Runagate Rampant

China Miéville's top 10 weird fiction books

2008-07-23T23:23:46Z

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

Lullabye for the Damned

2008-07-18T02:23:32Z

Poetry inspired by Iron Council.

This is something I literally dreamed up -- in the book, the Iron Council residents are described as being fairly musical, with many of their own songs about their own lives. The following is meant to be a lullabye/eulogy (possibly for one of the affected victims in the sanatorium car) made up and sung by one of the older Councillors during their time passing near the cacotopic stain after Judah, Cutter, and their companions convince the Council to return to New Crobuzon.

Lullabye for the Damned

Oh sleep, dully, sister,
With unwelcome dreams,
And let the Stain rock you
With lullabye screams.

The inchmen are dancing
Outside in the gloam.
Yes, sleep, dully, sister,
Sleep all the way home.

The Remade now rest their
Mechanical arms,
The tracks are released from their
Hexes and charms,

The red-eyed horizon is
Watching you weep,
And watches, and wants you,
So sleep, sister, sleep,

And sleep through the anger,
And sleep through your death.
I pray you're asleep when you
Take your last breath.

There may be militia
Out there in the dark;
The city's a ways yet,
So now we embark

On one final journey
To retrace our track
And race the war homeward
To find our way back.

So sleep, dully, sister,
With unwelcome dreams,
And let the Stain rock you
With lullabye screams.

The inchmen are dancing
Outside in the gloam.
Yes, sleep, dully, sister,
Sleep all the way home.

China on Lovecraft

2008-07-01T07:32:09Z

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.

interview in Weird Tales

2008-06-27T00:59:56Z

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.

New book arrrgh

2008-03-18T13:04:20Z

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...

TALES OF NEW CROBUZON

2008-02-19T17:22:34Z

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

bas_lag @ 2007-11-26T00:24:00

2007-11-25T11:25:36Z

http://www.freerice.com/

Having just perused my copy of Looking For Jake a few days ago, getting emailed this scared the crap out of me.

<>

2007-11-03T08:13:06Z

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.

Un Lun Dun trivia?

2007-10-20T23:25:36Z

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...

Looking for China

2007-10-06T00:35:32Z

So he doesn't have a website?

That's bizarre

bas_lag @ 2007-04-25T15:50:00

2007-04-25T14:54:10Z

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?

Guardian article: China on children's books

2007-04-24T15:06:01Z

http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/childrenandteens/story/0,,2062056,00.html

January Magazine and Bat Segundo podcast

2007-04-11T16:59:52Z

http://januarymagazine.com/2007/04/beam-me-up-china.html

http://www.januarymagazine.com/kidsbooks/unlundun.html

http://www.edrants.com/?p=5824

Iron Council Art

2007-04-04T02:12:50Z

SVA student James M. Keegan displays images from his final art school project inspired by Iron Council at The Shelton Diagram Factory.

Scotsman.com review of Un Lun Dun - spoilery

2007-04-02T13:46:21Z

http://living.scotsman.com/books.cfm?id=502442007

bas_lag @ 2007-04-01T17:21:00

2007-04-01T05:23:29Z

I'm not certain this hasn't been already posted, as I'm new here, although I've gone back a couple of pages to check. But hopefully this will interest some of you:

China Mieville's list of Fifty Fantasy & Science Fiction Works That Socialists Should Read

bas_lag @ 2007-03-26T22:15:00

2007-03-27T03:12:00Z

Superpunch recommends this picture as an alternate cover for Iron Council.

Another piece on Un Lun Dun

2007-03-21T23:53:47Z

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/03/20/un_lun_dun/index.html

ETA: Salon.com is a registration-only site, but if you aren't a subscriber, registration is free. You just have to watch an advertisement for a day-pass.

ran across this today

2007-03-17T02:06:29Z

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.

New here...

2007-03-16T16:08:15Z

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),

Portland, Oregon China Mieville signing.

2007-03-07T18:30:11Z

As far as I can tell this is not unappropriate content, but if it is, I will happily delete. This is just some photos and simple comments from my personal journal.

Why, oh why, did I have do the thumbs up?

Reading.

Don't even try to cut in front of me in line, bitches!

Signing my books.

My excitement knows no bounds! Or More thumbs up!

I got there ridiculously early and the first hour only a couple of people had shown up, but by 7:00 it was pretty full.

The reading was quite interesting and very short. His Q&A was intense, but rather funny. Every question seemed of great importance to him and he took proper time in answering each one. Afterwards was the signing. I tried not to pant or drool, which I managed. He loved my octopus necklace and is planning on getting one tattooed soon. My fangirl was in rare form, but I think I managed to keep it together. He also recommended several authors that I can't wait to read after I finish Un Lun Dun. It turns out he has also written a book about Marxist theroy and socialism. I plan on giving that a try when I am feeling I need to smarten things up.

There was a very interesting conversation about a possible future graphic novel that made me squee with excitement! Mr. Mieville demanded that we not blog about certain comments he made which I will do, but damn, that man is funny.

This is a terrible review for the reading, I know, but I just want to enjoy the moment instead.

Salon.com Un Lun Dun review

2007-03-07T13:19:59Z

http://www.salon.com/books/review/2007/03/05/mieville/

Somewhat spoilery for monsters and cityscape.

Video interview with China

2007-03-02T18:06:11Z

Found some very nice and interesting video interview on youtune.com

The first part:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtHUMQMVXj4

the second part:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4QH4QHSuV0

Greetings from Germany

Seblon

Get Kracken?

2007-03-01T05:27:32Z

I just got back from seeing China tonight at Cody's Books in Berkeley.

Like last time, he was very generous with his time. He read some excerpts from Un Lun Dun, and fielded some questions from the audience.

I asked him about Kracken showing up on Amazon UK. He was very vague, and will neither confirm nor deny that something called Kracken may or may not be coming out, suggesting that Amazon has an amazing knack for posting things about 10 minutes after an author thinks of it.

I chuckled, but noticed he might be onto something. I'd gotten the UK hardcover of Looking for Jake from Amazon UK a while back, and brought it with me (among other things) to have signed. When he opened the book to sign it, we both noticed it had already BEEN signed. I've had the book for months, and never noticed. Nor am I able to guess how or why Amazon UK would have had a signed one to send to me.

It was a fun evening.

But anyway, as far as Kracken goes, I guess all that can be said for it right now is "it's a surprise."

I gather, though, from some of his other comments, that if such a book exists, and if it's coming out in September, it doesn't sound like it will be set in Bas Lag.

But I can't even really say that for sure.

Portland Mercury's Un Lun Dun review

2007-03-01T03:10:10Z

http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/Content?oid=268179&category=22148