I'd read other books by China Miéville before, but am only now tackling Perdido Street Station, the first of his Bas Lag cycle and one of his earliest novels. Also somewhat epic in scope.
It's an overwhelmingly detailed world. I don't read all that much other world fantasy, but Miéville has a notably fresh approach to it. In truth the scars in his writing show. It's easy to spot things that had to be workshopped, places where ideas were discarded and replaced on the advice of honest readers, but his thought processes are interesting enough that that isn't a deal breaker
Have to say that in no scientific sense do the Khepri make sense. The fact of an entire beetle body being naturally grafted onto the neck of a full human body sans human head is wacky enough. But a species where one sex is sentient and the other isn't just isn't feasible in terms of evolution and reproduction. It's a fantasy race, and a symbolic one. I suspect Miéville likes the way they'd be susceptible to alienation. Also that he found the concept in his notes while smoking hash to come down from E and he just couldn't let it go.
The Garuda are the most fascinating, though. Well, specifically Yagharek. He's the client of scientist hero Isaac. The Garuda are bird people. Yagharek has been punished with lack of flight, and his determination to undo that flightlessness drive much of the action. He's a combination of hamminess, sullenness, and enlightened self interest. It's a magnetic brew, and I look forward to each new appearance of his even while I sometimes picture him looking like this.
It's an overwhelmingly detailed world. I don't read all that much other world fantasy, but Miéville has a notably fresh approach to it. In truth the scars in his writing show. It's easy to spot things that had to be workshopped, places where ideas were discarded and replaced on the advice of honest readers, but his thought processes are interesting enough that that isn't a deal breaker
Have to say that in no scientific sense do the Khepri make sense. The fact of an entire beetle body being naturally grafted onto the neck of a full human body sans human head is wacky enough. But a species where one sex is sentient and the other isn't just isn't feasible in terms of evolution and reproduction. It's a fantasy race, and a symbolic one. I suspect Miéville likes the way they'd be susceptible to alienation. Also that he found the concept in his notes while smoking hash to come down from E and he just couldn't let it go.
The Garuda are the most fascinating, though. Well, specifically Yagharek. He's the client of scientist hero Isaac. The Garuda are bird people. Yagharek has been punished with lack of flight, and his determination to undo that flightlessness drive much of the action. He's a combination of hamminess, sullenness, and enlightened self interest. It's a magnetic brew, and I look forward to each new appearance of his even while I sometimes picture him looking like this.
2 comments:
Even though it's been a while since I read China Miéville's Bas Lag series I still have strong memories of the characters and settings he created - well, I do of Perdido St. Station and The Scar, not so much of Iron Council which I read but didn't particularly enjoy. Perdido St. was wild and quite unlike anything I'd read before at that time.
Isaac sounded unattractive enough as a physical specimen but right from her first appearance his description of his khepri girlfriend gave me chills:
It was when she ate that Lin was most alien, and their shared meals were a
challenge and an affirmation. As he watched her, Isaac felt the familiar
trill of emotion: disgust immediately stamped out, pride at the stamping
out, guilty desire.
Light glinted in Lin’s compound eyes. Her headlegs quivered. She picked up
half a tomato and gripped it with her mandibles. She lowered her hands
while her inner mouthparts picked at the food her outer jaw held steady.
Isaac watched the huge iridescent scarab that was his lover’s head devour
her breakfast.
Never mind the ludicrous point that among them just one sex was sentient being bad enough the whole idea of a human being with the head of a beetle was a step too far for me. However, the story was interesting enough that I kept reading despite having to skim past further descriptions of her.
I also really liked the Garuda character and felt very sorry that he'd had to essentially walk and cadge rides to find Isaac in New Crobuzon. Poor guy, no wonder he was depressed.
Like I said before I enjoyed the first two books in the series - they are quite different from one another - and was disappointed with the third. Not all his books attract me (I didn't like Kraken either) and that's likely just a matter of personal taste. I still believe The City & the City to be his best but I enjoyed Embassytown and had a lot of fun reading Railsea, a book that would make a great movie if anyone had the nerve to step away from all marvel all the time.
ps: I enjoyed your remark that Miéville 'found the concept in his notes while smoking hash to come down from E and he just couldn't let it go.'
It's on the edge of being too much, or at least too much for me, in terms of crazy background detail. But it's really fascinating and I'm glad that I both tried it and stuck with it. Of course my previous good experiences (overall) with Mieville helped sell it for me. The Scar sounds interesting as well.
Izaak is an unusual character to put at the center. He's a brilliant scientist, obviously, but events leave him flummoxed a lot of the time. This despite what seems to be a powerful kind of bulk. As to his relationship with Lin, that also seems to be symbolic in some way, although I'd be hard-pressed to say of what.
The Khepri descriptions, including the Izaak/Lin love scenes, might well have freaked me out more if I believed in them. The Khepri are a brilliant absurd idea, though. They're also named after an Egyptian scarab god, which is a cool mythological shout-out.
Kraken I enjoyed, although in feel it's different from the other works of his that I've read. Embassytown has an intriguing idea, but I'm not sure it really worked for me.
And thank you. I'm extrapolating some things based on the evidence I've seen studying urban life in contemporary Britain.
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