Kraken: China Mieville

[poliphilo]

I'd assumed China was a woman. He isn't. He's a shaven-headed bloke who runs with the Socialist Workers Party. He's also knowledgeable about magic and theology in a bull-shitting kind of a way, highly literate and wildly, madly, surreally inventive. Kraken is good fun but also quite difficult- by which I mean that I frequently found myself having to double back and re-read a paragraph to find out what happened in it- something I expect to do with Ford Madox Ford but not with writing in the same genre as Harry Potter- which is why- I suppose- in spite of  the cinematic structure and texture of his work- China hasn't yet cracked the multiplexes. 

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

China is great. I think you'd really enjoy 'The City and The City' too

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation. I intend to read more of his stuff.

[moth-wingthane.livejournal.com]

I must admit that I was surprised when I found out that China was a "he" as well.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'd love to know how he came by that name.

[sovay]

something I expect to do with Ford Madox Ford but not with writing in the same genre as Harry Potter- which is why- I suppose- in spite of the cinematic structure and texture of his work- China hasn't yet cracked the multiplexes.

I really, really liked Railsea (2012).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'll work my way round to it. I certainly mean to read more of his stuff.

Another hearty endorsement

[all-unnecessary.livejournal.com]

I quite liked Embassytown, whose style I'm told is very much flatter than Kraken (which I haven't read), which I guess is in service to the larger story (teaching an alien race to lie, to use figurative language). It's rare that SF makes me wibble, but that novel, oy. Throughout I kept thinking of Oscar Wilde's "beautiful and impossible things, of things that are lovely and that never happen, of things that are not and that should be."

Re: Another hearty endorsement

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

He's an interesting writer. I read that he has plans to write at least one novel in every genre.