Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008
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7:23 pm - China Miéville's top 10 weird fiction books
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carless_sam
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China Miéville is the author of King Rat and Perdido Street Station, which won the Arthur C Clarke Award 2001 and the British Fantasy Award 2001. His latest novel, The Scar, is a seaborne fantasy.
"I don't think you can distinguish science fiction, fantasy and horror with any rigour, as the writers around the magazine Weird Tales early in the last century (Lovecraft in particular) illustrated most sharply. So I use the term 'weird fiction' for all fantastic literature - fantasy, SF, horror and all the stuff that won't fit neatly into slots. Any list of favourites is subject to regular rapid change, of course, so what's here is just a fast-frozen moment."
In no particular order...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/may/16/fiction.bestbooks
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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Thursday, July 17th, 2008
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10:15 pm - Lullabye for the Damned
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Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
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5:29 pm - China on Lovecraft
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the_christian
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China starts talking at about three and a half minutes in on this one.
The whole radio documentary is quite ace, actually. Lots of smart folks weigh in.
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(comment on this)
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Thursday, June 26th, 2008
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7:54 pm - interview in Weird Tales
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kindkit
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There's a really cool interview with China Mieville in the March/April 2008 issue of Weird Tales. Jeff VanderMeer asks the questions, and they talk about "the weird," monsters and metaphors, prose style, "anal-penetration panic" in fiction, and Vin Diesel.
Since Weird Tales isn't easy to find and the interview isn't on their website, I've transcribed a portion of it here. It's the bit about anal sex in fiction, and Mieville makes some really interesting comments not only about homophobia but about the vexed question of authorial intent. Please note that there are spoilers for Dan Simmons's The Terror and Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow.
ETA: Apparently Weird Tales will be posting the interview at their site in a week or so. Many thanks to Jeff V. (who I assume is Jeff VanderMeer!) for the information.
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(4 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
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12:04 am - New book arrrgh
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trede
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Amazon.co.uk now lists Kraken and Untitled Novel 1 (HB) both being released on January 1, 2010. Firstly I assume they're the same book, and that Kraken probably won't be the final title (just a feeling I have...)
However I read someone's blog saying that they attended a seminar given by Mieville in December and he was reading from his "upcoming book".
Does anyone have a clue about Kraken, if it really does exist, or any other upcoming book? Are we likely to see anything this year? I'm suffering from Bas Lag withdrawl...
current mood:  confused
current music: Radiohead - Myxomatosis
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(7 comments | comment on this)
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Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
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11:22 am - TALES OF NEW CROBUZON
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gmskarka
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Adamant Entertainment has reached an agreement with award-winning author China Miéville to license his fantasy setting of Bas-lag, which featured in the novels Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council. Adamant Entertainment will publish a roleplaying game that will allow fans of the series to have their own adventures in the city of New Crobuzon. Subsequent game books will continue to explore the setting and characters of the world of Bas-lag.
"The city of New Crobuzon is an incredibly rich setting," said Adamant Entertainment owner Gareth-Michael Skarka. "We're extremely proud to be producing a game that gives it the level of detail and attention that it deserves."
"I grew up on RPGs," said China Miéville, "And the idea of a Bas-Lag game is incredibly exciting and humbling. That people might want to play in the world of my books is a tremendous honour."
The game will also feature a special treat for Miéville's fans -- the original map of the city of New Crobuzon, drawn by the author, as well as his own illustrations of some of the creatures found in the world of Bas-lag.
Interested fans can discuss the project at the Adamant Entertainment forums -- found on the company's website at adamantentertainment.com.
About China Mieville
China Miéville lives and works in London. His first novel, King Rat, was published in 1998, Perdido Street Station (winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award) followed in 2000, The Scar (winner of the British Fantasy Award) in 2002, Iron Council in 2004 (winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award), Looking for Jake and Other Stories in 2006, and Un Lun Dun in 2007. His work has been nominated for Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards.
About Adamant Entertainment
Adamant Entertainment is one of the recognized leaders in electronic publishing in the adventure games industry, and has recently begun to expand its print operations. Their game lines, including THRILLING TALES and THE IMPERIAL AGE, are the top sellers in their respective categories, and the company was recently featured in an Associated Press article on the growth of the electronic publishing sector, appearing in news publications world-wide.
Adamant Entertainment Media Contact
Gareth-Michael Skarka
gms [at] adamantentertainment [dot] com
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(25 comments | comment on this)
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Monday, November 26th, 2007
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12:24 am
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Saturday, November 3rd, 2007
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9:12 pm - <>
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amarynth
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I have a friend who I gave Iron Council for her birthday a year and a half ago. To my consternation, I casually mentioned that it was preceded by two other books set in the same world, and she immediately said she couldn't read it until she'd read the other two first. No ammount of pleading that it's not really a series in the sense of something like the Belgariad, and that I myself read Iron Council before going on to the other two (in fact at the time I hadn't read The Scar), convinced her - she's adamant that she won't read Iron Council until she's read Perdido Street Station and The Scar.
I don't mind admitting I find this attitude somewhat strange. It's probably due to too many fantasy authors writing over long series where you simply can't come in anywhere other than the beginning.
current mood:  apathetic
current music: The Devastations, "Black Ice"
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(14 comments | comment on this)
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Sunday, October 21st, 2007
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12:23 pm - Un Lun Dun trivia?
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tofulope
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I noticed that one of the buildings on page 55 very closely resembles the logo of the Socialist Workers Party. Anyone know if this is deliberate? I guess it has to be...
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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Saturday, October 6th, 2007
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1:34 pm - Looking for China
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amarynth
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So he doesn't have a website?
That's bizarre
current mood:  nauseated
current music: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, "Sunday's Slave"
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(8 comments | comment on this)
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Wednesday, April 25th, 2007
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3:50 pm
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londonkds
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I was looking at IP law blog IPKat today and had my attention grabbed by a quotation from a legal decision in this post. The judge is talking about popular examples in legal discussions for the most weird and inaccessible prior publication of an idea that would still make it impossible to patent:
"In a sense a patent is always potentially at risk – someone may come up with a bang-on but obscure piece of prior art (my favourite pretend example is an anticipation written in Sanskrit wrongly placed in the children's section of Alice Springs public library), or simply with better evidence on known prior art."
Given China's legal interests, one wonders if a discussion of this hypothetical inspired a certain subplot in The Scar?
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(2 comments | comment on this)
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Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
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11:04 am - Guardian article: China on children's books
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Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
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12:58 pm - January Magazine and Bat Segundo podcast
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Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007
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10:16 pm - Iron Council Art
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Monday, April 2nd, 2007
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9:45 am - Scotsman.com review of Un Lun Dun - spoilery
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Sunday, April 1st, 2007
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5:21 pm
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Monday, March 26th, 2007
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10:15 pm
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Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
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7:53 pm - Another piece on Un Lun Dun
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Friday, March 16th, 2007
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9:02 pm - ran across this today
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pithhelmet
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In the web comic Questionable Content, one of the characters has a cat named "Mieville."
Mieville
Dora's pet cat. Apparently he has murderous tendencies. It is unclear whether he approves of Marten or not, or whether he has committed any murders.
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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10:46 am - New here...
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warmsoda
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Hello, Hi, How's it going?
I'm new here. Been lurking for awhile, appreciating the news and personal testimonies/anecdotes. I'm also a member of the Yahoo Runagate Rampant group for what it's worth...
I came to Bas Lag on a whim. I was finally coming out of a post-college brain funk, and went into the local (Springfield, IL) Barnes and Noble looking for something interesting. I hadn't heard of China before then; I hadn't been reading SF/F lately, and certainly never kept up with the genre (for the most part, if it wasn't cyberpunk, I wasn't interested). Strolling the aisles, the cover for 'The Scar' caught my attention, or I should say, China's name caught my attention. Continued looking, glancing at the shelves behind me, when I again noticed China's name. It was 'Perdido Street Station.' Read the inside cover and first couple of pages, realizing that a book starring a large black professor type and his bug-headed girlfriend was just what I wanted... Took it home, loved it; went back and bought 'The Scar,' and loved it even more; waited ravenously for 'Iron Council,' and was maybe a little disappointed; recently picked up 'Un Lun Dun,' and found no reason to worry...
Anyways, I came across something recently I thought might appeal to fans of China's imagination:
The work of an artist by the name of Nick Georgiou (http://myhumancomputer.blogspot.com),
current mood:  awake
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(1 comment | comment on this)
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