China Meiville

Anyone read any of his books? I'm reading Perdido Street Station right now, and I must say, some portions of it sure remind me of browsing /d/ here on 4chan.

That weirded me out a good deal.  Still a really epic book, definitely one of my favorites of the fantasy supergenre.  Can't wait till I get around to reading The Scar.

I read his three Bas-Lag books. They're different all right. Found out about them after searching for steampunk stories, and they certainly deliver that. And Mieville doesn't go out of his way to make some descriptions sound nicer than they are.

His endings are a bit depressing though, so... futile. It gives me the feeling that in the end nothing's accomplished.

I do like the continuity in the books. I mistakenly read Iron Council first after seeing that in a bookstore and not wanting to pass up on that chance, but it works excellent as a stand alone story. Then when I read Perdido Street Station I was pleasantly surprised about some of the events that will return in Iron Council. Of course I would recommend starting with Perdido Street Station.

I hated his writing style. He reads read like a newb who consults a thesaurus so he could use big words

>>4
>>I am borderline literate and need to consult a dictionary to make it through his books

China Mieville does tend to beat up on his protagonists too much. While a certain degree of dystopian gloom might be necessary to hammer home the fact that the world is not, by any means, a Nice Place, in some cases what he does is unnecessary and in some cases purely gratuitous. See Lin's treatment at the hands of Motley in PSS.

>>5
More like you're the functionally illiterate for not recognising shitty writing.

>>6
I see your point. Maybe I am the functionally illiterate.

Best reading order is Scar -> PSS.  Iron Council should be skipped entirely.

And Looking for Jake isn't worthwhile.

i have not read, but goddamn that is a cool name.

China Mieville is brilliant, I love PSS.  Iron Council wasn't as great, but The Scar was almost as good as PSS.

>>8
I actually really loved his short stories, although I'm usually easy when it comes to books.  What about them didn't you like?  Just curious.