was pretty much everything a reader could want out of good story, and then it sort of petered out. Despite the fact there were several chapters of resolution post-climax, nothing was really resolved. By the end the characters had gotten themselves into a lot of situations and conflicts with other characters and entities that were just left hanging. It was like this whole beautiful three-dimensional world that the author worked so hard to make just collapsed once the central problem was resolved, as if the author lost interest, slapped on an ending, and wandered off to do something else. Much of that emotional investment I spoke of earlier had little to no pay-off, which was disappointing. Only one of the surviving characters got what I would consider a satisfactory ending. The others just sort of dropped off the page into the ether. The lack of resolution made me wonder if there was a second book being set up, but although the author has written another book that takes place in the same world (The Scar), as I understand it, the characters in that story are all new.
Of course, I did like this story and the writing and the world so much that I'm going to try and get my hands on The Scar as soon as possible. Maybe that will give me more insight into this one, or maybe not, but if it's the same quality as Perdido Street Station it'll be fun to read.
I haven't picked which book to start next. I think I'm going to give Slaughterhouse-Five another read through, because I never finished it and I don't remember a whole lot of what I did read.
It wasn't "standard" fantasy (standard meaning medieval high fantasy), which is several points in its favor right there. The world is interesting, well-developed, and most importantly, not infodumped all over the place. The author created a three dimensional world and was secure enough with it to let the reader figure things out for themselves. It's always refreshing to read things like that.
It was unlike most fantasy stories I've read, and once it got going really kept my interest. Some of the exposition was a bit dense and not altogether necessary: by halfway through I was getting kind of weary of almost every chapter starting off with yet another several chunks of heavy description. The author did very well with the description, but the problem was that after awhile the description became merely bearble instead of a pleasure to read, as it was when I started reading.
Mieville's favorite word is, apparently, "vertiginous," since he uses it practically every chance he gets. It became like a drinking game the further I got into the book, and after awhile was the easiest way to snap the story's suspense for me. I'd be really getting into a scene, and then "vertiginous" would show up, and I'd just start laughing. I know authors have their pet phrases and words; I know I have my own. But there's reason why we should resist using them as often as we might be inclined.
The story itself I thought was a top-notch one that got a little let down by the ending. It's so rare to find a book that has a satisfactory ending, though. What Mieville was able to do was create this ridiculous, squalid little world and make it utterly living and convincing, and to populate it with equally convincing characters. The writing was gorgeous in a lot of places, and the suspense woven well enough that the central premise was tense and exciting. This is saying something because after I was finished reading, I realized what an absurd plot it really kind of was: basically, a city is being terrorized by giant brain-eating moths. That something so patentedly ridiculous still held my complete attention, made me feel the tension and peril, and got me emotionally invested in the characters speaks to the quality of the writing.
The ending...well, the ending wasn't so hot. There was an exciting climax that was pretty much everything a reader could want out of good story, and then it sort of petered out. Despite the fact there were several chapters of resolution post-climax, nothing was really resolved. By the end the characters had gotten themselves into a lot of situations and conflicts with other characters and entities that were just left hanging. It was like this whole beautiful three-dimensional world that the author worked so hard to make just collapsed once the central problem was resolved, as if the author lost interest, slapped on an ending, and wandered off to do something else. Much of that emotional investment I spoke of earlier had little to no pay-off, which was disappointing. Only one of the surviving characters got what I would consider a satisfactory ending. The others just sort of dropped off the page into the ether. The lack of resolution made me wonder if there was a second book being set up, but although the author has written another book that takes place in the same world (The Scar), as I understand it, the characters in that story are all new.
Of course, I did like this story and the writing and the world so much that I'm going to try and get my hands on The Scar as soon as possible. Maybe that will give me more insight into this one, or maybe not, but if it's the same quality as Perdido Street Station it'll be fun to read.
I haven't picked which book to start next. I think I'm going to give Slaughterhouse-Five another read through, because I never finished it and I don't remember a whole lot of what I did read.