More Mieville

Dan'l Danehy-Oakes · 03 Dec 2004, 08:42 · from 2004-December.txt.gz

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From: danldo at gmail.com (Dan'l Danehy-Oakes)
Date: Fri Dec  3 08:42:35 2004
Subject: (urth) More Mieville
In-Reply-To: <039501c4d8e8$6f1d4ce0$d27cae44@akt>
References: <20041202200855.9F76B9859B at che.dreamhost.com>
	<039501c4d8e8$6f1d4ce0$d27cae44@akt>
Message-ID: <1f761737041203084249ea9a30 at mail.gmail.com>

A -

I think you're probably right; if I had read _The Scar_ first I might well 
have liked it better than _PSS_. Alas, the sheer grotesquerie which is
CM's primary stock in trade is really only good for about one book, so
I found _The Scar_ something of a slog, as it didn't have the "Wow!"
factor of the first encounter with CM.

Of course, for anyone who's read all this discussion, there will probably
be almost no "Wow!" factor no matter _which_ book they begin with,
because an expectation will have been built which won't be lived up to...


On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 22:30:27 -0500, Alice K. Turner <aturner6 at nyc.rr.com> wrote:
> 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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