The Scar: China Mieville

[poliphilo]

Mieville keeps me reading because he's so ingenious, but that's all. Publishers Weekly (quoted on the inside back cover) says he writes "dark, eccentric characters worthy of...Charles Dickens" which only goes to show how little Publisher's Weekly knows. There's more to being Dickensian than calling people things like Tanner Sack. Dickens people buck us up- even- perhaps especially- when they're horrible. Mrs Gamp entertains and engages us; Mr Sack doesn't; he's just a chap with tentacles who suffers humiliation.  The floating pirate city of Armada is a wonderfully elaborate creation but it's like I'm viewing it from behind glass. I marvel, but I'm not drawn in. I don't want to get too closely involved. Will our charmless heroine escape from charmless Armada and return to her charmless home city of New Crobuzon? Frankly, I couldn't care less.

Comments

[glitzfrau.livejournal.com]

God, this is the perfect assessment of Miéville. I loved The City And The City, which perfectly exploited Miéville's signature glacial tone and clever-clever emotional disengagement. And I did warm to Kraken, though my girlfriend didn't. But the rest of them? Too charmless by half. You are right.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Kraken was the first I read and it remains my favourite. It's a romp. The City and the City is damn clever- though I find it's fading in my memory as mere cleverness tends to do. "Glacial" is exactly the right word; I wish I'd thought of it.