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Three Moments of an Explosion
London awakes one morning to find itself besieged by a sky full of floating icebergs. Destroyed oil rigs, mysteriously reborn, clamber from the sea and onto the land, driven by an obscure but violent purpose. An anatomy student cuts open a cadaver to discover impossibly intricate designs carved into a corpse's bones—designs clearly present from birth, bearing mute testimony to . . . what?
Of such concepts and unforgettable images are made the twenty-eight stories in this collection—many published here for the first time. By turns speculative, satirical, and heart-wrenching, fresh in form and language, and featuring a cast of damaged yet hopeful seekers who come face-to-face with the deep weirdness of the world—and at times the deeper weirdness of themselves—Three Moments of an Explosion is a fitting showcase for one of our most original voices.
Of such concepts and unforgettable images are made the twenty-eight stories in this collection—many published here for the first time. By turns speculative, satirical, and heart-wrenching, fresh in form and language, and featuring a cast of damaged yet hopeful seekers who come face-to-face with the deep weirdness of the world—and at times the deeper weirdness of themselves—Three Moments of an Explosion is a fitting showcase for one of our most original voices.
382 pages, Hardcover
First published December 21, 2009
About the author
China Miéville
145 books14.3k followersA British "fantastic fiction" writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" (after early 20th century pulp and horror writers such as H. P. Lovecraft), and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird who consciously attempt to move fantasy away from commercial, genre clichés of Tolkien epigons. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist Workers Party. He has stood for the House of Commons for the Socialist Alliance, and published a book on Marxism and international law.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
Excerpted from Wikipedia.
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April 27, 2023
This used to be my super old review of the short story ‘Covehithe’ which I read on The Guardian website. Edit: also my review of ‘The Rope is the World’ used to exist. But through the strange obsession of whoever on Goodreads is in charge of this, both have been moved to this wonderful short story collection by Mieville which I also read — which deleted one of them. Good thing I backed up my old reviews back in 2013.
So this review is for ‘Covehithe’ and The Rope is the World’ only. And if you haven’t read anything by His Chinaness (credit to Richard, I believe), give these two a try.
And this snafu gave me a chance to reread both of these short and strange and wonderful stories.
EDIT: Adding a copy of my review of ‘Polynia’ currently found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... — just in case it gets lost if stories get combined.
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Covehithe (available free - and legally - here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/201... ):
Leave it to the master of weird China Miéville to create a strange but magical story of revenant oil-rigs, the "petrospectral presences", single-mindedly setting out from the depths of the ocean like enormous mechanical turtles.
This story is available free on the Guardian website. I'm asking the awesome person who sent me the link to come forward - I want to give credit where it's due, but I can't remember who you were. Thanks so much! EDIT: It was Jacob! Thank you so much! You are awesome.
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A strange and unexplained mystery slowly builds up and unveils itself, leaving the reader with more questions than answers about the event they see. And this is one of the things I love - the masterful way to leave the reader wanting more, wanting answers, but receiving a strange unexplained and fascinating tale that is wonderful because it just happens, with no reason why; it's just is.
4 stars. At this point Miéville can write a toothpaste ad, and I will still read it without any hesitation.
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The Rope is the World : (legal free copy here: https://www.iconeye.com/architecture/... ):
I like to (conceitedly) imagine that China Miéville somehow, through a time loop, read my comment that at this point I'd happily read ANYTHING that he writes including and not limited to toothpaste ads, and in response to that came up with The Rope is the World, publishing it in Icon Magazine which self-describes as "one of the world's finest architecture and design magazines." And yes, I loved every word of it, even though it is very different from the stories that I'm used to reading. Well, at this point I did not expect anything else.
This is a story about the building of space elevators that turned Earth into "an irregularly spoked wheel". This is the story about dreams of progress that these colossal structures symbolized. This is the story about the failing of that dream, and the transformation of the enormous edifices into museums and ghost-cities. It is a story that makes you want more, makes you want to see what is happening in the world Miéville so quickly and easily sketches into being. (Ummmmm, Mr. Miéville - if you do decide to expand the story I'll be the first in line to buy it!)
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It's different than your "usual" read, this architecture/sci-fi blend. And it convinced me that yes, I WILL read anything Miéville writes - because somehow his writing just strikes the perfect chord with me.
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Polynia : you can read it free and legally here: http://extracts.panmacmillan.com/extr...
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This is the story that my imagination will continue working on endlessly, just like it did on The Rope is the World, creating from it dozens of possible storylines, each and every one of them, of course, paling compared to what China Mieville could have done on his weakest day.
And, once again, I will be fervently hoping that one day, while looking for an idea for a novel, he will remember one of his potential-filled stories and choose to expand it into something much larger.
And I will be there to greedily read it.
So this review is for ‘Covehithe’ and The Rope is the World’ only. And if you haven’t read anything by His Chinaness (credit to Richard, I believe), give these two a try.
And this snafu gave me a chance to reread both of these short and strange and wonderful stories.
EDIT: Adding a copy of my review of ‘Polynia’ currently found here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... — just in case it gets lost if stories get combined.
—————————
Covehithe (available free - and legally - here: https://www.theguardian.com/books/201... ):
Leave it to the master of weird China Miéville to create a strange but magical story of revenant oil-rigs, the "petrospectral presences", single-mindedly setting out from the depths of the ocean like enormous mechanical turtles.
----------------------------------------
This story is available free on the Guardian website. I'm asking the awesome person who sent me the link to come forward - I want to give credit where it's due, but I can't remember who you were. Thanks so much! EDIT: It was Jacob! Thank you so much! You are awesome.
-----------------------------------------
A strange and unexplained mystery slowly builds up and unveils itself, leaving the reader with more questions than answers about the event they see. And this is one of the things I love - the masterful way to leave the reader wanting more, wanting answers, but receiving a strange unexplained and fascinating tale that is wonderful because it just happens, with no reason why; it's just is.
The sea at its base spread flat and fell away from suddenly rising intricate blockness, black, angled and extrusioned.Miéville's language, as usual, is getting a special fangirl mention from me. It's a bit simpler than in the Bas-Lag books that I've read, but still, even in this very short story, you can easily sense the sheer delight he has in playing with language, even poking some fun at his habit: "This close to the waves the land felt, as the girl said, misbehavicious. A good word to make her feel better."
In the glow of the thing's own flame they saw edificial flanks, the concrete and rust of them, the iron of the pylon barnacled, shaggy with benthic growth now lank gelatinous bunting.-----------------------------------
4 stars. At this point Miéville can write a toothpaste ad, and I will still read it without any hesitation.
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Dughan turned and took in the length of Covehithe Beach. They were out of sight, but he looked in the direction of the graveyard, and of St Andrew’s stubby hall where services continued within the medieval carapace, remains of a grander church fallen apart to time and the civil war and to economics, fallen ultimately with permission.By the way, here is the real-life Covehithe - with the road crumbling into the sea and the old church, mentioned in this story. Thanks, Wikipedia!
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The Rope is the World : (legal free copy here: https://www.iconeye.com/architecture/... ):
“What do you want to see?
What is the nature of your enterprise?
When did you become aware of what the rope is?”
I like to (conceitedly) imagine that China Miéville somehow, through a time loop, read my comment that at this point I'd happily read ANYTHING that he writes including and not limited to toothpaste ads, and in response to that came up with The Rope is the World, publishing it in Icon Magazine which self-describes as "one of the world's finest architecture and design magazines." And yes, I loved every word of it, even though it is very different from the stories that I'm used to reading. Well, at this point I did not expect anything else.
"The Earth is a thin-spoked wheel. Its spokes are irregularly spaced: we must look like the plucked remnants of some bicycle ridden by a ragged girl or boy. But only to God."This is a very short story about space elevators, available free, by the way, on the ICON magazine website. That's right, space elevators. It does not have a traditional plot or a real closure. It is a journalistic-column-in-an-arhitecture-magazine-style description and at the same time a glimpse into what can be a beginning of an awesome sci-fi/dystopian story.
This is a story about the building of space elevators that turned Earth into "an irregularly spoked wheel". This is the story about dreams of progress that these colossal structures symbolized. This is the story about the failing of that dream, and the transformation of the enormous edifices into museums and ghost-cities. It is a story that makes you want more, makes you want to see what is happening in the world Miéville so quickly and easily sketches into being. (Ummmmm, Mr. Miéville - if you do decide to expand the story I'll be the first in line to buy it!)
--------------------------------
It's different than your "usual" read, this architecture/sci-fi blend. And it convinced me that yes, I WILL read anything Miéville writes - because somehow his writing just strikes the perfect chord with me.
--------------------------------
"You do not know how they live, those on the levels where people still live, those of the 1,200,000 floors of the Rope. These were isolated communities before you or your parents were born. We have only travellers’ stories. You don’t know what languages they speak, what they make or learn, to what they pray, what stories they tell their children as they look out of the portholes or call up external camfeeds on the Isabela Tower, Freedom Tower, and stare up at space, or down the perspective line of their shaft towards Earth as lifts full of foreign cargo rise and fall through their territories; how they mark it when those they love die; or if they are there at all, those people for whom the Rope is the world. The Rope is the world."
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Polynia : you can read it free and legally here: http://extracts.panmacmillan.com/extr...
"What’s the first thing we learn about icebergs? That we only see the tip. Nine tenths of every one is out-of-sight."I've only read a handful of China Mieville's short stories, but so far they all have been just like icebergs - below the little bit on the surface hides the bulk of potentiality. The stories are just like the teasing introductions, the glimpses into the potential vast world of a novel that has not yet been created but is almost discernible somewhere underneath, in the dizzying depths. They teasingly leave you longing to see that potentiality unfold into a fully fleshed novel, longing for the window into a larger world to become a door and let you through.
"We all knew that what hung above London were icebergs."Polynia is a story just like that - a window into a potential larger creation, an intro to a not-(hopefully yet)-written book. Without explanation - but with enough of a suggestion of 'ghostberg-ness' - enormous ice masses one day out of nowhere float over London, and just stay there, slowly moving across the sky. A few young children, fascinated by them, are going through the pains of growing up. A band of 'unauthorized explorers' scales one of the floating ice mountains, with a hint of discovery that there may be more beneath the surface, and you just need to find a way to climb up and then up again. The seeds of the story are sown, the threads of storylines started, and the sudden ending is suitable only for a "Prologue" bit of any novel, and all together it gives me that amazing mixture of satisfaction and anticipation and enjoyment that is the trademark feature of Mieville's books.
"On the cover were photographs from an arctic mission which took place years before I was born, icebergs rising from the water. Next to each of those images was one of a mass over London. The frozen slopes and slices and cracks were the same. The crags overhead were close to identical to those that had once floated in the Antarctic.On a side note, just for once I felt bravely smug in the face of His Chinaness' smart vocabulary choices - but only because my native Russian is where the word 'polynia' (meaning the hole in the ice) was borrowed from. A small feeling of satisfaction of not frantically searching for a definition - but that felt nice nevertheless. Take that, CM!
“Look, they melt!” he said. “First they melt and now look they come back.”
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This is the story that my imagination will continue working on endlessly, just like it did on The Rope is the World, creating from it dozens of possible storylines, each and every one of them, of course, paling compared to what China Mieville could have done on his weakest day.
And, once again, I will be fervently hoping that one day, while looking for an idea for a novel, he will remember one of his potential-filled stories and choose to expand it into something much larger.
And I will be there to greedily read it.
January 24, 2016
“When any civilization is dust and ashes," he said, "art is all that's left over. Images, words, music. Imaginative structures. Meaning—human meaning, that is—is defined by them."
-- Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
Maybe even 4.5 stars. I really liked this collection. Some of the stories I loved. Adored even. Some were too light. Some extremely dense. But none were uninteresting.
Many SF/horror/noir writers get funky by bending the plot. Miéville does it by bending his words. He alters reality by converting language, both known and familiar, into something alien and the strange. Those thin threads he weaves between the normal and the exotic are done often (not always) with a slight of hand with language; a flick of his prose tongue. He is also getting better and better at the polished, palitable otherworldiness of his worlds. There is a glaze in his stories that makes reading Miéville both delicious AND disturbing at the same time.
Part of Miéville's genius [and NO, I don't use genius lightly] is his ability to find the strange in our world and escalate it. Use it as a mental catalyst to unlock some deeper key. Space elevators? He will take that to the next level. Marxist materialism? Just wait to read what he does with the Ash Heap of History. Scrimshaw? Therapy? Card tricks? Enhanced Interrogation? He will outsmart your expectations with each one. He will extract the magic from old bones or a discarded rag. He will find the horror in the shadows that haven't been cast yet.
Anyway, here is the list of his stories:
"Three Moments of an Explosion"
"Polynia"
"The Condition of New Death"
"The Dowager of Bees"
"In the Slopes"
"The Crawl"
"Watching God"
"The 9th Technique"
"The Rope Is the World"
"The Buzzard’s Egg"
"Säcken"
"Syllabus"
"Dreaded Outcome"
"After the Festival"
"The Dusty Hat"
"Escapee"
"The Bastard Prompt"
"Rules"
"Estate"
"Keep"
"A Second Slice Manifesto"
"Covehithe"
"The Junket"
"Four Final Orpheuses"
"The Rabbet"
"Listen the Birds"
"A Mount"
"The Design"
I will comeback sometime and [perhaps] discuss some of these stories, individually, at length. Some stories just hang there defying gravity in my mind. Other stories sit hard in my stomach, neither digesting or moving, just sitting and waiting for the right moment to hatch.
-- Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake
Maybe even 4.5 stars. I really liked this collection. Some of the stories I loved. Adored even. Some were too light. Some extremely dense. But none were uninteresting.
Many SF/horror/noir writers get funky by bending the plot. Miéville does it by bending his words. He alters reality by converting language, both known and familiar, into something alien and the strange. Those thin threads he weaves between the normal and the exotic are done often (not always) with a slight of hand with language; a flick of his prose tongue. He is also getting better and better at the polished, palitable otherworldiness of his worlds. There is a glaze in his stories that makes reading Miéville both delicious AND disturbing at the same time.
Part of Miéville's genius [and NO, I don't use genius lightly] is his ability to find the strange in our world and escalate it. Use it as a mental catalyst to unlock some deeper key. Space elevators? He will take that to the next level. Marxist materialism? Just wait to read what he does with the Ash Heap of History. Scrimshaw? Therapy? Card tricks? Enhanced Interrogation? He will outsmart your expectations with each one. He will extract the magic from old bones or a discarded rag. He will find the horror in the shadows that haven't been cast yet.
Anyway, here is the list of his stories:
"Three Moments of an Explosion"
"Polynia"
"The Condition of New Death"
"The Dowager of Bees"
"In the Slopes"
"The Crawl"
"Watching God"
"The 9th Technique"
"The Rope Is the World"
"The Buzzard’s Egg"
"Säcken"
"Syllabus"
"Dreaded Outcome"
"After the Festival"
"The Dusty Hat"
"Escapee"
"The Bastard Prompt"
"Rules"
"Estate"
"Keep"
"A Second Slice Manifesto"
"Covehithe"
"The Junket"
"Four Final Orpheuses"
"The Rabbet"
"Listen the Birds"
"A Mount"
"The Design"
I will comeback sometime and [perhaps] discuss some of these stories, individually, at length. Some stories just hang there defying gravity in my mind. Other stories sit hard in my stomach, neither digesting or moving, just sitting and waiting for the right moment to hatch.
October 22, 2015
Only China Mieville can write a story as hauntingly beautiful and strange as "Covehithe". It is a short 11 pages and worth the investment; any additional info about the story that I could tell here has the possibility of revealing too much. If you're a China fan, you'll revel in another tale from his amazing brain. If this is the first thing you've read of his, be prepared to possibly declare "WTF?" several times, including at the ending. An ending that made me wish this were a longer story...
And thanks to China I have a new, fabulous word to incorporate in my vocab: "misbehavicious". It means what you think it does. Awesome, right?
Merged review:
China Miéville is my Exhibit A that not all great novel writers make great short story writers. The best stories in the collection ("In the Slopes, the horrifying "Säcken" and "Keep") are all 30+ pages which seems to be the minimum amount China needs to really get his craft going. Many of the pieces under ten pages fell flat for me, and the nearly flash-fiction 3 pages and less offerings didn't work at all.
Finishing this book reminded me again of my major crush on Brian Evenson and how he has the uncanny ability to write both brilliant novels and short fiction - even his three pagers are so good it's unfair. But I'm fine with Miéville being a pro at the long form - he has another novel coming out in January and I'm certain he won't disappoint.
And thanks to China I have a new, fabulous word to incorporate in my vocab: "misbehavicious". It means what you think it does. Awesome, right?
Merged review:
China Miéville is my Exhibit A that not all great novel writers make great short story writers. The best stories in the collection ("In the Slopes, the horrifying "Säcken" and "Keep") are all 30+ pages which seems to be the minimum amount China needs to really get his craft going. Many of the pieces under ten pages fell flat for me, and the nearly flash-fiction 3 pages and less offerings didn't work at all.
Finishing this book reminded me again of my major crush on Brian Evenson and how he has the uncanny ability to write both brilliant novels and short fiction - even his three pagers are so good it's unfair. But I'm fine with Miéville being a pro at the long form - he has another novel coming out in January and I'm certain he won't disappoint.
September 18, 2023
Not every story in this collection merits five stars, but it's close enough that any other rating would be unfair. Each tale I read I found that I was thinking of friends who simply must read this one — friends who have little more than me in common.
Mieville turns reality on its head in a completely mundane manner. His stories have the quality of a dream where you don't know that you're dreaming until everything goes so off kilter that you realize you must be. Then you discover that you are actually awake, and the nightmare begins.
Mieville turns reality on its head in a completely mundane manner. His stories have the quality of a dream where you don't know that you're dreaming until everything goes so off kilter that you realize you must be. Then you discover that you are actually awake, and the nightmare begins.
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
February 29, 2016I'm not sure when, or even if, I'll come back to this (I was so disappointed), so a few jottings on the first seven stories (a quarter of the collection), then others, as and when I dip in:
Three Moments of an Explosion
A disused building is demolished. This is described from three perspectives: as a marketing opportunity, for thrill-seekers, and the aftermath of memories.
Polynia
Icebergs over London. When I discovered "polynia" was a real word, I wondered if Mieville had been looking for a new p-word to overuse (palimpsest, puissant, and I'm sure there's at least one other), then based a whole story around it!
The Condition of New Death
We're the centre of our own (virtual) worlds.
The Dowager of Bees
A magical-realist slant on card games: there are hidden suits, and just occasionally, you may find a card from one in your hand. I think you have to have some knowledge of (and preferably fondness for) poker to enjoy this. It may be excellent, but I think I missed its point. I hope it's more than the obvious karmic message about the truth finding you out.
In the Slopes
Rival archaeologists (too much of their in-fighting for a short story) on an Italian island that suffered pyroclastic explosion, similar to that of Pompeii and Herculaneum, around the same time. The casts made with a new resin (instead of plaster) have a mysterious sparkly quality, and not all the casts are human. "Hunkering deaths, the pugilist poses where cooking sinews had clenched." The ending could have been the start of something really good...
The Crawl
Storyboard for a zombie movie. Meh.
Watching God
Another (near) island - an isthmus cut off from the rest of the world, whose people have had more technology in the past than they have now. Ships regularly pass, weigh anchor, then move on again. No crew or passengers are ever seen. Occasionally there are wrecks.
This was the first story in the collection that intrigued me, and that I enjoyed. I liked the bit of world-building and wordplay (ah, China, at last): the first time I spotted the odd use of "sentence", I just carried on, then again, then a ship that sank fast "must have been laying deep grammar". Yay. Man's search for meaning, cargo cults etc all came to mind, along with Cloud Atlas and Ella Minnow Pea.
The 9th Technique
This is more like it! It starts in a familiar setting – except that nothing is quite… right, in trivial ways. A sense of mystery and unease. The black market deals in this slightly dodgy café are not drugs, but
The Rope is the World
A straightforward imagining of space elevators, one of which is called The Rope. They are for trading and transport (and spectacular suicides). They are so unimabinanbly tall that they are obsolete before they’re finished, and those living 1.2 million floors away have their own languages, culture and civilization. Are they as alien as those they trade with?
Three Moments of an Explosion
A disused building is demolished. This is described from three perspectives: as a marketing opportunity, for thrill-seekers, and the aftermath of memories.
Polynia
Icebergs over London. When I discovered "polynia" was a real word, I wondered if Mieville had been looking for a new p-word to overuse (palimpsest, puissant, and I'm sure there's at least one other), then based a whole story around it!
The Condition of New Death
We're the centre of our own (virtual) worlds.
The Dowager of Bees
A magical-realist slant on card games: there are hidden suits, and just occasionally, you may find a card from one in your hand. I think you have to have some knowledge of (and preferably fondness for) poker to enjoy this. It may be excellent, but I think I missed its point. I hope it's more than the obvious karmic message about the truth finding you out.
In the Slopes
Rival archaeologists (too much of their in-fighting for a short story) on an Italian island that suffered pyroclastic explosion, similar to that of Pompeii and Herculaneum, around the same time. The casts made with a new resin (instead of plaster) have a mysterious sparkly quality, and not all the casts are human. "Hunkering deaths, the pugilist poses where cooking sinews had clenched." The ending could have been the start of something really good...
The Crawl
Storyboard for a zombie movie. Meh.
Watching God
Another (near) island - an isthmus cut off from the rest of the world, whose people have had more technology in the past than they have now. Ships regularly pass, weigh anchor, then move on again. No crew or passengers are ever seen. Occasionally there are wrecks.
This was the first story in the collection that intrigued me, and that I enjoyed. I liked the bit of world-building and wordplay (ah, China, at last): the first time I spotted the odd use of "sentence", I just carried on, then again, then a ship that sank fast "must have been laying deep grammar". Yay. Man's search for meaning, cargo cults etc all came to mind, along with Cloud Atlas and Ella Minnow Pea.
The 9th Technique
This is more like it! It starts in a familiar setting – except that nothing is quite… right, in trivial ways. A sense of mystery and unease. The black market deals in this slightly dodgy café are not drugs, but
The Rope is the World
A straightforward imagining of space elevators, one of which is called The Rope. They are for trading and transport (and spectacular suicides). They are so unimabinanbly tall that they are obsolete before they’re finished, and those living 1.2 million floors away have their own languages, culture and civilization. Are they as alien as those they trade with?
May 16, 2012
A story of petrochemical romance. Oil rigs rut like charging metal leviathans in an undersea world and rise to the surface to drill leathery oil sacks of riglet eggs into the foresaken shores of a crumbling and vaguely dystopian Sussex.
This is my first short lit-date with China Mieville and I have to say that I liked it. The idea of such obviously man-made structures - crude and massive in their industrial purpose, evolving to become something almost organic and likeable is an exceptional idea. Appealing in its simplicity because it is a way to make these forbidding structures more likeable.
In other coastal cities, neonate oil platforms did emerge, to gallop hectic and nervy through the streets, spreading panic.
In my head these tiny riglets gallop like nervous giraffes on bandy legs across an industrial inner-city savannah.
Up close, rigs are towering and imperious. They are fascinating because they are a mobile sea stained Pompidou Centre of extraction tubes, pipes and conduits. They dominate the skyline and even when they are in-shore they are dangerous. Living in a port city affords the opportunity to see the non-revenant version of rigs, on a daily basis. They are towed in from the North Sea and made to patiently stand on the foreshore while they careened and repaired. Occasionally they explode. A few years ago one exploding rig sent showers of metallic death raining down upon houses and gardens over 2 miles from the waterfront.
This short story is available on the Guardian website (Thank you Jacob and Nataliya for the heads up).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/...
This is my first short lit-date with China Mieville and I have to say that I liked it. The idea of such obviously man-made structures - crude and massive in their industrial purpose, evolving to become something almost organic and likeable is an exceptional idea. Appealing in its simplicity because it is a way to make these forbidding structures more likeable.
In other coastal cities, neonate oil platforms did emerge, to gallop hectic and nervy through the streets, spreading panic.
In my head these tiny riglets gallop like nervous giraffes on bandy legs across an industrial inner-city savannah.
Up close, rigs are towering and imperious. They are fascinating because they are a mobile sea stained Pompidou Centre of extraction tubes, pipes and conduits. They dominate the skyline and even when they are in-shore they are dangerous. Living in a port city affords the opportunity to see the non-revenant version of rigs, on a daily basis. They are towed in from the North Sea and made to patiently stand on the foreshore while they careened and repaired. Occasionally they explode. A few years ago one exploding rig sent showers of metallic death raining down upon houses and gardens over 2 miles from the waterfront.
This short story is available on the Guardian website (Thank you Jacob and Nataliya for the heads up).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/...
September 18, 2015
She felt her heart speeding as she went through these motions, not expecting to understand more but desperate to do so, here in what she could feel through her skin was a locus. She was an antigen here, perhaps. She was something.
The citation reveals it all. These exercises didn't work for me. They were not images or examples but miniatures, tiny plots -- in both senses. There were a few stories which I did admire. The story Polynia is one, the next few sentences contain SPOILERS.
So, icebergs has appeared levitating over the streets of London. What follows is part taxonomy and scientific debate and part oral history. The effect of this arrival is eerie and fascinating. The total absence of point or purpose to this event is what captivates. Then sadly towards the end of the story similar phenomena are described as occurring elsewhere: a coral reef inexplicably on the streets of Brussels and tropical rain forest growing in Tokyo. That caused an instant deflation for this reader. That's it.
The remaining stories bordered between the boring and the undercooked, many focused on runes or scripts as a sinister presence. I didn't find them particularly scary or even interesting. I was hoping for Bas-lag and instead found moral wreckage from the War On Terror. That doesn't constitute failure in itself. I hesitate to compare Miéville to, say, Julian Barnes. Well, maybe I am. CM was offering his sketchbook and I didn't care for it. That isn't a slight only an interporetation.
The citation reveals it all. These exercises didn't work for me. They were not images or examples but miniatures, tiny plots -- in both senses. There were a few stories which I did admire. The story Polynia is one, the next few sentences contain SPOILERS.
So, icebergs has appeared levitating over the streets of London. What follows is part taxonomy and scientific debate and part oral history. The effect of this arrival is eerie and fascinating. The total absence of point or purpose to this event is what captivates. Then sadly towards the end of the story similar phenomena are described as occurring elsewhere: a coral reef inexplicably on the streets of Brussels and tropical rain forest growing in Tokyo. That caused an instant deflation for this reader. That's it.
The remaining stories bordered between the boring and the undercooked, many focused on runes or scripts as a sinister presence. I didn't find them particularly scary or even interesting. I was hoping for Bas-lag and instead found moral wreckage from the War On Terror. That doesn't constitute failure in itself. I hesitate to compare Miéville to, say, Julian Barnes. Well, maybe I am. CM was offering his sketchbook and I didn't care for it. That isn't a slight only an interporetation.
July 21, 2015
NB: While reading this book I wrote up my thoughts about each of the 28 stories in detail, which you can read on my blog starting here. In those posts I describe the premise of each story, as well as giving my thoughts, but rest assured there are no major spoilers to be found.
It's easy to see why China Miéville took three years to release a new book after Railsea. Apart from a monthly comic series, he was beavering away on a huge variety of novelettes, short stories, and pieces of flash fiction. And that's the key selling point of this collection: variety. There is an enormous wealth of creative ideas bursting from the seams of this book, and while the execution doesn't always live up to the promise, I guarantee you that with each of the 28 stories of this book you will be presented with a new and unusual fantasy, SF, horror, or weird fiction idea, which will worm its way inside your head.
Miéville doesn't let readers at his ideas easily though. The premise of every story is buried in their middle pages, leaving the reader disorientated at first, having to find their own way in the story — before, like the sections of a puzzle box unfolding, the pieces are slowly unveiled. Think of how long the nature of the cities takes to be revealed in The City & the City. Every story within these pages is like that, writ small.
There are some stories in this book that will stay with you a long time. The absolute gems marry exceptional creativity with eloquent prose and brilliant execution. Other tales, however, might let you down if you're hoping for a definitive conclusion to the weirdness... but the journey through Miéville's mind will be worth it anyway. Most of the short, experimental pieces work well too, even when they are just fragments of stories.
If you've read through all of my story-by-story descriptions, you'll have seen me lament more than once for a proper ending. Resolution-shyness is the collection's biggest flaw, but I think Miéville chose to end most of the "culprit" stories ambiguously and abruptly in order to preserve the inexplicableness of the weird — and not for a lack of ending ideas. Regardless, this approach to storytelling is going to frustrate fans, newcomers, and critics alike. I definitely look forward to seeing what Miéville says about the stories in this book, in his inevitable upcoming interviews and appearances.
I can genuinely recommend this collection to any Miéville fan. It will terrify and amaze you. It's so weighty with rich imagination and prose skills honed over a brilliant career. However, I still think that novels are Miéville's finest medium, because longer works discipline him into developing his outlandish ideas more thoroughly and coming up with satisfying conclusions.
4.5 stars
It's easy to see why China Miéville took three years to release a new book after Railsea. Apart from a monthly comic series, he was beavering away on a huge variety of novelettes, short stories, and pieces of flash fiction. And that's the key selling point of this collection: variety. There is an enormous wealth of creative ideas bursting from the seams of this book, and while the execution doesn't always live up to the promise, I guarantee you that with each of the 28 stories of this book you will be presented with a new and unusual fantasy, SF, horror, or weird fiction idea, which will worm its way inside your head.
Miéville doesn't let readers at his ideas easily though. The premise of every story is buried in their middle pages, leaving the reader disorientated at first, having to find their own way in the story — before, like the sections of a puzzle box unfolding, the pieces are slowly unveiled. Think of how long the nature of the cities takes to be revealed in The City & the City. Every story within these pages is like that, writ small.
There are some stories in this book that will stay with you a long time. The absolute gems marry exceptional creativity with eloquent prose and brilliant execution. Other tales, however, might let you down if you're hoping for a definitive conclusion to the weirdness... but the journey through Miéville's mind will be worth it anyway. Most of the short, experimental pieces work well too, even when they are just fragments of stories.
If you've read through all of my story-by-story descriptions, you'll have seen me lament more than once for a proper ending. Resolution-shyness is the collection's biggest flaw, but I think Miéville chose to end most of the "culprit" stories ambiguously and abruptly in order to preserve the inexplicableness of the weird — and not for a lack of ending ideas. Regardless, this approach to storytelling is going to frustrate fans, newcomers, and critics alike. I definitely look forward to seeing what Miéville says about the stories in this book, in his inevitable upcoming interviews and appearances.
I can genuinely recommend this collection to any Miéville fan. It will terrify and amaze you. It's so weighty with rich imagination and prose skills honed over a brilliant career. However, I still think that novels are Miéville's finest medium, because longer works discipline him into developing his outlandish ideas more thoroughly and coming up with satisfying conclusions.
4.5 stars
June 30, 2015
In the world of Three Moments of an Explosion, strange things happen, sometimes publicly (icebergs floating above London [Polynia], oil derricks walking ashore [Covehithe]) but most often privately, secretly. The protagonist and the reader struggle to understand what is going on, but ultimately fail. Although this is undoubtedly the author’s intention, it is deliberately perverse. Significant characters simply disappear from the narrative; stories end without resolution. Without resolution, tension is unreleased and the buildup becomes meaningless. For example, in Keep, in which a strange “disease” causes a literal moat to surround the afflicted, the plot gradually weaves its way to a mysterious Scottish keep where, after a brief flurry of action, the story ends, sans explication. Plot development is rendered meaningless, since without cause/cure/prognosis the final events could be totally unrelated to the main plotline, merely a sideshow. I hope Miéville meant more than the trite metaphor that people create moats around themselves.
Our understanding of the world as a matter of perspective is illustrated in the shorter pieces (Three Moments of an Explosion, Four Final Orpheuses) with literally numbered viewpoints. I did not find these pieces particularly successful. Similarly, the short “trailers” seemed like nothing more than the author saying, “Look at this cool idea I had.” A layer of “dust to dust” pessimism (again, literally, as in The Dusty Hat) lies over the collection. Miéville suggests that we do not, perhaps cannot, either understand or control the vagaries of the universe.
For me, the best stories were those that actually had a denouement: Dreaded Outcome (psychoanalysts with an extreme view of patient care); Säcken (a monster-in-the-lake horror story); and The Dowager of Bees (a card shark trying to cheat fate). These were the exception, not the rule. One of Miéville’s characters says, “Some stories, though, it doesn’t help to finish.” This may be true, but for most stories, crossing the finish line makes for a satisfying race.
Our understanding of the world as a matter of perspective is illustrated in the shorter pieces (Three Moments of an Explosion, Four Final Orpheuses) with literally numbered viewpoints. I did not find these pieces particularly successful. Similarly, the short “trailers” seemed like nothing more than the author saying, “Look at this cool idea I had.” A layer of “dust to dust” pessimism (again, literally, as in The Dusty Hat) lies over the collection. Miéville suggests that we do not, perhaps cannot, either understand or control the vagaries of the universe.
For me, the best stories were those that actually had a denouement: Dreaded Outcome (psychoanalysts with an extreme view of patient care); Säcken (a monster-in-the-lake horror story); and The Dowager of Bees (a card shark trying to cheat fate). These were the exception, not the rule. One of Miéville’s characters says, “Some stories, though, it doesn’t help to finish.” This may be true, but for most stories, crossing the finish line makes for a satisfying race.
May 16, 2012
Rating: 3.75* of five
The Book Report: Eerie doins on the North Sea coast of England, to do with the detritus of the petrochemical rape of the planet. The Day of Reckoning has come, in true China Miéville fashion, from the single least anticipated quarter.
My Review: Shovelmonkey1, that minx, recommended this Miévilleiciousness to me. It and its implications will prevent me from sleeping tonight. It's scary, for one, but I can sleep through nerves. It's envy-inducingly wonderfully written, but I've slept through many an envious snit (my boyfriend is 20, I *live* in an envious snit).
So what is the cause of the sleeplessness? Read this:
Take away the gorgeous words, the sonorous Lovecraftian cadence, the magnificently eerie picture it paints in the imagination of the reader, and one is left with:
I hate China Miéville. I mean, serious full-on envy-born volcanically hot hatred. I labor and sweat over simple little oft-told tales, and he dashes off effortlessly, for a **NEWSPAPER**, what to him is a mere bagatelle, a piffling little entertainment, and would represent for me a quantum leap in talent and imagination.
I hope he has, or gets, shingles.
The Book Report: Eerie doins on the North Sea coast of England, to do with the detritus of the petrochemical rape of the planet. The Day of Reckoning has come, in true China Miéville fashion, from the single least anticipated quarter.
My Review: Shovelmonkey1, that minx, recommended this Miévilleiciousness to me. It and its implications will prevent me from sleeping tonight. It's scary, for one, but I can sleep through nerves. It's envy-inducingly wonderfully written, but I've slept through many an envious snit (my boyfriend is 20, I *live* in an envious snit).
So what is the cause of the sleeplessness? Read this:
In the glow of the thing's own flame they saw edificial flanks, the concrete and rust of them, the iron of the pylon barnacled, shaggy with benthic growth now lank gelatinous bunting.
Take away the gorgeous words, the sonorous Lovecraftian cadence, the magnificently eerie picture it paints in the imagination of the reader, and one is left with:
HOW THE HELL DID HE THINK OF IT?!? WHERE DID HE FIND THE IDEA FOR THIS AMAZING TALE?!?
I hate China Miéville. I mean, serious full-on envy-born volcanically hot hatred. I labor and sweat over simple little oft-told tales, and he dashes off effortlessly, for a **NEWSPAPER**, what to him is a mere bagatelle, a piffling little entertainment, and would represent for me a quantum leap in talent and imagination.
I hope he has, or gets, shingles.
September 19, 2015
Having only read Perdido Street Station(which I loved) I wasn't completely sold on shorts by Miéville but I ended up really enjoying this collection. A decent variety of types; weird, fantastic, and horror. Three or four stories missed me completely but in a collection of 28 stories that's a pretty low miss rate. Most of the rest were good to great but I will highlight a few that I thought were outstanding.
In The Slopes-two groups of archeologists and the strange artifacts they are recovering.
Säcken-two women and their experience with poena cullei or the punishment of the bag.
Keep-a condition/disease/virus(?)that manifests with trenches or moats forming around those who are afflicted.
Covehithe-lost deep sea rigs animate and stride ashore.
The Rabbet-a couple deals with a live-in friend whose medicore artwork/media takes a strange, compelling turn after he discovers an old picture.
The Design-a medical student finds something strange about one of the cadavers he and his fellow students are studying.
I borrowed this from the library but as I sit and look over my notes and see just how many of these stories I enjoyed I will probably end up buying a copy so I can revisit this in the future.
8/10
In The Slopes-two groups of archeologists and the strange artifacts they are recovering.
Säcken-two women and their experience with poena cullei or the punishment of the bag.
Keep-a condition/disease/virus(?)that manifests with trenches or moats forming around those who are afflicted.
Covehithe-lost deep sea rigs animate and stride ashore.
The Rabbet-a couple deals with a live-in friend whose medicore artwork/media takes a strange, compelling turn after he discovers an old picture.
The Design-a medical student finds something strange about one of the cadavers he and his fellow students are studying.
I borrowed this from the library but as I sit and look over my notes and see just how many of these stories I enjoyed I will probably end up buying a copy so I can revisit this in the future.
8/10
September 24, 2017
I have greatly enjoyed some of Mieville's books, while others not so much. I am sorry to say, in this case, it is not so much. This is a collection of short stories; some of the stories are science fiction-like, some are fantasy, and some are just weird. My very favorite story is about a psycho-therapist who will go to any lengths for her patients. No spoilers her, but the story had some real plot-twisters. I also enjoyed the story about the icebergs floating above the city; it is just so weird, a very strange situation.
I didn't read this book; I listened to the audiobook. Maybe that is the problem. Since each short story is totally independent, there is no continuity. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to the beginning of each story, but that proved to be difficult. The audiobook is narrated by several readers, and they don't do a good job of delineating characters with their voices/accents. So, if you are planning to read this book, I suggest to read it in print, and not to listen to it.
I didn't read this book; I listened to the audiobook. Maybe that is the problem. Since each short story is totally independent, there is no continuity. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to the beginning of each story, but that proved to be difficult. The audiobook is narrated by several readers, and they don't do a good job of delineating characters with their voices/accents. So, if you are planning to read this book, I suggest to read it in print, and not to listen to it.
March 14, 2023
If I had the energy I'd pull a clever, Miéville-esque maneuver and review this collection twice: first praising it effusively, then picking it to shreds. Instead I'm taking the Borges approach by telling you about the thing I could write but don't actually want to. The Borges approach is easier, quite frankly.
The reason I'm tempted to write two reviews is because I'm very much of two minds about this book, my first ever by Miéville. Reading the first few stories it felt like love. Miéville is so smart! His ideas are so strange! His word choices are so varied! He takes all the best parts of the weird fiction tradition he adores but gives it modern applicability and a leftist twist that would have appalled that reactionary manchild H.P. Lovecraft. At its best, Miéville's work is exactly what I'm looking for when I read speculative fiction: something creepy and deep and pointed and politically engaged and beautiful, something unapologetically "genre" and unapologetically "literary."
But, well, then there's the other Miéville, the evil doppelgänger Miéville, the Miéville who's maybe a little too proud of his big words and his unique concepts and his unimpeachable political cred. The Miéville who writes fiction like someone who went to Cambridge and holds a PhD in International Relations and really wants you to know he's a revolutionary marxist even though he's descended from a literal baron. That Miéville was present from the beginning, too, but it was about halfway through the collection that he threatened to smother the first Miéville outright. Just try to get through the message-laden mass of theoretical vocabulary that is "The Dusty Hat" without throwing your reading device of choice—or yourself—out the nearest window.
Basically, you could cut out half this book and end up with something twice as good; and the glory of the short story format is that you can actually do exactly that. So what I recommend is that you read these:
"Polynia"
"The Condition of New Death"
"The Dowager of Bees"
"Watching God"
"The Rope is the World"
"The Buzzard's Egg"
"Säcken"
"Dreaded Outcome"
"A Second Slice Manifesto"
"Covehithe"
"The Design"
. . . and then use the remaining 17 stories (yes, there are 28 stories in here, this collection is 400+ pages long) to line your guinea pig's cage or make a papier-mâché sculpture or something. You'll come out feeling like you've read one of the best SFF collections in recent memory, and you'll have a nice accent piece for your apartment. It's a win-win.
The reason I'm tempted to write two reviews is because I'm very much of two minds about this book, my first ever by Miéville. Reading the first few stories it felt like love. Miéville is so smart! His ideas are so strange! His word choices are so varied! He takes all the best parts of the weird fiction tradition he adores but gives it modern applicability and a leftist twist that would have appalled that reactionary manchild H.P. Lovecraft. At its best, Miéville's work is exactly what I'm looking for when I read speculative fiction: something creepy and deep and pointed and politically engaged and beautiful, something unapologetically "genre" and unapologetically "literary."
But, well, then there's the other Miéville, the evil doppelgänger Miéville, the Miéville who's maybe a little too proud of his big words and his unique concepts and his unimpeachable political cred. The Miéville who writes fiction like someone who went to Cambridge and holds a PhD in International Relations and really wants you to know he's a revolutionary marxist even though he's descended from a literal baron. That Miéville was present from the beginning, too, but it was about halfway through the collection that he threatened to smother the first Miéville outright. Just try to get through the message-laden mass of theoretical vocabulary that is "The Dusty Hat" without throwing your reading device of choice—or yourself—out the nearest window.
Basically, you could cut out half this book and end up with something twice as good; and the glory of the short story format is that you can actually do exactly that. So what I recommend is that you read these:
"Polynia"
"The Condition of New Death"
"The Dowager of Bees"
"Watching God"
"The Rope is the World"
"The Buzzard's Egg"
"Säcken"
"Dreaded Outcome"
"A Second Slice Manifesto"
"Covehithe"
"The Design"
. . . and then use the remaining 17 stories (yes, there are 28 stories in here, this collection is 400+ pages long) to line your guinea pig's cage or make a papier-mâché sculpture or something. You'll come out feeling like you've read one of the best SFF collections in recent memory, and you'll have a nice accent piece for your apartment. It's a win-win.
June 18, 2018
El estilo de Miéville se adapta de maravilla al formato corto. Disfruto más con sus novelas, pero sumergirte de pronto en uno de sus mundos, ver en pocas páginas las imágenes que pasan por su portentosa imaginación, atisbar historias y argumentos sumamente estimulantes es un lujo (en ocasiones quizás también un desperdicio, algunos podrían ser una maravillosa novela).
Es increíble cómo mezcla géneros en casi todos, creando prácticamente uno nuevo en sí mismo: fantasía, ciencia ficción, terror (fantástico Sacken), idas de olla varias, en el buen sentido (The condition of new death), crítica social e incluso una buena dosis de humor inteligente en unos cuantos.
28 relatos diferentes y alucinantes donde lees tráilers de películas (The Crawl, Escapee, o Listen the birds), te ríes y asombras con un programa de estudios (fantástico Syllabus), cambiando totalmente de tercio te encuentras cuatro posibles explicaciones de por qué Orfeo miró hacia atrás (Four final Orpheuses), icebergs sobre Londres (Polynia), vives viendo pasar los barcos que nunca atracan en el maravilloso y poético Watching God, te muestra una nueva forma de arte en A Second Slice Manifesto, y una invasión de las plataformas petroleras en la preciosa Covehithe, para maravillarte después en el aislado y decadente ascensor espacial de The rope is the world y... y podría nombrarlos todos. Genial la variedad, las imágenes, las ideas, cómo juega con las palabras...
Puede que esta colección me haya gustado un poquito menos que la anterior, Looking for Jake and Other Stories aunque creo que quizás, de alguna manera, sea incluso mejor. Y es que me da la impresión de que pasa a otro nivel, es todo más raro de lo normal en Miéville, casi una vuelta de tuerca al new weird y hay unos cuantos que no he conseguido entender del todo, pero por extraño que parezca, incluso esos los he disfrutado, “observándolos” como en un sueño, dejándome llevar.
Es increíble cómo mezcla géneros en casi todos, creando prácticamente uno nuevo en sí mismo: fantasía, ciencia ficción, terror (fantástico Sacken), idas de olla varias, en el buen sentido (The condition of new death), crítica social e incluso una buena dosis de humor inteligente en unos cuantos.
28 relatos diferentes y alucinantes donde lees tráilers de películas (The Crawl, Escapee, o Listen the birds), te ríes y asombras con un programa de estudios (fantástico Syllabus), cambiando totalmente de tercio te encuentras cuatro posibles explicaciones de por qué Orfeo miró hacia atrás (Four final Orpheuses), icebergs sobre Londres (Polynia), vives viendo pasar los barcos que nunca atracan en el maravilloso y poético Watching God, te muestra una nueva forma de arte en A Second Slice Manifesto, y una invasión de las plataformas petroleras en la preciosa Covehithe, para maravillarte después en el aislado y decadente ascensor espacial de The rope is the world y... y podría nombrarlos todos. Genial la variedad, las imágenes, las ideas, cómo juega con las palabras...
Puede que esta colección me haya gustado un poquito menos que la anterior, Looking for Jake and Other Stories aunque creo que quizás, de alguna manera, sea incluso mejor. Y es que me da la impresión de que pasa a otro nivel, es todo más raro de lo normal en Miéville, casi una vuelta de tuerca al new weird y hay unos cuantos que no he conseguido entender del todo, pero por extraño que parezca, incluso esos los he disfrutado, “observándolos” como en un sueño, dejándome llevar.
August 3, 2015
A brief piece - but it's got a lot in its few pages: original and weird science-fictional ideas, and a beautifully conjured sense of angst at the zeitgeist.
It reminded me of an incident when I was a child: my father took me to see the controlled demolition of a building. The charges were set wrong, and instead of the whole building falling to dust, it only pancaked in one floor. The crowd milled around with a sense of dissatisfaction and worry...
Although the building here collapses fully, and the scenario is quite different, the emotions surrounding it seem familiar.
It reminded me of an incident when I was a child: my father took me to see the controlled demolition of a building. The charges were set wrong, and instead of the whole building falling to dust, it only pancaked in one floor. The crowd milled around with a sense of dissatisfaction and worry...
Although the building here collapses fully, and the scenario is quite different, the emotions surrounding it seem familiar.
August 18, 2019
China Mieville's novels and me: a match made in heaven.
China Mieville's short stories and me: opposite poles.
I honestly could not connect with most of the stories. Or even fascinated with the weird ideas and grandiose vocabs coming out of some of them. Sure, there were some enjoyable ones, but the overall experience was not pleasant.
Confusion, feeling stupid, dissatisfaction, eagerness to get to the last page; pretty much what I felt while reading this book. My friends know I worship the ground China Mieville walks on, I still do, but not during this particular bout.
China Mieville's short stories and me: opposite poles.
I honestly could not connect with most of the stories. Or even fascinated with the weird ideas and grandiose vocabs coming out of some of them. Sure, there were some enjoyable ones, but the overall experience was not pleasant.
Confusion, feeling stupid, dissatisfaction, eagerness to get to the last page; pretty much what I felt while reading this book. My friends know I worship the ground China Mieville walks on, I still do, but not during this particular bout.
July 30, 2015
Meh. I really liked Mieville's novel "The city and the city," and kind of hoped his short stories might be as good. I'm very forgiving of fantasy as a genre -- all you really need to do is have interesting ideas like Borges, or create compelling characters like Poul Anderson, or come up with funny and horrifying scenarios like Fritz Leiber. Hell, a unique voice, like Eddison or Vance, can be enough. Mieville's stories here though don't really accomplish much of anything. I thought he was being obtuse at times, as if being hard to decipher were the same thing as being deep; indeed all too many of the stories seemed to be valorizing lacunas and obliqueness, as if unfinished images, undeveloped ideas, and vagueness are all marks of a clever writer. He did have some interesting ideas, like the graveyard of ships that are revered as messages by an isolated enclave of survivors of some sort of collapse, and the "New Death" which causes corpses to become enigmatic optical illusions, and archaeologists casting the voids left by volcano victims, as one might at Pompeii, and finding alien forms. But none of these are developed into actual stories, and he seems to be trying damn hard to fit in as a "literary" writer. At one point I was comparing his stories to Clive Barker -- veering between irony and earnest literary aspirations, but Barker at least has stuff happen. So, not really my thing. I gave up about a third of the way through, because my reading time is not as cheap as it used to be and I've got shelves and shelves of books that are written by people who, if they have something to say, will say it, and if they have stories to tell, will tell them.
August 2, 2015
China Miéville is both a proponent and practitioner of New Weird writing. Some of you are probably ready to quit reading at this point. “New Weird” is a term that can seem both vague and unnecessary. Weird writing has its canon revolving around H.P Lovecraft and company with their themes of ancient evil and cosmic terror. Defining a new variety of weirdness can come down to a long list of writers who to greater or lesser degrees produce it – whatever exactly it is. Is it just a more explicit, visceral version of what came before, or is it marked chiefly by its effort to incorporate literary ambitions that divorce it from its pulp origins?
Whatever the case, it is staking out its territory in the speculative fiction arena. Anne and Jeff VanderMeer, who in 2011 established a weird canon with the 1100 page anthology, The Weird, A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, had already in 2008 anthologized 30 stories and essays as The New Weird. This year, weirdness enters the crowded arena of annuals with Laird Barron editing The Year’s Best Weird Fiction, Volume I. (If they have come out in the past year, I assume they are “New” Weird by default.)
Miéville contributed both a story to the VanderMeers’ 2011 anthology and an “Afterweird: The Efficacy of a Worm-eaten Dictionary.” He addresses the origins of The Weird without making a specific case for the new variety, but his arguments give a good picture of how his personal vision has been formed. He starts by leading us down an etymological dead end, deriving “weird” from the Anglo-Saxon “wyrd,” a word conjuring a vision of fate and doom as a “cat’s cradle, intricate and splendid as a Sutton Hoo buckle.” He proposes that the weird could be the feral child of the wyrd, but then, in Miévillian fashion, pulls the rug from his own argument. “What if etymology is fucking useless?” Late 19th and early 20th century writers did not engage their Gothic fathers in an Oedipal struggle to develop a new language. Theirs was not a new literature of fatefulness but its rebuke.
The fact of the weird is the fact that the worldweave is ripped and unfinished. Moth-eaten, ill-made. And through the little tears, from behind the ragged edges, things are looking at us.
(You may either read that last bit as a simple declarative statement, or creep it out with internal italicization: things are looking at us.)
His verdict on the VanderMeer anthology: “This is a worm farm. These stories are worms.”
The stories in Three Moments of an Explosion can get pretty wormy. The book is not announced as an exercise in New Weirdness, but the publisher drops a hint on the back cover. We are told to expect “a cast of damaged yet hopeful seekers who come face-to-face with the deep weirdness of the world – and a times the deeper weirdness in themselves.”
Miéville titles this 400-page collection after the three paragraphs of science fiction that opens it. In an unspecified future, a crowd gathers to watch the destruction of a derelict warehouse. At the moment of the explosion, three intrepid thrill seekers ingest tachyon laced MDMA and rush into the collapsing building. They experience it in a moment outside of time. The drug begins to wear off, and only two make it out alive. But two out of three’s not bad, and the thrill was worth it.
Perhaps Miéville is letting us know that he will be slipping us the tachyon/ecstasy pill for each of the upcoming tales, leaving us wide-eyed observers suspended in his visions of collapse and morbid wonders.
To lure us in he opens with “Polynia”, a crowd pleaser about giant icebergs appearing in the sky over London. It’s an offbeat coming-of-age story that progresses from boyish adventure to adult lives lived in an irrevocably changed world.
After “Polynia,” things turn darker and tend to stay there. “Rope” is another sf story, but the mood is dour. Earth has long ago perfected the technology for space elevators, but we have not been able to keep them in good operating condition. A telling moment comes when intergalactic visitors have to feign interest in our pitifully out-of-date wonders. When he leaves sf behind, Miéville cranks up the weirdness dial in stories set in dismal worlds peopled by anxiety-ridden characters performing tasks that have lost their meaning and pursuing lives that offer no safeguards against the chaos engulfing them.
“The Buzzard’s Egg” takes place in a time of religious wars where the battles involve capturing the enemy’s god. In a remote tower, an old man tends to an old god with whom he’s grown quite fond. But the tides of war are changing. Miéville’s writing here takes on the tone of a Samuel Beckett monologue. In “Estate,” a young man, now living alone in his family’s house, is kept awake nights first by birds, then foxes, then rowdy kids. An acquaintance he hasn’t seen since his schooldays returns, and soon the old neighborhood is going up in flames. In “Keep,” the world succumbs to a disease that causes circular fissures to surround the infected. These fissures eventually swallow up entire cities, leaving the sufferer on a small island of solid ground, hence the title “Keep.” (You would probably have to read that one to have any idea what I am trying to describe.)
If you have read much Miéville, you know that it is wise to keep the dictionary app open while you proceed. “The Dusty Hat” has a dense, baroque verbal style perhaps meant to serve no other purpose than to put the reader as out of his depth as is the story’s left-leaning protagonist who slides into a phantasmagoric world of politics made corporeal. (Again, just read it.)
Since I was reviewing this book, I read it through from start to finish. Normally if I were to take up a book like this I would pick may through it, skipping around and possibly never reading every story. So for full disclosure purposes, looking back over the table of contents, I see titles that no longer mean anything to me, and I question the accuracy of my memories of other stories. What I remember most clearly is Miéville’s ability to find a new voice specific to each story. His American movie critic narrator of “Junket” is fully realized and far removed from the medical student in 1930’s Glasgow who tells the tale in “The Design.” It’s true that you are often left marveling at the author’s virtuosity rather than caring about the characters, but I don’t see that as the negative quality some readers report.
I also don’t agree that Miéville’s stories are poorly plotted and tend to wind down rather than end. They don’t wind down. The bottom falls out, taking you with it. And as Miéville said in his attempt to define the essence of Weird fiction, while in free fall you dread that you are about to learn exactly what those things are that are looking back through the holes at us.
(This review is based on an advance copy provided by Net Galley and appears as a blog post on Worlds Without End
https://www.worldswithoutend.com/ )
October 21, 2016
Three Moments of an Explosion is Miéville’s second collection of short stories. At 400 pages and 28 stories, readers are certainly getting their money’s worth. This is a solid set of stories that displays most of Miéville’s gifts: strong prose, imaginative, highly creative ideas, and the ability to work within a number of different genres. Three stories in particular stood out:
The Dowager of Bees – In an alternate reality, card players occasionally draw mystery cards with strange values and suits (the “dowager of bees”, the “eight of chains”, etc.). The rules governing these special cards only appear in the rulebook when a special card is drawn. These cards have strange, mysterious “forfeits” (with real-world consequences) affecting one or more players that can apparently be dreadful (although Miéville does a good job not giving too much away here). This story tells how a single player encountered this scenario three times over the course of his life. A hard story to describe effectively, but a very strong, five-star read that was my favorite in the collection by far.
The Junket – A Jewish screenwriter is brutally murdered after a controversial movie he worked on is released. Only very late do we discover the subject of the movie , but that’s not really the point. Instead, Miéville uses this story to explore aspects of Jewish identity and anti-semitism, along with the odder aspects of extremist culture. Miéville is very much in his wheelhouse here.
The Design – A young medical student discovers that a cadaver’s bones have been completely scrimshawed (under the skin) with elaborate, mysterious symbols. His efforts to unravel the mystery only lead to more questions for both him and the reader, not the least of which is whether his new companion has any connection to the puzzle. Some nice Lovecraftian overtones here.
The other 25 stories on display here ranged from good to subpar, with most of them grading out as just OK. It’s Miéville, so as you might expect almost every story features a great idea. But too often these fizzle out into a story that’s intriguing but only partially satisfying. I am a fan, but this is not Miéville’s finest work by a long shot; I thought his earlier short story collection was better (along with virtually all of his novels).
There’s some great imagination on display here, with a few gems, but I thought this was just a pretty good collection overall. Certainly worth a read for Miéville fans and completionists, but if you’re new to this author I recommend starting elsewhere (his excellent Bas-Lag novels, for instance). 3 stars, recommend with reservations.
The Dowager of Bees – In an alternate reality, card players occasionally draw mystery cards with strange values and suits (the “dowager of bees”, the “eight of chains”, etc.). The rules governing these special cards only appear in the rulebook when a special card is drawn. These cards have strange, mysterious “forfeits” (with real-world consequences) affecting one or more players that can apparently be dreadful (although Miéville does a good job not giving too much away here). This story tells how a single player encountered this scenario three times over the course of his life. A hard story to describe effectively, but a very strong, five-star read that was my favorite in the collection by far.
The Junket – A Jewish screenwriter is brutally murdered after a controversial movie he worked on is released. Only very late do we discover the subject of the movie , but that’s not really the point. Instead, Miéville uses this story to explore aspects of Jewish identity and anti-semitism, along with the odder aspects of extremist culture. Miéville is very much in his wheelhouse here.
The Design – A young medical student discovers that a cadaver’s bones have been completely scrimshawed (under the skin) with elaborate, mysterious symbols. His efforts to unravel the mystery only lead to more questions for both him and the reader, not the least of which is whether his new companion has any connection to the puzzle. Some nice Lovecraftian overtones here.
The other 25 stories on display here ranged from good to subpar, with most of them grading out as just OK. It’s Miéville, so as you might expect almost every story features a great idea. But too often these fizzle out into a story that’s intriguing but only partially satisfying. I am a fan, but this is not Miéville’s finest work by a long shot; I thought his earlier short story collection was better (along with virtually all of his novels).
There’s some great imagination on display here, with a few gems, but I thought this was just a pretty good collection overall. Certainly worth a read for Miéville fans and completionists, but if you’re new to this author I recommend starting elsewhere (his excellent Bas-Lag novels, for instance). 3 stars, recommend with reservations.
August 23, 2017
China Mieville is the master of bizarre and uncanny ideas. It's like his brain is a compendium of the weird and eldritch, the freakish and unexplained.
What he isn't the master of is taking those ideas to any kind of narrative completion. Three Moments of Explosion is filled with loads of eerie and peculiar things, stuff that exists in the corner of your eyesight, or for the lucky, or unlucky, right in plain sight. Crazy-ass shit like airborne icebergs, hidden suits in a deck of cards, and perverse festivals of flesh. And for the most part, the anthology is a collection of brilliant imagination that fails to deliver. Most of the stories, if you can call them that, start off well, gather a little momentum and then fizzle.
A few, most notably "The Dusty Hat," aren't stories at all. "The Dusty Hat" is frankly awful, the kind of writing that makes one ask, "What were you smoking, because that shit seriously destroyed your muse, so keep it the hell away from me." It reads like a thesis crammed unhappily into narrative form which explores...fuck if I know?...dissenting factions in the political Left?...geology? Mieville's usual slightly overdone but delicious prose dissolves into "Honey, I swallowed the thesaurus," and the result is pretentious word salad. I gave up and skipped the last few pages. Did I mention it's one of the longer "stories" in the anthology? Ugh.
So why three stars rather than two? Because there are a few gems in the collections, like "Polynia" or the creepy-as-fuck "Sacken." There are moments--"The Slopes" (aliens plus Pompeii)--when ancient mysteries alone are almost, but not quite, sufficient to create a decent story.
And because Mieville's writing, even at its worst (well, not "The Dusty Hat," that was shit), makes my brain all fizzy and wakes up the muse.
What he isn't the master of is taking those ideas to any kind of narrative completion. Three Moments of Explosion is filled with loads of eerie and peculiar things, stuff that exists in the corner of your eyesight, or for the lucky, or unlucky, right in plain sight. Crazy-ass shit like airborne icebergs, hidden suits in a deck of cards, and perverse festivals of flesh. And for the most part, the anthology is a collection of brilliant imagination that fails to deliver. Most of the stories, if you can call them that, start off well, gather a little momentum and then fizzle.
A few, most notably "The Dusty Hat," aren't stories at all. "The Dusty Hat" is frankly awful, the kind of writing that makes one ask, "What were you smoking, because that shit seriously destroyed your muse, so keep it the hell away from me." It reads like a thesis crammed unhappily into narrative form which explores...fuck if I know?...dissenting factions in the political Left?...geology? Mieville's usual slightly overdone but delicious prose dissolves into "Honey, I swallowed the thesaurus," and the result is pretentious word salad. I gave up and skipped the last few pages. Did I mention it's one of the longer "stories" in the anthology? Ugh.
So why three stars rather than two? Because there are a few gems in the collections, like "Polynia" or the creepy-as-fuck "Sacken." There are moments--"The Slopes" (aliens plus Pompeii)--when ancient mysteries alone are almost, but not quite, sufficient to create a decent story.
And because Mieville's writing, even at its worst (well, not "The Dusty Hat," that was shit), makes my brain all fizzy and wakes up the muse.
October 8, 2015
There are twenty-eight stories, in this new collection, of varying styles and lengths. Most are unsettling, many are impenetrable and a few are flat out terrific. Creepy, strange, inventive and baffling. This is exactly what you would expect from Mieville. I have mixed feelings about his work. I end up admiring him more than truly loving his cool, detached, intelligence.
Several of these stories have an environmental slant. The earth in retaliation. I do like this approach and would like to see more of it.
If you have not read Mieville, I wouldn't start here. Pick up City and the City, which remains my favorite.
Several of these stories have an environmental slant. The earth in retaliation. I do like this approach and would like to see more of it.
If you have not read Mieville, I wouldn't start here. Pick up City and the City, which remains my favorite.
December 6, 2015
This was weird and confusing...
December 18, 2015
China Mieville is an author that’s hard to categorize, as his stories often escape or defy comfortable genre classification. He is one of the forerunners of the New Weird movement, which should tell you a lot; he writes weird fiction, a blend of the improbable and the impossible with a chilling bite. He’s also damn good at his job, one of the powerhouses of genre fiction today with a slew of top-shelf novels to his name. He’s not as well known for his short fiction, though he has written pieces before—some for magazines, newspapers, websites, or his blog, both longer novellas and short idea-generation flash fiction. A number of those previously published stories are combined with brand new material to make up Three Moments of an Explosion, a 2015 release with 28 shorter works. (And I should add, with a novel slated for release early next year, Mieville is as productive as he is innovative.) Three Moments releases today in North America and is already out in the UK; I received an advance copy from Del Rey and NetGalley in exchange for this open and honest review.
“Polynia” is one of first big stories in the collection at 25 pages, and it’s a perfect example of Mieville’s style of short fiction. In near-future Europe, pieces of the earth destroyed by human influence make a striking return: icebergs form in the sky above London, brain coral begins growing off the EU buildings in Brussels. The story is rich in atmosphere—the wonder and unease caused by these natural-yet-unnatural occurrences, things that should not be. Our protagonists are kids, watching footage beamed through the BBC of failed military expeditions or sneaking a look at illegal footage shot by extreme explorers. It’s almost a coming-of-age story—the muggy, junk-laden back-alleys of London which become oddly chilly when a massive iceberg floats past. “Covehite” also mixed contemporary issues with the inexplicable, as oil rigs destroyed by nautical accidents stomp their way out of the seas and head inland.
And like the best magicians, Mieville doesn’t reveal his secrets. One of the common criticisms of Mieville’s earlier collections were that his stories lacked a sense of finality or closure; the reader expecting a nice clean denouement that explains away the wonder and wraps everything up with a neat bow may be disappointed. I refute the point: the stories work best when Mieville’s powerful creativity runs rampant, where things wondrous and inexplicable happen to everyday people. Explaining the mystery would detract from the experience; Weird Fiction works best when it’s allowed to be weird. And in many cases, there’s usually a deeper meaning for the reader to find and ponder.
Such as with “Three Moments of an Explosion.” It’s another perfect example of Mieville’s short fiction, but is nothing like the sprawling “Poylnia,” just a few short paragraphs that take up a page. The title is quite accurate; it describes an explosion from three points of time: the corporate-sponsored demolition of an old building, the drugged-up urban explorers who race up and back down as the building crumbles in slow motion around them, and the fading memory of the one explorer who didn’t make it out in time. The story has a surreal, dreamlike quality to it, and acts as cutting commentary that spreads out to strike at several targets. It’s one of those stories that a reader may ponder for days later—three paragraphs with just the right amount of meat to give you something to think about.
A good number of the stories are more like flash fiction than a traditional short, toying with form and format, playing with brevity. Some, like “The Rope is the World,” feel something like story outlines—a brilliant little short history that sets up an intricate world where space elevators were created, then abandoned, leaving people stranded on the infinite decks. There’s a lot of interesting concepts packed into such a short tale—perhaps not enough for a novel, though in some cases I’d like to see someone try. There’s also a few gems that show Mieville could have a brilliant career as a screenwriter: “The Crawl,” “Listen to the Birds,” and “Escapee” are trailers for fake horror films, striking the right balance between not revealing any of the films’ big secrets but showing enough of their atmosphere that I want to know more. Similarly, “Syllabus” is exactly what it sounds like, the syllabus for a far-future college where your AI must approve your essay topics.
I sometimes forget that Mieville’s first novel, King Rat, earned top-notch horror accolades for a good reason. The reason is because his brand of creepy weirdness plays very well with horror, and the more traditional fantasy-horror tales in this collection are knockouts—“Säcken” and “After The Festival” show that Mieville’s talent for crafting chilling horror is still in top form. “Säcken” follows two women as they vacation by a quiet German lake; as one woman become terrified by strange occurrences, their relationship becomes strained and rocky, placing them both in danger. Dread oozes from this story like cold, murky lakewater, sending chills up my spine. “After the Festival” inserts a Medieval-esque ritual into an otherwise normal world, where partygoers wear the decapitated heads of animals as part of a celebration—but wearing the heads too long leads to serious danger, changing the wearer and unleashing their animal nature.
The crushing weight of unknown forces comes through in stories like “The Bastard Prompt” and “Keep,” relying heavily on the mystery and weirdness of how the world has changed to keep you reading. By the end they make a kind of sense, but the how’s and why’s are mercurial; both feature apocalyptic changes that the protagonists struggle to understand, while they become in tune with the strange occurrences. Unexplained phenomena remain surreal and terrifying when there’s no scientific explanation for the things that should not be. That’s why Mieville isn’t often categorized as science fiction: he writes weird tales, stories where characters react to the impossible and unknowable as best they can.
Three Moments of an Explosion contains a number of gems and excellent stories, among the fascinating bits of flash-fiction ephemera. Examining all of them will take time, and to be honest, I think they are best left to their own weird ways—just roll with the weirdness, as neither you nor the characters will know exactly why or how the impossible can happen. That’s what makes the stories full of breathless wonder, strange mystery, and chilling terror, and why reading the collection all at once may be a bit draining. Mieville has established himself as one of the best writers of the unknown, and this collection is yet another showcase of how powerful, dynamic, and—well, limitless his imagination can be. It’s a must-read for fans of Mieville and the New Weird movement, and it may be a good in-read for those who haven’t yet read one of his novels. Really, for any horror or fantasy reader, there will be things here for you to enjoy. Two thumbs way, way up.
“Polynia” is one of first big stories in the collection at 25 pages, and it’s a perfect example of Mieville’s style of short fiction. In near-future Europe, pieces of the earth destroyed by human influence make a striking return: icebergs form in the sky above London, brain coral begins growing off the EU buildings in Brussels. The story is rich in atmosphere—the wonder and unease caused by these natural-yet-unnatural occurrences, things that should not be. Our protagonists are kids, watching footage beamed through the BBC of failed military expeditions or sneaking a look at illegal footage shot by extreme explorers. It’s almost a coming-of-age story—the muggy, junk-laden back-alleys of London which become oddly chilly when a massive iceberg floats past. “Covehite” also mixed contemporary issues with the inexplicable, as oil rigs destroyed by nautical accidents stomp their way out of the seas and head inland.
And like the best magicians, Mieville doesn’t reveal his secrets. One of the common criticisms of Mieville’s earlier collections were that his stories lacked a sense of finality or closure; the reader expecting a nice clean denouement that explains away the wonder and wraps everything up with a neat bow may be disappointed. I refute the point: the stories work best when Mieville’s powerful creativity runs rampant, where things wondrous and inexplicable happen to everyday people. Explaining the mystery would detract from the experience; Weird Fiction works best when it’s allowed to be weird. And in many cases, there’s usually a deeper meaning for the reader to find and ponder.
Such as with “Three Moments of an Explosion.” It’s another perfect example of Mieville’s short fiction, but is nothing like the sprawling “Poylnia,” just a few short paragraphs that take up a page. The title is quite accurate; it describes an explosion from three points of time: the corporate-sponsored demolition of an old building, the drugged-up urban explorers who race up and back down as the building crumbles in slow motion around them, and the fading memory of the one explorer who didn’t make it out in time. The story has a surreal, dreamlike quality to it, and acts as cutting commentary that spreads out to strike at several targets. It’s one of those stories that a reader may ponder for days later—three paragraphs with just the right amount of meat to give you something to think about.
A good number of the stories are more like flash fiction than a traditional short, toying with form and format, playing with brevity. Some, like “The Rope is the World,” feel something like story outlines—a brilliant little short history that sets up an intricate world where space elevators were created, then abandoned, leaving people stranded on the infinite decks. There’s a lot of interesting concepts packed into such a short tale—perhaps not enough for a novel, though in some cases I’d like to see someone try. There’s also a few gems that show Mieville could have a brilliant career as a screenwriter: “The Crawl,” “Listen to the Birds,” and “Escapee” are trailers for fake horror films, striking the right balance between not revealing any of the films’ big secrets but showing enough of their atmosphere that I want to know more. Similarly, “Syllabus” is exactly what it sounds like, the syllabus for a far-future college where your AI must approve your essay topics.
I sometimes forget that Mieville’s first novel, King Rat, earned top-notch horror accolades for a good reason. The reason is because his brand of creepy weirdness plays very well with horror, and the more traditional fantasy-horror tales in this collection are knockouts—“Säcken” and “After The Festival” show that Mieville’s talent for crafting chilling horror is still in top form. “Säcken” follows two women as they vacation by a quiet German lake; as one woman become terrified by strange occurrences, their relationship becomes strained and rocky, placing them both in danger. Dread oozes from this story like cold, murky lakewater, sending chills up my spine. “After the Festival” inserts a Medieval-esque ritual into an otherwise normal world, where partygoers wear the decapitated heads of animals as part of a celebration—but wearing the heads too long leads to serious danger, changing the wearer and unleashing their animal nature.
The crushing weight of unknown forces comes through in stories like “The Bastard Prompt” and “Keep,” relying heavily on the mystery and weirdness of how the world has changed to keep you reading. By the end they make a kind of sense, but the how’s and why’s are mercurial; both feature apocalyptic changes that the protagonists struggle to understand, while they become in tune with the strange occurrences. Unexplained phenomena remain surreal and terrifying when there’s no scientific explanation for the things that should not be. That’s why Mieville isn’t often categorized as science fiction: he writes weird tales, stories where characters react to the impossible and unknowable as best they can.
Three Moments of an Explosion contains a number of gems and excellent stories, among the fascinating bits of flash-fiction ephemera. Examining all of them will take time, and to be honest, I think they are best left to their own weird ways—just roll with the weirdness, as neither you nor the characters will know exactly why or how the impossible can happen. That’s what makes the stories full of breathless wonder, strange mystery, and chilling terror, and why reading the collection all at once may be a bit draining. Mieville has established himself as one of the best writers of the unknown, and this collection is yet another showcase of how powerful, dynamic, and—well, limitless his imagination can be. It’s a must-read for fans of Mieville and the New Weird movement, and it may be a good in-read for those who haven’t yet read one of his novels. Really, for any horror or fantasy reader, there will be things here for you to enjoy. Two thumbs way, way up.
December 19, 2015
I've been meandering through China Miéville's Three Moments of an Explosion for almost six-months, picking it up at leisure, reading a few stories then putting it down. I think it would be hard to take in the density of these works in one sitting - it's better to dip in and out, leaving time to process the work. It is a thematic exploration of the disruption of status quo - each story is a miniature explosion, a moment of wonder and passing. Those familiar with weird fiction will see the elements of wonder and awe attached to the genre.
It could be said that Miéville's work is about disturbance - civil unrest, political maneuverings, the supernatural's infringement on the real. Themes from his previous work shine through; the distrust and satire of authority figures, in particular tertiary education systems, fantastic cities, monsters and malevolence. The oft-repeated theme in weird fiction of nature rising up against habitation is clear in this collection (read Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation if this fascinates you too). One of the most evocative moments is a deer made out of chemicals walking through a London housing estate - hinted at on the cover.
There are stories I loved in this collection; The 9th Technique, where torture methods are turned into sacred artifacts, the curious cards of The Dowager of Bees, and the ultimate story, The Design, a meditation on the big issues - love, God, homosexuality and scrimshawed bones (it wouldn't be a Miéville story without some level of weirdness!). It's a beautiful story, which at heart is an unwritten romance.
There are plenty of monsters for fans to latch onto, especially the creepy 'thing' of Sacken, or the malevolent detritus in Rabbet. The weaker stories for me were the ones with less believable weird elements - in that the weirdness broke the wall between the reader and the words. The Dusty Hat and Keep stood out in this regard. Another element that can distance readers is the language - while I love the challenge of reading and really absorbing a story, it's hard work to consume these stories.
Observers perpetuate his writing; in this collection, the story is not told from the perspective of the victim, but an observer to the victim. Like a memorial to the dead, these people left behind and suffer the fallout of loss and disappearance. They are left standing in the wake of the explosion, much like the reader, helpless to intervene.
What I've always loved about Miéville's work is the strong reaction I have to it, whether revulsion or adoration, it demands attention. Stories start in uneasy places and echo off the pages like a radar. China Miéville is a master of recoil. He aims, fires, and the strength of the writing is felt in the aftermath.
It could be said that Miéville's work is about disturbance - civil unrest, political maneuverings, the supernatural's infringement on the real. Themes from his previous work shine through; the distrust and satire of authority figures, in particular tertiary education systems, fantastic cities, monsters and malevolence. The oft-repeated theme in weird fiction of nature rising up against habitation is clear in this collection (read Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation if this fascinates you too). One of the most evocative moments is a deer made out of chemicals walking through a London housing estate - hinted at on the cover.
There are stories I loved in this collection; The 9th Technique, where torture methods are turned into sacred artifacts, the curious cards of The Dowager of Bees, and the ultimate story, The Design, a meditation on the big issues - love, God, homosexuality and scrimshawed bones (it wouldn't be a Miéville story without some level of weirdness!). It's a beautiful story, which at heart is an unwritten romance.
There are plenty of monsters for fans to latch onto, especially the creepy 'thing' of Sacken, or the malevolent detritus in Rabbet. The weaker stories for me were the ones with less believable weird elements - in that the weirdness broke the wall between the reader and the words. The Dusty Hat and Keep stood out in this regard. Another element that can distance readers is the language - while I love the challenge of reading and really absorbing a story, it's hard work to consume these stories.
Observers perpetuate his writing; in this collection, the story is not told from the perspective of the victim, but an observer to the victim. Like a memorial to the dead, these people left behind and suffer the fallout of loss and disappearance. They are left standing in the wake of the explosion, much like the reader, helpless to intervene.
What I've always loved about Miéville's work is the strong reaction I have to it, whether revulsion or adoration, it demands attention. Stories start in uneasy places and echo off the pages like a radar. China Miéville is a master of recoil. He aims, fires, and the strength of the writing is felt in the aftermath.
March 31, 2016
Collection of shorts. Not really his best medium. Noteworthy:
The floating icebergs were kinda cool (‘Polynia’). The text regarding ‘new death’ is conceptually interesting, but not much narrative. ‘Dowager of Bees’ is pynchonian in its insistence on secrecy among ordinary things. ‘In the Slopes’ has an HPL feel, archaeologists unearthing things. ‘Watching God’ builds up a grammar of passing ships, which is pregnant. ‘The Rope is the World’ is a post-Fountains of Paradise meditation on a space elevator. “Säcken” involves the ancient punishment culleus, but ends up as kinda just a gross-out story. “Dreaded Outcome” concerns a pynchonian school of thought in psychotherapy. “The Bastard Prompt” involves a baudrillardian thought experiment. “Keep” is a clever epidemic/apocalypse wherein Derridean solicitation is made manifest as ontic. “Covehithe” has walking, fucking oil rigs that rise from the sea like an HPL monster (it’s conceptually silly but rhetorically slick). “The Junket” is probably the most serious text, something to do with anti-semitism in the film industry. “The Design” is very much a descendant of Poe, with a corpse-thief, as told by an acquaintance in first person.
Master grammatical figure is trudere, as its derivatives show up with some frequency—extrusions, intrusions, &c. Maybe some protruding abstruse things, too.
Some leftwing content in “The Dusty Hat,” which I don’t much like as a story:
Similarly, “A Second Slice Manifesto” is “radical aesthetic democracy,” wherein existing art objects are ‘sliced’ along a previously unrepresented perspectival axis, such as opening up a Renoir painting by representing an image perpendicular to the frame.
Recommended to readers for whom there are lacks that won’t be filled, godnappers & deicides, and those who make themselves the work of art.
The floating icebergs were kinda cool (‘Polynia’). The text regarding ‘new death’ is conceptually interesting, but not much narrative. ‘Dowager of Bees’ is pynchonian in its insistence on secrecy among ordinary things. ‘In the Slopes’ has an HPL feel, archaeologists unearthing things. ‘Watching God’ builds up a grammar of passing ships, which is pregnant. ‘The Rope is the World’ is a post-Fountains of Paradise meditation on a space elevator. “Säcken” involves the ancient punishment culleus, but ends up as kinda just a gross-out story. “Dreaded Outcome” concerns a pynchonian school of thought in psychotherapy. “The Bastard Prompt” involves a baudrillardian thought experiment. “Keep” is a clever epidemic/apocalypse wherein Derridean solicitation is made manifest as ontic. “Covehithe” has walking, fucking oil rigs that rise from the sea like an HPL monster (it’s conceptually silly but rhetorically slick). “The Junket” is probably the most serious text, something to do with anti-semitism in the film industry. “The Design” is very much a descendant of Poe, with a corpse-thief, as told by an acquaintance in first person.
Master grammatical figure is trudere, as its derivatives show up with some frequency—extrusions, intrusions, &c. Maybe some protruding abstruse things, too.
Some leftwing content in “The Dusty Hat,” which I don’t much like as a story:
We don’t have to have an alternative, that’s not how critique works. We may do, and if we do, you’re welcome, but if we don’t that no more invalidates our hate for this, for what is, than does that of a serf for her lord, her flail-backed insistence that this must end, whether or not she accompanies it with a blueprint for free wage labor. (215)The text otherwise concerns “the internecine battles of the elemental Left” (216), wherein “the history of hitherto-existing quiddity is of the struggle in matter” or so (217).
Similarly, “A Second Slice Manifesto” is “radical aesthetic democracy,” wherein existing art objects are ‘sliced’ along a previously unrepresented perspectival axis, such as opening up a Renoir painting by representing an image perpendicular to the frame.
Recommended to readers for whom there are lacks that won’t be filled, godnappers & deicides, and those who make themselves the work of art.
April 19, 2018
Rated 3 out of ambivalence. Half the stories (mostly the newest ones) are excellent, yet I find the other half absolutely horrible. First thing I've read by Miéville and this leaves me still unsure if I want to read a lot more or not.
Want to read
September 18, 2015This copy is an Advanced Uncorrected Proof.
May 1, 2020
[3,5*]
Διαβάζοντας μετά από καιρό αυτή τη συλλογή ιστοριών του -πολυαγαπημένου μου- China (οκ, όχι το καλύτερο όνομα αυτήν την περίοδο) Mieville θυμήθηκα την αίσθηση που μου άφησε την πρώτη φορά. Νιώθω ότι απευθύνεται στα geeks, είτε είναι πληροφορικάριοι είτε όχι, που απολαμβάνουν τα ηλεκτρονικά παιχνίδια, την electronica, τις horror και fantasy ιστορίες και τις ταινίες που συνδυάζουν τον ερωτισμό με το σπλάτερ. Και πάντα μου αφήνει την αίσθηση ότι μέσα από τις ιστορίες του, όντας ο ίδιος Μαρξιστής με PhD στις διεθνείς σχέσεις (από το LSE, παρακαλώ), αντανακλούν την βιαιότητα του καπιταλισμού.
Αν και το τελικό αποτέλεσμα δεν είναι απόλυτα ισορροπημένο, όπως συμβαίνει συνήθως με τις συλλογές ιστοριών, δεν μπορείς να μην πεις ότι ο Mieville είναι και εδώ υπέροχος. Λίγο η αφήγηση που ρέει, λίγο η γλώσσα, λίγο η πρόζα, λίγο το χιούμορ (κρυμμένο, αλλά υπάρχει) δεν θέλει και πολύ. Λάτρεψα 10 ιστορίες από τις 28 και είπα απλά οκ για 8. Οι υπόλοιπες 10 θα έλεγα ότι κινούνται στο ενδιάμεσο, και μάλιστα προς το καλό.
Αν δεν έχετε διαβάσει Mieville, θα πρότεινα να το κάνετε. Και αν έχετε διαβάσει, να βρείτε ευκαιρία να τα ξαναπείτε.
Διαβάζοντας μετά από καιρό αυτή τη συλλογή ιστοριών του -πολυαγαπημένου μου- China (οκ, όχι το καλύτερο όνομα αυτήν την περίοδο) Mieville θυμήθηκα την αίσθηση που μου άφησε την πρώτη φορά. Νιώθω ότι απευθύνεται στα geeks, είτε είναι πληροφορικάριοι είτε όχι, που απολαμβάνουν τα ηλεκτρονικά παιχνίδια, την electronica, τις horror και fantasy ιστορίες και τις ταινίες που συνδυάζουν τον ερωτισμό με το σπλάτερ. Και πάντα μου αφήνει την αίσθηση ότι μέσα από τις ιστορίες του, όντας ο ίδιος Μαρξιστής με PhD στις διεθνείς σχέσεις (από το LSE, παρακαλώ), αντανακλούν την βιαιότητα του καπιταλισμού.
Αν και το τελικό αποτέλεσμα δεν είναι απόλυτα ισορροπημένο, όπως συμβαίνει συνήθως με τις συλλογές ιστοριών, δεν μπορείς να μην πεις ότι ο Mieville είναι και εδώ υπέροχος. Λίγο η αφήγηση που ρέει, λίγο η γλώσσα, λίγο η πρόζα, λίγο το χιούμορ (κρυμμένο, αλλά υπάρχει) δεν θέλει και πολύ. Λάτρεψα 10 ιστορίες από τις 28 και είπα απλά οκ για 8. Οι υπόλοιπες 10 θα έλεγα ότι κινούνται στο ενδιάμεσο, και μάλιστα προς το καλό.
Αν δεν έχετε διαβάσει Mieville, θα πρότεινα να το κάνετε. Και αν έχετε διαβάσει, να βρείτε ευκαιρία να τα ξαναπείτε.
March 22, 2022
I always find it wryly amusing when critics impressed at China Miéville rush to compare him to authors such as Zadie Smith or David Mitchell. As if Miéville were brilliant despite the fact that he writes fantastic fiction. Or as if the "weird fiction" tag attached to his books were somewhat dishonourable or demeaning. In reality, it is difficult to imagine Miéville writing anything but his particular brand of “new weird”. Not because he lacks versatility but, on the contrary, because the striking images which he conjures up fit so perfectly within the tradition of the fantastic and the surreal.
Take "Polynia", in my opinion one of the best pieces in this short story collection. We are in the near-future and icebergs suddenly materialise over London. From this simple yet haunting premise, set against the backdrop of a city at once familiar and strange, Mieville manages to fashion a little gem - a post-apocalytpic sci-fi story which also works as a realistic coming-of-age narrative, a tale which harks back to the adventure/explorer yarns of the 19th Century but which is at the same time underscored by very contemporary environmental concerns.
There are other stories which display Miéville’s knack for original plot lines. In “The Dowager of Bees”, he imagines a world where professional card players face a mysterious occupational hazard - the occasional, unexpected appearance of rogue cards with terrifying consequences. In “Keep” the world is in the thrall of an epidemic in which a moat digs itself in the earth around infected persons.
Miéville’s fantastic fiction is often politically-infused or inspired by social concerns and this collection gives us a number of examples of his “leftist weird”. Thus, “The 9th Technique” is an oblique critique of Western foreign policy and society’s complacency in the face of the use of torture techniques. “Dusty Hat" starts off as a bitter satire about the infighting within the political left, before turning into an existentially weird story. In “Covehithe”, the wrecks of ecological, marine disasters take life and roam the Earth.
Elsewhere, Miéville adopts a more traditional style and the results are none the worse for it. Try the escalating, unnerving horror of “The Mount” or the ghost/horror story “Säcken” inspired by the disturbing (and real!) execution method known in Roman Law as the poena cullei .
This anthology gives us a wide-ranging primer of the author’s work and, as one would expect, some of the stories had less of an impact than others. I didn’t particularly like the flash-fiction pieces which seemed little more than sketches compared to the longer tales – perhaps an indication that an original concept on its own is not enough. I also felt that some of the stories were too conceptual for their own good. I have in mind, in particular, “Watching God”, which I interpreted as an extended metaphor about religious belief.
So – is Miéville as good as Zadie Smith or David Mitchell? Believe me, they are as good as he is...
Take "Polynia", in my opinion one of the best pieces in this short story collection. We are in the near-future and icebergs suddenly materialise over London. From this simple yet haunting premise, set against the backdrop of a city at once familiar and strange, Mieville manages to fashion a little gem - a post-apocalytpic sci-fi story which also works as a realistic coming-of-age narrative, a tale which harks back to the adventure/explorer yarns of the 19th Century but which is at the same time underscored by very contemporary environmental concerns.
There are other stories which display Miéville’s knack for original plot lines. In “The Dowager of Bees”, he imagines a world where professional card players face a mysterious occupational hazard - the occasional, unexpected appearance of rogue cards with terrifying consequences. In “Keep” the world is in the thrall of an epidemic in which a moat digs itself in the earth around infected persons.
Miéville’s fantastic fiction is often politically-infused or inspired by social concerns and this collection gives us a number of examples of his “leftist weird”. Thus, “The 9th Technique” is an oblique critique of Western foreign policy and society’s complacency in the face of the use of torture techniques. “Dusty Hat" starts off as a bitter satire about the infighting within the political left, before turning into an existentially weird story. In “Covehithe”, the wrecks of ecological, marine disasters take life and roam the Earth.
Elsewhere, Miéville adopts a more traditional style and the results are none the worse for it. Try the escalating, unnerving horror of “The Mount” or the ghost/horror story “Säcken” inspired by the disturbing (and real!) execution method known in Roman Law as the poena cullei .
This anthology gives us a wide-ranging primer of the author’s work and, as one would expect, some of the stories had less of an impact than others. I didn’t particularly like the flash-fiction pieces which seemed little more than sketches compared to the longer tales – perhaps an indication that an original concept on its own is not enough. I also felt that some of the stories were too conceptual for their own good. I have in mind, in particular, “Watching God”, which I interpreted as an extended metaphor about religious belief.
So – is Miéville as good as Zadie Smith or David Mitchell? Believe me, they are as good as he is...
November 30, 2016
Although I’m not an avid reader of short story collections (except those by Borges), I’ve read enough to know that the best story is usually the first. Imagine my surprise, then, to find that here my favourite was the last, ‘The Design’. The majority of the stories had an arresting, suitably weird conceit, however the final one also had a beauty to it and a distinctive, measured voice that wasn’t trying to scare the reader. Quite a few of the other stories, though, notably ‘Säcken’ and ‘The Rabbet’, seemed just to be slightly weird horror. This isn’t really what I expected from China Miéville, whose novels I love for their densely-imagined strangeness. Whilst the horror-themed stories were certainly unsettling, I didn’t find them thought-provoking, which was rather a disappointment. It did occur to me, though, that it’s very difficult to find the right level of ambiguity with short stories, especially in the horror genre. Within a limited space, detail will of necessity be limited and frightening writing must leave space for the reader’s imagination. On the other hand, short stories also need to be taut and precise with their imagery in order to be memorable. Final sentences are especially tricky in this respect - Miéville’s best were punchlines, the weaker ones vague portentous statements: ‘We will all learn’ and, ‘Don’t you worry’.
My preferred stories explored an odd conceit in a more deadpan fashion, notably ‘The Dowager of Bees’, ‘In the Slopes’, and ‘Keep’. All three of them ended on what seemed to me a slightly grimmer note than necessary, though. ‘Dreaded Outcome’ was the only story that I found funny - and I did really like that one, it was my second favourite of the collection. On balance, I think Miéville’s themes of urban decay, grotesquerie, and political dissatisfaction work better in his longer work. His ponderous and dense writing style is less digestible in little chunks. The stories that were evidently trying to scare and unsettle did not do much for me, however there are some fascinating concepts and delightful bits of execution mixed in too. I love Miéville’s lengthy novels, although, I now recall, probably my favourite work of his is the novella The Tain. I adored it because it felt convincingly like a dream. Unfortunately none of these stories managed that.
My preferred stories explored an odd conceit in a more deadpan fashion, notably ‘The Dowager of Bees’, ‘In the Slopes’, and ‘Keep’. All three of them ended on what seemed to me a slightly grimmer note than necessary, though. ‘Dreaded Outcome’ was the only story that I found funny - and I did really like that one, it was my second favourite of the collection. On balance, I think Miéville’s themes of urban decay, grotesquerie, and political dissatisfaction work better in his longer work. His ponderous and dense writing style is less digestible in little chunks. The stories that were evidently trying to scare and unsettle did not do much for me, however there are some fascinating concepts and delightful bits of execution mixed in too. I love Miéville’s lengthy novels, although, I now recall, probably my favourite work of his is the novella The Tain. I adored it because it felt convincingly like a dream. Unfortunately none of these stories managed that.
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