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The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

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Tag: China Miéville

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Railsea

December 16, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Sham ap Sooyap is apprenticed to a doctor on a moletrain – one of the rail-going vessels that hunts the giant moldywarps that burrow beneath the surface of the railsea. But after Sham discovers a photo of a single track with nothing else around it, a race for something far larger than a single giant beast begins: a race to the end of the world. The Review: As this one started, I wondered if I was going […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction • Tags: Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, China Miéville, Fantasy, Fiction, Post-Apocalyptic, Railsea, review, Reviews, Trains

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The Last Days of New Paris

August 15, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: It’s 1950 and the war still rages in Paris – but it’s no longer just Nazis and Resistance fighters. A Surrealist bomb has remade Paris and peopled the streets with Surrealist art made manifest. In this impossible city, a young Surrealist fighter named Thibaut meets an American photographer named Sam who believes that these are the last days of New Paris – for something else stalks these streets as well… The Review: Anyone who has ever gazed upon […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Literature • Tags: Alternate History, Art, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, China Miéville, Culture, Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Paris, Reviews, Speculative Fiction, Surrealism, Surrealist Fiction, The Last Days of New Paris, Weird, Weird Fiction, World War II

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Un Lun Dun

March 11, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Two twelve year old girls discover a way into a strange city below / adjacent to / across from London, called UnLondon. One of them is apparently the chosen one, meant to save the city from a horrible Smog… but when the prophecy turns out to be maybe-not-quite-so-correct, it’s her friend who steps up to try and save the day. The Review: I’ll admit that I was a little worried when I heard about this particular Miéville. […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction • Tags: Alternate Universes, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, China Miéville, Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, London, Magic, Reviews, Un Lun Dun, YA, Young Adult

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Iron Council

January 22, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: A railroad sets out from New Crobuzon and goes rogue, setting off across the continent in pursuit of an ideal of freedom. Time passes and the train turns to myth – but with war tearing apart New Crobuzon from within and without, a small band of adventurers sets out to bring the train home. The Iron Council is needed… The Review: I don’t know why I’m so ambivalent about this book. On the surface, it should deliver […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction • Tags: Bas-Lag, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Cartography, China Miéville, Fantasy, Fiction, Iron Council, New Crobuzon, Politics, Reviews, Revolution, Trains, Travel, Weird, Weird Fiction

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Looking for Jake and Other Stories

December 24, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Rogue streets that fight each other, creatures from the edge of consciousness, apocalypses of various forms, and a socialist Christmas are just some of the strange delights in China Miéville’s first collection. The Review: Pound for pound, there are few authors more inventive than China Miéville. I could (and have, many times) go on about the ways in which he’s impressed me previously… but seeing as short stories are often a great way to get introduced to a writer, let’s […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Literature, Sci-Fi • Tags: Bas-Lag, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, China Miéville, Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Looking for Jake, Looking for Jake and Other Stories, Mystery, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Short Stories, Thriller, Weird, Weird Fiction

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The Bestiary

December 21, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Compiled by Ann VanderMeer, The Bestiary presents just that: a collection of short writing about strange creatures, one for each letter of the alphabet (as well as ‘&’ and an invisible letter). The Review: I think sometimes that there isn’t quite enough wonder in the world, particularly of the magical variety. I don’t necessarily mean the magic of wand-waving wizards and the like (although they’re not excluded) but the sort of magic that comes from a moment’s turn […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Short Stories • Tags: Amal El-Mohtar, Animals, Ann VanderMeer, Bestiary, Brian Conn, Brian Evenson, Cat Rambo, Catherynne M. Valente, China Miéville, Corey Redekop, Creatures, Cryptids, cryptozoology, Dean Francis Alfar, Dexter Palmer, Eric Schaller, Fantasy, Felix Gilman, Fiction, Gio Clairval, Grimoire, Jeff Vandermeer, Joseph Nigg, Karen Heuler, Karen Lord, Karin Lowachee, Karin Tidbeck, Lisa L. Hannett, Micaela Morrissette, Michael Cisco, Michal Ajvaz, Research, Reza Negarestani, Rhys Hughes, Richard Howard, Rikki Ducornet, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Science, Short Stories, Stephen Graham Jones, The Bestiary, Vandara Singh, Weird Fiction

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The Scar

August 17, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Bellis Coldwine escapes New Crobuzon on a boat bound for the colonies to the East – but when the ship is turned around and then captured by pirates, she’s left without a plan. Still, Armada (the near-mythic floating city of ships) might provide her with a chance to get home – but the rulers of the city have a plan of their own: to find a rent in the very fabric of the world known as the Scar… […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Literature • Tags: Adventure, Bas-Lag, China Miéville, Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Multiverse Theory, Oceans, Pirates, Probability Theory, Seafaring, The Scar, Weird, Weird Fiction

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Perdido Street Station

April 7, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: A stranger arrives in the city-state of New Crobuzon with a seemingly impossible request. And what begins as an ordinary scientist’s experiment unexpectedly (when he receives some contraband) swings into a terror that threatens to consume the entire city – a terror that invades your dreams on giant wings… The Review: I’m on record as being a big Miéville fan – but his Bas-Lag sequence has been touted as his sprawling masterwork, a titanic trilogy that (in its […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Literature • Tags: 5+, Bas-Lag, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, China Miéville, Fantasy, Fiction, Literature, Metaphysics, New Crobuzon, Perdido Street Station, Physics, Politics, Reviews, Science, Weird, Weird Fiction

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2014 – The RB Lit Review

December 31, 2014 by Drew

And so, friends, we come to the end of another year.  So many books read, so much to recap – so let’s dive in. VITAL STATS, YEAR FOUR: Books Read: 137 Pages Read: 48,900 (an exact round number – weiiiird) Average Rating: 3.89 (a definite drop from the last two years, although this may reflect a somewhat broader scope of reading? or sharper critical thinking? who knows.) Highest Rating(s): – 6 out of 5 Jeff VanderMeer’s The Southern Reach Trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance) was maybe the […]

Categories: Features • Tags: A Visit From The Goon Squad, Acceptance, Annihilation, Authority, Bad Books, Broken Monsters, China Miéville, Dani Lencioni, David Mitchell, DC Pierson, Edgar Cantero, Embassytown, Eric Setiawan, FSG Originals Series, good Books, Harper Perennial, Haruki Murakami, How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, Jeff Vandermeer, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jennifer Egan, Junot Diaz, Kafka on the Shore, Karen Russell, Katherine Faw Morris, Lauren Beukes, Lena Dunham, Meg Wolitzer, Murakami 2014, Nick Harkaway, Not That Kind of Girl, Of Bees and Mist, Olive Editions, Parties, Shirley Jackson, So Many Damn Books, St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, The Bone Clocks, The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never had to, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, The City and the City, The Interestings, The Marriage Plot, The Morning News, The People in the Trees, The Southern Reach Trilogy, The Supernatural Enhancements, The Tournament of Books 2014, Tigerman, Vonnegut 201x, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Woolf 2015, year in review, You Should Have Known, Young God

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