Fans of the Bas-Lag universe?

[Shadow of the Sun]

Hey there, folks. 's just me. I'm wondering if anyone here is a big fan of the Bas-Lag series of books by China Mieville.

I love these books. Love these books. They're fantasy and a bit horrorish, but they're fantasy in a way that is completely alien to the stylings of Tolkien, and have been made to be like that, too. They're brilliant. I think the best sign of genius is that, when you see it, you go "Damn, why didn't I think of that?" and these books have made me say that so many times.

The first novel in the series, Perdito Street Station, is the one that I'm re-reading at the moment, and it's brilliant. I love it. It takes a bit of time to really pick up steam (but it's brilliant, even at the start) and it's amazingly good. I love it. And it has my tied favourite character, who is amazingly awesome.

The Scar is my favourite of the series- it has my (tied) favourite character, an amazingly interesting setting and a good plot. Some might find the resolution a bit unfulfilling, but to me that's just part of the effort to avoid being Tolkien-like.

Iron Council is also good- I loved the descriptions of the various cultures and movements; it's very much worth reading.

So, anyone else a fan of these? And, if you're not, read them! They might be a bit hard for some folk to stomach, but if you think you've got good intestinal fortitude, I'd really advise you read these books.

[Occasional Sage]

Hey there, folks. 's just me. I'm wondering if anyone here is a big fan of the Bas-Lag series of books by China Mieville.


That would be me. I'm a Mieville junkie in general; I even own his doctoral dissertation.



I love these books. Love these books. They're fantasy and a bit horrorish, but they're fantasy in a way that is completely alien to the stylings of Tolkien, and have been made to be like that, too.


Also scifi/steampunk. He's referred to Tolkien as "the wen on the arse of fantasy literature" or something very close to that.



The first novel in the series, Perdito Street Station, is the one that I'm re-reading at the moment, and it's brilliant. I love it. It takes a bit of time to really pick up steam (but it's brilliant, even at the start) and it's amazingly good. I love it. And it has my tied favourite character, who is amazingly awesome.

The Scar is my favourite of the series- it has my (tied) favourite character, an amazingly interesting setting and a good plot. Some might find the resolution a bit unfulfilling, but to me that's just part of the effort to avoid being Tolkien-like.

Iron Council is also good- I loved the descriptions of the various cultures and movements; it's very much worth reading.


Iron Council was a letdown for me. It's good, but not up to Perdido and Scar. Those, I'll be back to all the time, along with The City and the City and his first, King Rat.

He's planning to break out of Bas-Lag for a while to avoid being pigeonholed; The City was his first in that vein, and totally unlike just about anything else. He's brilliant!



So, anyone else a fan of these? And, if you're not, read them! They might be a bit hard for some folk to stomach, but if you think you've got good intestinal fortitude, I'd really advise you read these books.

As a caveat, China's politics are very clear in all three Bas-Lag and in The City, and might be harder to stomach (for some folks) than his truly horrific monsters or his soul-crushing moments of Things Failing.

Shadow my friend, you have good taste.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Iron Council was a bit different to the others yes, but I think it has a particularly powerful draw, in the grand descriptions of the stiltspear and golemry. As an anthropology student, the way he described the stiltspear in Iron Council really spoke to me.

I thank you for your affirmation of my taste. *bows*

When it comes to his politics, I'd personally say that his books can be read as a condemnation of his personal political views as much as a support of them- the ending of Iron Council is a very good example of what I mean. So I think even people who disagree with him politically could get a good read out of these books.

[SilentNight]

Also a big Bas-lag fan, I've also read King Rat and Looking for Jake, which has some pretty good short stories in it. Out of the Bas-lag books, Perdido Street Station is my hands down favorite, brilliant as has already been said. Apart from the scab-mettlers though, The Scar was my least favorite of the series, it could have been the setting but I just couldn't really get into the book.

[Prime32]

I've only read Perdido Street Station, but I enjoyed it. Very... urban while still being fantastic.

I became curious after reading that issue of Dragon devoted to it.

[Liffguard]

I'm pretty ambivalent towards Mieville, having read two of his works and half of another.

Perdido Street Station was a fine book. The characters were complex and compelling, the themes and concepts were original and interesting, the plot was engaging. No real complaints.

I found The Scar to be more of a mixed bag. The plot wasn't as tight as PSS nor were the characters as interesting. I also found Mieville's politics to be a bit too intrusive. Whilst not completely in-your-face, I couldn't shake the feeling that Armada was supposed to be considered an admirable society. That didn't sit well with me.

I started reading The City and The City but stopped before I reached the halfway point. Again, the themes and concepts were fascinating and the plot seemed like it was going somewhere. Unfortunately, I found the characters to be very flat. I couldn't bring myself to care about their exploits.

[JonestheSpy]

As I've mentioned before, mieville is awesome, and Bas-Lag is the most interesting and original world to come around in years if not decades. Yeah, Iron Council wasn't quite as satisfying as the first two books, but is still far better than the competion.

I'm also a huge fan of his young adult novel Un Lun Lun, and I'm actually running a campaign based on it right now.

As for his politics, Mieville does a really good job at 'showing, not telling', and therefore his books don't read like tracts-disguised-as-fiction. And I don't think he's 'condemning' his own politics at all, but really demonstrating the massive resistance to them that exists and the difficulty in seeing them realized. He's kinda the polar opposite of someone like Ayn Rand who creates all these utterly implausible situations and characters just to tell a story where her views win.

edit:

I couldn't shake the feeling that Armada was supposed to be considered an admirable society. That didn't sit well with me.


I don't think that Mieville was saying that the armada was admirable so much as superior to New Crobozun, and that living as an outlaw can be better than living under a despotic regime, at least for some people - the main character does choose to go home, after all.

[Shadow of the Sun]

Armada sort of had a message attached, which more or less was: no matter how much a person is looked down upon, they can still be productive and helpful. Honestly, there's a lot about Armada that doesn't seem to be particularly nice...I mean, what the Brucolac does is basically just New Crobuzon lite, for example. But even if you see Armada as distasteful, it's important to understand that there are some who would really see it as preferable than the alternative. It's almost a commentary on the causes of extremism, really.

I actually liked the fact that the plot wasn't so tight in The Scar- it gave me the feeling that the book was just something that our viewpoint characters were sort of living through, instead of actually moving. Most epic fantasy books focus on the actors, those who make a change, whereas The Scar really seems to focus on those on the sidelines.

Also, I freakin' love the Weaver. He's my favourite character in modern literature, along with Uther Doul, who I really liked as an enigma and as a man of contradictions.

[Occasional Sage]

{Scrubbed}

[Shadow of the Sun]

Well, in literature, the message doesn't have to be intended by the author for it to still be there- Death of the Author and all that. In fact, the fact that the parallel was there even if it wasn't intended speaks volumes about the current political climate and such.

I dunno, but it's interesting to look at it that way, right?

Also, I love Tanner. Tanner was a brilliant character.

[Roland St. Jude]

Sheriff of Moddingham: Real world politics is an inappropriate topic on this forum, even when related to a gaming or media topic.

[Elan's Modron]

Yup yup yup- China is the BEST. And such a smart, civil, dignified, and very respectful dude. A total mensch.

I too love all his books. Even when they don't totally win on all levels for me (here's looking at you, THE CITY & THE CITY)- he still plays for such high stakes, and his prose is so great, and his ideas are so without-equal, that I always have a good time, and come back to his works again and again. They're huge influences on me, on many levels...

And who's as amped as I am for his new book- KRAKEN?
Check out this quote:

>>With this outrageous new novel, China Miéville has written one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year. The London that comes to life in Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things.

In the Darwin Centre at London’s Natural History Museum, Billy Harrow, a cephalopod specialist, is conducting a tour whose climax is meant to be the Centre’s prize specimen of a rare Architeuthis dux—better known as the Giant Squid. But Billy’s tour takes an unexpected turn when the squid suddenly and impossibly vanishes into thin air.

As Billy soon discovers, this is the precipitating act in a struggle to the death between mysterious but powerful forces in a London whose existence he has been blissfully ignorant of until now, a city whose denizens—human and otherwise—are adept in magic and murder.

There is the Congregation of God Kraken, a sect of squid worshippers whose roots go back to the dawn of humanity—and beyond. There is the criminal mastermind known as the Tattoo, a merciless maniac inked onto the flesh of a hapless victim. There is the FSRC—the Fundamentalist and Sect-Related Crime Unit—a branch of London’s finest that fights sorcery with sorcery. There is Wati, a spirit from ancient Egypt who leads a ragtag union of magical familiars. There are the Londonmancers, who read the future in the city’s entrails. There is Grisamentum, London’s greatest wizard, whose shadow lingers long after his death. And then there is Goss and Subby, an ageless old man and a cretinous boy who, together, constitute a terrifying—yet darkly charismatic—demonic duo.

All of them—and others—are in pursuit of Billy, who inadvertently holds the key to the missing squid, an embryonic god whose powers, properly harnessed, can destroy all that is, was, and ever shall be. <<


Holy frekking frekk!!!!!!!!

[Archpaladin Zousha]

I'm actually writing my senior capstone project on Perdido Street Station and the concept of the misfit, focusing on an analysis of the characters of Isaac and Yagharek. While I can appreciate the artistry Mieville puts into the book, I definitely felt depressed at the end. Not that I thought the ending was bad, it made sense and was a unique take. They won, but they lost a lot in winning, so it's more bittersweet than sad. I haven't read the other books yet, but if what I've been told about them is true, things just get worse and worse until by the end of the last one New Crobuzon's tensions have boiled over into a pseudo-civil war.

[Occasional Sage]

I'm actually writing my senior capstone project on Perdido Street Station and the concept of the misfit, focusing on an analysis of the characters of Isaac and Yagharek. While I can appreciate the artistry Mieville puts into the book, I definitely felt depressed at the end. Not that I thought the ending was bad, it made sense and was a unique take. They won, but they lost a lot in winning, so it's more bittersweet than sad.


That's one of the best things about his books, IMO. Generally in fiction things get really really bad, then the heroes win, then cake and ice cream for everybody! China isn't afraid of his stories hurting, though, and he lets them go where they make sense rather than forcing a saccharine ending. "Dickensian" is how he describes it.