Books in October

October was an all China Miéville month. I re-read King Rat and Perdido Street Station, then moved on to the other books I've been dutifully buying ever since, but that got lost in my massive To Be Read stacks.

The Scar I'd started once before, but only reached the point when the pirates take the main character's ship, stopping before she even reached the floating city. Which is a shame, as that is just my sort of thing. I did like a lot of elements of this novel, and the language was China gorgeous as always, but it was a bit slow and the main character was so emotionally removed she was hard to relate to, a problem as a few random interludes aside, she was the only POV character. But the ending pulled it all together in a fantastically perfect way; I was glad I'd stuck with it this time.

Iron Council was also a bit unevenly paced for me. The beginning, with the group of city dwellers out in the wild, essentially on a quest, dying one by one: I loved that bit. And again, the ending is absolutely perfect (man, that light golem was cool), but there were other bits in between that slowed down.

Looking for Jake is a short story collection, some of which I'd read before. I particularly liked the story set in an Ikea; my boys love going to Ikea (all three of them).

Un Lun Dun is a YA novel, and edges out Perdido Street Station as my favorite. The worldbuilding is so detailed, with every chapter full of new creatures and characters doing something just a little askew - it reminded me of the first time I read Alice in Wonderland. Wonderful.

The City & The City is equal parts fantasy and a police procedural/crime story. I liked the fantasy bits, but the crime story bits not so much. I don't read much crime fiction, though. I'm sure a fan of both kinds of stories would find this novel awesome.

Kraken will be coming up in November. In the meantime, I've managed to winnow down my enormous collection of favorite China quotes to these few:



Scars are not injuries, Tanner Sack. A scar is healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you whole. - The Scar

In Spiral Jacob’s eyes Ori saw real derangement, a dark sea of loneliness, cold, liquor and drugs. But thoughts still saw there, cunning as barracuda, their movements the twitchings of the tramp’s face. - The Iron Council

They laid tracks on ground just smooth enough for their passage, on ties just strong enough, just close enough together. It was a just-railroad, existing in the moment for the train to pass, then gone again. - The Iron Council

The disease incubates for up to three years, during which time the infected patient suffers violent headaches. After this, full-blown Buscard’s Murrain is manifested in slowing failing mental faculties and severe mood swings between three conditions: near full lucidity; a feversigh seeking out of the largest audience possible, and a state of loud, hysterical glossolalia. Samuel Buscard infamously denoted these states torpor, prefatory, and grandiloquent respectively, thereby appearing to take the side of the disease. - from “Entry Taken from a Medical Encyclopaedia” in Looking for Jake

I will not call them evil. They are not evil. But I am afraid that they are capable of it. - from "Different Skies” in Looking for Jake

“Is it dangerous? Hmmm. Well, define ‘dangerous’. Is a knife ‘dangerous’? Is Russian roulette ‘dangerous’? Is arsenic ‘dangerous’?” He did the little finger-thing to show quotation marks, tickling the air. “It depends on your perspective.”
“I don’t think it does depend on perspective,” said Deeba. “I think that’s all definitely dangerous. I don’t think you need none of this...” She did the quote motion. - Un Lun Dun

“The thing is,” Deeba said, eying Mr. Speaker, “you could only make words do what you want if it was just you deciding what they mean. But it isn’t. It’s everyone else, too. Which means you might want to give them orders, but you aren’t in total control. No one is.” - Un Lun Dun

He walked with equipoise, possibly in either city. Schrödinger’s pedestrian. - The City & The City