More Mieville

Brian Lindenmuth · 03 Dec 2004, 07:48 · from 2004-December.txt.gz

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From: blindenmuth at jkharris.com (Brian Lindenmuth)
Date: Fri Dec  3 07:48:03 2004
Subject: (urth) More Mieville
Message-ID: <01C4D925.94C9FFA0.blindenmuth at jkharris.com>

I am behind on my Mieville.  I have read PSS, started The Scar but not 
finished it yet (Edward Whittemore has been distracting me) and I bought IC 
but its not even on my radar screen yet in terms of reading it.  I done 
think he is a hack, but her is certainly a messy and unpolished writer. 
 Maybe he would benefit from better editing.  PSS was good though, if 
messy, a bit slow at times and too long.  It was what I like to call a 
kitchen sink novel.  He was bursting with images and ideas and wanted to 
get them all out without a certain amount of control or cohesiveness. 
 Again, not the best writer in the world, but definitely a good imagination 
and worth watching.

-----Original Message-----
From:	Alice K. Turner [SMTP:aturner6 at nyc.rr.com]
Sent:	Thursday, December 02, 2004 10:30 PM
To:	urth-urth.net at lists.urth.net
Subject:	(urth) More Mieville

Yes, The Scar is a lot better than PSS (though it completely falls apart at 
the end), and IC is hopeless (I think, though I've only ventured into it 
for
three chapters). I plead guilty to using the term "hack," but I'll retract
that. He's not exactly a hack, since that implies churning the stuff out
mindlessly. Mieville, I think really believes in what he is doing, but
unfortunately (from my point of view) what he loves is pulp horror, mainly
taken from movies. You can tell that from the excerpted quotes that
intrigued some of you. He has also been poorly edited, especially in PSS,
which is nothing if not repetitive, with terribly clunky prose.

-alga

> Mieville is worth reading.  He is no hack, in my
> opinion, although he has clearly been influenced by
> hacks -- as has Gene Wolfe.  I recommend The Scar as
> the "purest" Mieville -- that's the book I feel has
> come closest to showcasing his strengths.  Perdido
> Street Station will also give a fair appreciation of
> his talents.  I would avoid Iron Council, his latest.
> He's not the tidiest of writers under the best of
> circumstances, but IC is just plain sloppy.
>
> Paul

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