Comments | betweenthebliss: cthulhu calling....

betweenthebliss

cthulhu calling....

Jan 25, 2011 23:17

so i thought it was about time i put up an actual book review since part of this journal was initially intended to be for that purpose.... so read on for a review of what turned out to be one of my favorite books of 2010, China Mieville's Kraken.

( hark, capital letters! )

writing: about writing, life: fashion, books: 2010, writing: original, fandom: who made you?, books: reviews, fannish: plenty of pages

Comments 4

hikaru January 26 2011, 04:57:54 UTC

Do you have a recommended starting place for Mieville? I've heard you and others talk about his books but don't know where to start!

betweenthebliss January 26 2011, 05:15:00 UTC

absolutely! i started with perdido street station, and i think that was the best place to begin. it's the first of his books set in his fictional city of New Crobuzon and is a good introduction to his style of writing and the sheer scope of his brain (absolutely staggering, the man is a genius). i like this one because while it has a lot of plot twists and sub-plots and intricate threads that need following, at heart the plot of it is the sort of "kill the monster, save the day" thing, which i think made it more accessible to me. even as half of my brain was going "wait, WHAT is he describing there?" the other half could still follow what was going on.

from there i moved onto the scar, which until kraken was my favorite. this is set immediately after 'perdido street' but with an entirely different set of characters and a completely different feel to it. the word i've mainly used to describe this one is 'lonely' but it's in a very good way; it stripped me down and kind of fucked with my head a little, but i totally loved it. i can't ( ... )

hikaru January 28 2011, 02:57:21 UTC

You are the best! This is very helpful. I'd love the e-books! :)

(The comment has been removed)

betweenthebliss November 14 2011, 04:39:12 UTC

such a belated reply, lol. i really enjoyed it! in retrospect i think it's easy to see it as a precursor to kraken, because it's in the same "london phantasmagoria" genre. the journeys the characters go on are similar but it's got a very different tone to it, and i loved the feeling of discovery that unfolds throughout it. i basically just love everything of mieville's ever, lol, so it's no surprise to me that i liked un lun dun as well. :)