Un Lun Dun

Feb 22, 2010 Ceridwen rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Ceridwen by: Miriam

Shelves: fantasy, rule-britannia, steampunk, urban-fantasy, young-adult, zombies

China Miéville is my new boyfriend. I mean, look at him:

China looking very growly and hawt

Hubba hubba. I mean, I've always had a thing for guys who have had their noses obviously broken at some point, but this man is just wicked attractive. Now that I've been super lame and girly about this authors merits, I do want to say that I love you for your mind, Mr. Miéville, your hot, hot mind. And the fact that your name is weird. And you've got those little French thingees over the e that I can't get my word processor to do. (I roll w...more China Miéville is my new boyfriend. I mean, look at him:

China looking very growly and hawt

Hubba hubba. I mean, I've always had a thing for guys who have had their noses obviously broken at some point, but this man is just wicked attractive. Now that I've been super lame and girly about this authors merits, I do want to say that I love you for your mind, Mr. Miéville, your hot, hot mind. And the fact that your name is weird. And you've got those little French thingees over the e that I can't get my word processor to do. (I roll with cut-and-paste; it's a kluge, but it gets the job done.)

I'm too young to have this be emotionally real for me, but one of the reasons Hitchcock's “Psycho” was so upsetting is because it discombobulated the viewers notions of main character. Hitchcock spends all this time documenting Marion and her crime and escape, lavishing scenes on her switching cars, chatting with the bf, all that. Then she checks into a motel, has a little dinner, dips into the shower and SWINK SWINK SWINK end of story. Like, WHAT? I imagine everyone in the theater thinking. You just killed off the main character! In steps Lila, Marion's sister, and we all kind of breathe a sigh of relief, but it just has to be said: Lila's not as interesting. Norman is, though, and then you realize that the story's about him, and he's a bloody killer.

But maybe that's not even it, maybe it's that we can't trust Hitchcock anymore because stories should be about one thing and not another, one person and not another, and we like it when character is destiny, but more importantly, we like it when characters have destinies, because, like, isn't that the point of fiction? Fiction winds up these little marionettes who trundle forward in little dioramas, and maybe the fictions are more or less life-like, maybe the dolls have real silk dresses, or the walls are actually lathe-and-plaster with horsehair and newspapers from the turn of the last century as insulation, but it's still fiction, which means there's a simplicity at it's soul, even when it's complicated – there's just no way to make a 1-to-1 model of everything. We root for main characters, even when they suck and are terrible, because we are main characters all; I don't care how much empathy you have, you simply can't know what goes on in another person's head, anyone's. So Hitchcock kills his main character, and we all start, because, holy wow, man, you just killed us.

Anyway, Miéville does this with the concept of Destiny and I just want to give him a big smooch for it. (Well, okay, for other reasons too.) A pair of girls fall into the Un Lun Dun/unLondon of the title. UnLondon is just fantastic, not entirely because it's trying to be fantastic, but because it isn't, sort of. Man, that didn't make any sense. Okay, here's an example: our protagonists run in with folk called the Roofrunners, who seem like those sort of aggressively clannish Klingon types who are always crowing about how no one has stepped onto the ground in three generations and wear a lot of leather. You can see where this is going, right? Some Roofrunner is going to have to step onto the ground at some point very soon to Save Them All, but then, when it actually happens, turns out the roofs are false roofs, just sitting there on the ground with no houses under them, so all they really have to do is STEP DOWN. That is so freaking funny! I mean, it's all fiction right? The roofs, the city, the people inside, why not have the roofs on the ground? Why not make the danger something that comes from the stories these people told, and not the imaginary gravity of their imaginary environment? Whoa. I just freaked myself out.

There's other sublime weirdness as well: a school of fish in a diving suit who constitute a sentient entity, or a bird in a robot man with a birdcage for a head, or any of a hundred other frightening or comic people and things. There's pictures too – little pen and ink sketches by Miéville himself – more swooning – that aren't obnoxious or distracting, but help catalog the oddments without interrupting the narrative. He has the good sense not to interfere with my notions of how the main characters look, instead stuffing the peripheries with the ideas I might miss out of the corner of my eye.

BUT, all soul mates have to have their their first fight, and here's my opening salvo: sometimes puns just piss me off. There should never be places called Webminster Abbey...made of webs! Inhabited by the Black Window...who is like a window with spider legs! It's just, you know, lame. (Although, the actual descriptions of the Black Windows, even though just typing those words made me die a little bit, was unsettling and powerful.) Gaiman's Neverwhere gets mentioned a lot with this book - I think it's mentioned by and Miéville himself - I had the same problems with that one. Additionally, one of the reasons I didn't groove on Neverwhere like some of Gaiman's other stuff is that Richard Mayhew is milquetoast as all get out, and his problems with his gf were kind of stupid, Sex and the City style antics, and he just needed to sack up, in general. Deeba is similarly unrealized, in some ways: I don't have a good sense of how she is when she's alone, but at least she didn't have a harpy-ish girlfriend who seemed like a sexist caricature.

Sorry Gaiman! I still love you too, but I'm throwing you over for this Miéville fellow!

Cross-posted on Readerling (less)

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Jun 03, 2012 Nataliya rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mieville-is-awesome, awesome-kickass-heroines, 2012-reads, for-my-future-hypothetical-daughter, favorites, locus-winner, location-is-the-true-protagonist

If (for whatever strange reason) you ever wondered what a love child of "Alice in Wonderland" and Gaiman's "Neverwhere" would look like if it were raised by the Master of Weird - well, say hello to Un Lun Dun.

'I know you're not a sidekick.'
'No one is!' Deeba shouted. 'That's no way to talk about anyone! To say they're just hangers-on to someone more important.'

This is an ode to all the sidekicks out there, those who were 'destined' to be on the sidelines, to be the 'funny one' or 'brainy one' o...more If (for whatever strange reason) you ever wondered what a love child of "Alice in Wonderland" and Gaiman's "Neverwhere" would look like if it were raised by the Master of Weird - well, say hello to Un Lun Dun.

'I know you're not a sidekick.'
'No one is!' Deeba shouted. 'That's no way to talk about anyone! To say they're just hangers-on to someone more important.'

This is an ode to all the sidekicks out there, those who were 'destined' to be on the sidelines, to be the 'funny one' or 'brainy one' or 'whatever one' to the Chosen One. Don't you hate that trope? I do. I know that in a fantasy setting I'd surely be the sidekick. I do not love that designation, and, apparently, neither does China Miéville. And while he is busy subverting that ages-old trope, he decides to overturn a few more genre clichés (the quests, the prophesies, all that), making it a delightful, fresh read.

'If we planned ahead, sent a few messages', Obaday went on, 'maybe got a gnostechnician to check the travel reports on the undernet, stayed each night with friends in safe places in whatever borough we reached then it would be perfectly safe. Well, reasonably safe. Safe-esque. But, yes, it would be dangerous if we didn't think ahead, and we took a wrong turning into Wraithtown, or met some scratchmonkeys or a building with house-rabies, or, lord help us, if we ran into the giraffes.'

The city-protagonist that CM excels at creating is the titular UnLondon, the 'abcity' (just like "Parisn't, or No York, or Helsunki, or Lost Angeles, or Sans Francisco, or Hong Gone, or Romeless") that can (of course!) be entered by 'booksteps' and 'storyladders', with the parallels to the 'regular' world in the same way as "Alice in Wonderland" has parallels to it.

Miéville lets his boundless imagination run wild. The surreal world of the abcity is fantastic and neatly crafted - the extreme librarians, unbrellas, the living words, carnivorous giraffes, binjas, Black Windows in Webminster Abbey, Puzzleborough, donut-shaped UnSun, bus conductors that also conduct electricity, and even what to me looks like a version of Perdido Street Station... The details are fascinating, the world-building, as usual, mind-boggling. The world that would be amazing and captivating to the eyes of a child and an adult alike - but still, in true Miéville fashion, it has its ugly sides. And now it is threatened and is in need of the (Un)Chosen one.

"In the streets of UnLondon, a group of a girl, a half-ghost, a talking book, a piece of rubbish, and two living words was unusual, but not very."

This book won its way into my heart because of its delightful bizarre weirdness, and stayed in my heart because of its 'sidekick', Deeba Resham. The funny, brash, not particularly sophisticated, snarky young girl with bad grammar, good heart, street-smarts, stubbornness and determination enough for a whole city, with an (Un-)milk carton Curdle as a pet, with complete disregard for tropes and destiny and prophecies and all that fluff. TEAM DEEBA! is the next t-shirt I'm investing in. Seriously.

As for the villain of Un Lun Dun - well, some can call it comical, some - heavy-handed environmentalist message. I found it very creepy, especially after wondering over to Wikipedia to read about the London Great Smog of 1952. With all the recent environmental disasters all over the world, (view spoiler). Thanks to my very liberal undergraduate education, I tend to take environmental message seriously, even though I do stop short of hugging trees. And given the enormity of threat to UnLondon, I'm willing to forgive a very deux-ex-machina conflict resolution - without it, I don't see a way to even a remotedly happy ending.

Miéville wanted to create a modern-day "Alice in Wonderland", to write a fully immersing world for young readers. And, as I came to expect from this incredibly gifted man, he succeeded. I loved it to pieces, and I wish I could go back in time and hand it to my younger self. It is like a younger, less corrupted and more wide-eyed cousin of "Perdido Street Station" (no bug sex in this one, sorry). It's weird to the nth degree, surreal, captivating, stretching imagination to the depths his Chinaness has perfected by now. And with all that, it is refreshingly modern and free of sentimentality and nostalgia for childhood (way too common in books with young protagonists). Please do not be fooled by the "YA" designation - it easily avoids the present-day YA tropes. You will NOT come across insta-love or damsel-in-distress or the too-special-for-her-own-good nonsense here, no ma'am.

Miéville appropriately tones down his dictionary-like baroque language for the younger audience (even though I still consulted a dictionary on a few occasions). Far from disappointed, I was actually happy to see that his prose is just as captivating and engrossing even without his trademark thesaurus-like style. It is simply good, no matter how he chooses to write it.
Oh, and did I mention he illustrated this book, too? Is there *anything* that man cannot do? If I ever meet him, I will be completely awestruck and speechless.

=========================================
I adored this book. Actually, it's only the second Miéville that I easily and without hesitation give 5 stars to (and I'm actually quite surprised to see that it's not a Goodreads fan favorite). I will add it to the to-read pile for my (future, hypothetical) daughter and add Deeba Resham to the imaginary list of literary heroines the above-mentioned daughter should be having sleepovers with.

In front of 'CHOSEN ONE ROOLZ!' someone had added 'UN-'.
'Look at that,' she said, delighted. 'It's accurate now'.

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Apr 26, 2013 Megan Baxter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What is it about London that makes it the prime place to create another world, not hidden in the shadows, but accessible through secret passageways that tend to close tight behind those who stumble in? Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere jumps to mind, which China Mieville (I don't know how to do the accents!) credits as an inspiration, and now Un Lun Dun.

Although I guess the other example that I can think of, J. Michael Straczynski's Midnight Nation, is set in the States. Never mind. And in this book, UnL...more What is it about London that makes it the prime place to create another world, not hidden in the shadows, but accessible through secret passageways that tend to close tight behind those who stumble in? Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere jumps to mind, which China Mieville (I don't know how to do the accents!) credits as an inspiration, and now Un Lun Dun.

Although I guess the other example that I can think of, J. Michael Straczynski's Midnight Nation, is set in the States. Never mind. And in this book, UnLondon isn't the only city hidden behind another city. There's Parisn't, for example. And Lost Angeles.

I loved this book so, so much. It's the first China Mieville I've read, and it won't be the last. (I do realize that his other books are very different from this one, having read a lot of wonderful reviews of them.) But the imagination and creation I can't wait to encounter in other forms.

And in this one, the whimsy delighted me, the terrors worried me, the name for the garbage bins that guarded the bridge absolutely killed me. About the time that that was revealed, I started to have a big silly grin on my face. It recurred frequently.

Deeba and her best friend, Zanna, find themselves in UnLondon, where Zanna is the Chosen One, the Shwazzy. They're there so Zanna can beat the Smog. Except that things do not go even remotely as planned (or prophesied), and Deeba finds herself having to negotiate the conventions of prophecies, and to brave the horrors of the smoglodytes to stop the Smog from taking over, along with a group of friends, on a quest to find the one weapon the Smog fears.

I loved the way that Mieville played with conventions of young adult fiction, and had Deeba outright reject some of them. I just loved this entire world.

And to paraphrase a friend, I basically find solidarity to be one of the most moving things ever. I've gotten a little misty-eyed at every protest I've been a part of. I tear up a little watching pride parades. And that part in movies, where one person stands up against an evil, and then is unexpectedly joined by a larger crowd - that wrecks me, every time, with happy tears. And there is one of those moments in Un Lun Dun, and I'm not too ashamed to say that I had tears in my eyes.

This is China Mieville doing young adult, and I can't wait to try his much denser adult fiction. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

Crossposted at Smorgasbook (less)

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May 10, 2011 Stephen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, award-nominee-british-fantasy, award-winner-british-fantasy, award-nominee-arthur-c-clarke, award-winner-arthur-c-clarke, multiple-award-nominee, multiple-award-winners, ya, fantasy, award-nominee-locus, award-winner-locus, 2006-2010, weird-and-new-weird

Let me begin this sadly negative review by saying that I think China Mieville is one of the BEST writers working today. To put it simply…he is THE MAN!! Unfortunately, and it pains me to say, he is THE MAN in this case that wrote a really shitty book. It happens to the best of artists at some point in their career. Al Pacino did Author, Author, Steven Spielberg did Always and even Will Ferrell did Bewitched. Well, I must report that this is Mr. Mieville’s Ishtar, sans Dustin Hoffman and Warren...more

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Dec 15, 2010 Joel rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, 52-in-2010, ya, sci-fi-fantasy, vote-getters, stefon, chinatown

For the second book in a row, China Miéville's writing has reminded me of nothing so much as one of Stefon's drug-fueled gay fantasies:

UnLondon's hottest club is Smog. This place has everything: naked ghosts, balloon zombies, sentient pollution, buses with lizard feet, spider windows, ninja R2D2s. You know that thing where a trash can has been trained in the martial arts?

---

This year it was my goal to read 100 books. Which I have accomplished with several weeks to spare!

Number one, read in Janua...more

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Mar 28, 2008 Michael rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I started this book, I thought to myself "oh lord, I hope this isn't another _Neverwhere_". I liked Gaiman's novel just fine, but I had in my hand ANOTHER urban fantasy, with a Dave McKean-esque cover, and I didn't think that I could handle it.

Kudos to Mieville for taking my worries and drop-kicking them into the ocean.

There's so much to like about this novel. The protagonist isn't who it seems at first. The level of imagination is astounding (quirky, gentle, but with a definite Mieville fl...more

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Jun 17, 2011 Catie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, read-in-2011, ya

Wow. How do I describe this book? It’s on the one hand a bit of an ode to all of the quest based, parallel world containing fantasies that have come before: The Wizard of Oz, Narnia, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, most of Neil Gaiman’s catalogue, hell even Harry Potter. On the other hand, it undermines the typical tenets of these books in a way that’s a bit of a fuck you to the whole genre. It also manages to transcend both of these things and become a decent quest based, parallel world cont...more

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Mar 27, 2008 Tony rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I hated this book to start with, which is to say the first third or so. However, since I was reading it for work, I stuck with it, and finally came around to the novel.

My specific gripes with the first third are that it's clichéd, the characters lack distinction, and it falls into the classic sci-fi/fantasy trap of deluging the readers with unfamiliar and hard to describe details, thereby alienating them from the workings of plot and character. Instead of coming off as unique and charming, inst...more

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Jun 19, 2011 Robert rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

I am not sure what to make of this book or its author.
Considerable time is spent attacking cliches of the fantasy genre, yet Mieville's Unlondon is acknowledged as derivative of Gaiman's Neverwhere. Isn't being obviously derivative of your predecessors both a cliche and the worst crime of the fantasy genre? (I give credit for open admission of the debt, though.)

One of the cliches attacked is that of the the Protagonist with a Heroic Destiny (PHD). Fairy Nuff, but you can see the attack coming fr...more

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Mar 19, 2008 Trin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens, fantasy, english-lit

A sort of kiddie Neverwhere (and Miéville does indeed credit Neil Gaiman in the intro), this is one of those books that’s packed with cleverness—and really, really aware of it. I like some of Miéville’s attempts to turn the typical quest-y fantasy on its ear—The Chosen One turns out to be fairly useless! The “tasks” one must complete to defeat the bad guy are highly skippable!—but UnLondon never felt like a real place to me, or its denizens real people. I’m still really not sure who Deeba was...more

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May 15, 2007 Susan rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: YA readers looking for sci-fi

Shelves: ya

A poor man's Neverwhere. I'll admit that I stopped reading after 115 pages.

I read several glowing reviews of this, saying it was going to rescue us in this, the time of no-more-harry-potter. And lookee! It has female protagonists! But no. A typical adventure/sci-fi premise: someone from our world gets transported to a different world and must save something/do a quest.
a) It is, at least in the first 115 pages, entirely plot-driven. I know nothing about what separates the two main characters fr...more

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Jun 25, 2012 Ashley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Ashley by: Nataliya

Shelves: 2012, fantasy, i-want, rc-a-z-2012, young-adult

5 stars

I love you, Deeba.

China Miéville, you aren't too bad yourself.

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Aug 20, 2010 Colleen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, young-adult, urban-fantasy, group-read

(Maybe more sort of 2.5)

I was excited about the premise of this story. I like 'Wonderland' type stories, especially Gaiman's Neverwhere, which Mieville does specifically mention as being an influence. But this story never really got above "alright" for me.

Part of the problem was that I never really clicked with or cared that much about the characters. I liked the role of Deeba at first - the friend who reluctantly gets dragged into an adventure - but I never really clicked with her as a person....more

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Aug 19, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2008-goal-list, cuy-co-pub-lib, finished, best-i-read-2008-edition

China Mieville, Un Lun Dun (Ballantine, 2007)

I have written many times (more than I can count, certainly) about the dangers of message fiction. Chief among them is that the author gets so wrapped up in the message that he forgets he's first and foremost supposed to tell a story. When I realized that Un Lun Dun, China Mieville's first childrens' book, was of the “message fiction” stripe, I quailed in despair, thinking I might have encountered my first Mieville book (and I've read 'em all) I wasn'...more China Mieville, Un Lun Dun (Ballantine, 2007)

I have written many times (more than I can count, certainly) about the dangers of message fiction. Chief among them is that the author gets so wrapped up in the message that he forgets he's first and foremost supposed to tell a story. When I realized that Un Lun Dun, China Mieville's first childrens' book, was of the “message fiction” stripe, I quailed in despair, thinking I might have encountered my first Mieville book (and I've read 'em all) I wasn't going to like. I should have known better.

Message-fiction writers, listen up: the vast majority of you have a lot to learn from China Mieville. This is how you tell a story. Not just a message story, but any story. (Which is the point, really.) Perfectly-created characters that are rich and deep, a strong plot in which to set them (with no end of surprises-- Mieville is also poking some fun at the traditional fantasy-novel setup here), a setting that manages to both be original and wear Mieville's debt to Clive Barker on its sleeve, and a message that, yes, still manages to poke its head through! Believe it or not, you can have all these things in one book! Don't believe me? Read this one.

Un Lun Dun is the story of Zanna, the Shwazzy (I'd explain that, but catching the many puns in this book before Mieville reveals them is a lot of the fun-- and he still nailed me with Klinneract), and her friend Deeba. The two of them live in a block of apartments in London. Strange things start happening to them-- animals trying to communicate with them in sign language, odd-shaped clouds, being followed by a broken umbrella. Then Zanna goes into a basement, turns a wheel, and everything changes. I wish I could tell you more. I want to tell you more. But I don't want to spoil anything, anything at all, about this book. You deserve all the surprises, and all the delights, awaiting you when you read it for yourself.

If you've encountered China Mieville before, you should know what to expect, except on a more YA level than you're used to. If you haven't experienced China Mieville before, hie thee to the library or the bookstore yesterday, if not before, and pick yourself up a copy of Perdido Street Station, one of the best books that's been published in the past decade in order to get acquainted. Though actually, I have to say, Un Lun Dun is the first book of his I've thought would also make an excellent entry point into Mieville's alternate universes (while most of his books are set in the invented world of Bas-Lag, his first novel King Rat and many of his shorter works are set in an alternate London somewhat similar to the one he uses here). One way or the other, though, I will not stop in my quest to get everyone I come into contact with to read China Mieville's stuff until, well, everyone has. And that includes you, so hop to it. **** ½

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Jul 21, 2008 Terence rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-fantasy

I wasn't sure whether or not to give this book a 3 or a 4 (if we had a more refined rating system, I'd give it a 3.7/3.8) because it started out a bit slow but as soon as Mieville focused on Deeba, the story picked up its pace and became much more interesting.

Short plot outline (which doesn't contain spoilers): Like many young-adult & adult fantasies, there's another version of London (and the world) that exists just "around the corner" or in between the stacks in a library that it's sometim...more I wasn't sure whether or not to give this book a 3 or a 4 (if we had a more refined rating system, I'd give it a 3.7/3.8) because it started out a bit slow but as soon as Mieville focused on Deeba, the story picked up its pace and became much more interesting.

Short plot outline (which doesn't contain spoilers): Like many young-adult & adult fantasies, there's another version of London (and the world) that exists just "around the corner" or in between the stacks in a library that it's sometimes possible to get to. In this case, it's the city of UnLondon, where the trash and the obsolete (like old-style double-decker buses) and lost laundry wind up. Everything there is alive, so Deeba winds up with a pet milk carton named Curdle.

Zanna and Deeba are two young girls from London. Zanna is the Chosen One (the Shwazzy, corrupted French "choisir") prophesized to save UnLondon from the Smog (the sentient detritus of the pollution generated by our own world). Unfortunately, when they arrive, it turns out the prophecies were wrong and Zanna is dispatched (no, not killed, just "neutralized") rather easily by the Smog's minions. Fortunately, it appears that the Unbrellisimo, the ruler of the Unbrellas (no, that's not a mispelling, it's what broken umbrellas are called) has a plan to fight the Smog and everything looks like it will be all right so Zanna and Deeba return to London.

In the process of being saved, Zanna forgets everything that occurred in UnLondon but Deeba remembers and stumbles upon the fact that the scientist Unstible, who created the formula by which the Unbrellas became effective weapons against the Smog, died in London so she knows something is wrong, and manages to return to UnLondon to find out what it is and save her friends.

The rest of the novel is taken up with Deeba and her UnLondon friends' effort to save UnLondon.

I wound up really enjoying this book. The moral of the book is that a person's fate is not set in stone, that people make their own fates. It also stresses the importance of friendship, and manages to get in lessons about recycling and preserving our environment without being preachy. It also displays Mieville's usual inventiveness.

I'll be passing this along to my nieces, who may be a few years too young yet to appreciate it but will enjoy it eventually.(less)

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Apr 12, 2008 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

A young girl in London is visited by strange people who seem to know her. They call her the Schwazzy and mysterious graffiti seems to imply that young Zannah is a mysterious savior-in-waiting. There's a mysterious world, unknown to most people, and only she can save them!

This is pretty much how the book begins. At this point, I found myself thinking, "How long will it be before people can read something like this without thinking of Harry Potter?" I mean, the whole displaced child-messiah thing...more A young girl in London is visited by strange people who seem to know her. They call her the Schwazzy and mysterious graffiti seems to imply that young Zannah is a mysterious savior-in-waiting. There's a mysterious world, unknown to most people, and only she can save them!

This is pretty much how the book begins. At this point, I found myself thinking, "How long will it be before people can read something like this without thinking of Harry Potter?" I mean, the whole displaced child-messiah thing is fun, but Potter was a really big example of it and it'll take a long time before authors are able to overcome that. So, it was at this point that I settled in and got ready to read a nice boilerplate novel.

Mister Miéville, if you're reading this: I'm very, very sorry for not trusting you. It won't happen again.

Miéville has taken the child savior idea and pulled the rug out from under it in this book. While Zannah is the Chosen One of UnLondon, the one foretold about in the greatest prophecies of that abcity. It was said that she, with her friends, would defeat UnLondon's most horrible foe.... And if Miéville had stuck with that, he still would have had a very entertaining book. With UnLondon, a kind of funhouse-mirror version of London, he's created a rich and vibrant city that can support tales of great complexity. That great city wants Zannah to save it.

But right around a hundred pages in, Miéville goes and switches protagonists on us. Just because a girl is the Chosen One doesn't mean that she has to end up being the one to save it. A good thwack on the head can make it so that the Funny Sidekick - Zannah's friend Deeba - is now the one who has to save UnLondon from The Smog.

While Miéville owes a great debt to Neil Gaiman for his writing of Neverwhere - which he acknowledges in the end of the book - he's taken the concept of the Other London (to say nothing of other abcities such as Lost Angeles or Baghdidn't) and extended it. He's created a potentially vast other world, a network of cities that reflect our world in weird and wonderful ways. Deeba and her companions - embodied slang, a half-ghost boy and an animate milk carton named Curdle, to name just a few - embark on a quest to save a world from itself. It's a great story, full of adventure and twists which takes the expected standards of the genre and stands them on their head. For that alone, he should be praised. That, and for writing an awesome book....(less)

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Jul 05, 2007 Ross Lockhart rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Un Lun Dun is the sort of book that promises the staying power of a classic. Though intended for young readers, Un Lun Dun can be enjoyed by adults as well, and Miéville does an excellent job of setting up, and then thwarting, the clichés and expectations inherent in YA quest motifs, from the idea of a “chosen one” to the intricacies of the quests themselves. At times, Un Lun Dun is reminiscent of the linguistically-playful tone of Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth or Madeline L’Engle’s A Wr...more

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Dec 11, 2012 sologdin rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative

Nutshell: Alice goes to Wonderland, teams up with a Planescape: Torment crew, beats up sentient pollution with magic gun.

It's a tendentious faerie tale for kids, very expressly YA. Not for me, overall, even if it has merit.

Many moments of genuine inspiration and originality. Cool that slaves appear and are thereafter liberated, in the form of the rebrellas. We can count on Mieville for slave liberation, at the least.

Some brilliant moments, such as the list of other abcities (Parisn't, No York, S...more Nutshell: Alice goes to Wonderland, teams up with a Planescape: Torment crew, beats up sentient pollution with magic gun.

It's a tendentious faerie tale for kids, very expressly YA. Not for me, overall, even if it has merit.

Many moments of genuine inspiration and originality. Cool that slaves appear and are thereafter liberated, in the form of the rebrellas. We can count on Mieville for slave liberation, at the least.

Some brilliant moments, such as the list of other abcities (Parisn't, No York, Sans Francisco, &c.) (60), or when one Mr. Speaker's words are made manifest as little creatures, who then rebel against him in proper post-structuralist fashion (268-69). That last presents a nice little comment on marxism's commodity fetishism argument: commerical relations of persons to products is an illusion for political relations between persons, and language is revealed to be another such product--here, one that may engage in revolution, like the liberated slave umbrellas. Appreciate also very much the joke on Chaucer's "Parliament of Fowles" (285 et seq.). Villains are revealed to be in league with top-hatted industrialists, who affirm that "effluence = affluence" (318).

Primary villain is initially described in derridean terms, possessing "the absence of noise, the presence of a predatory quiet" (xi). Pleased that the talking book is written in "kraken ink" (83). That "abcities have existed at least as long as the cities" and "each dreams the other" reminds one of Palimpsest. Clever moment when the protagonist insists that she is "not walking though each of your chapters, book!" (304)--like a typical kid, wants to skip to the end.

Overall episodic, often random (binjas--really?), always moving very quickly. Rather annoyed by the main numinous object (section heading for same is with much awesomeness taken from the famous opening line of Virgil) as well as with the ultimate plot resolution--too neat and triumphant for a Mieville novel, which tend to be bittersweet. That's likely the YA genre requirement, though.

Recommended for extreme librarians, gnostechnicians, and arachnofenestranauts.(less)

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Jan 10, 2012 Peter rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, childrens, steam-punk, london

This is the first China Mieville book I have read. It is a YA fantasy story where Deeba, a teenage girl, and her best friend Zanna stumble into Un Lun Dun – a surreal version of London. They are tasked with ridding both cities of the evil Smog - a personification of an environmental disaster. To do this they must gather a gang of trusted friends together; solve a few tasks and collect some magical weapons. Along the way there are twists and betrayals. The usual Quest story basically.

The story an...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Violet rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, illustrated, british

It’s a wonderful book. It’s so imaginative and so brilliant.

Don’t you ever say not to judge a book by its cover. That is not always true. The thing with covers is that they WANT you to judge a book by its cover. That’s why they spend millions making the covers look just right. Why am I talking about covers? you ask. Well, it was because of the cover of this book is the reason that I even picked it up (that and the title...). The cover is very reminiscent of the wonderful author of Neil Gaiman a...more It’s a wonderful book. It’s so imaginative and so brilliant.

Don’t you ever say not to judge a book by its cover. That is not always true. The thing with covers is that they WANT you to judge a book by its cover. That’s why they spend millions making the covers look just right. Why am I talking about covers? you ask. Well, it was because of the cover of this book is the reason that I even picked it up (that and the title...). The cover is very reminiscent of the wonderful author of Neil Gaiman and since I LOVE Neil Gaiman, it was a no brainer that I picked up this book.

Okay to tell you the truth, it’s not the best book I’ve read. But it ain’t the worst. It has some pacing issues, at times it seemed to drag out, and the writing is very simplistic, but it really doesn’t matter. Especially with the brilliant and imaginative world that China Miéville has created.

It’s like a combination of the worlds of Neverwhere and Mirror Mask (both by Neil Gaiman FYI). It’s like the world of Neverwhere because the world is another city that is connected to and similar to a city we know and love (Unlondon for London, Parisn’t for Paris, No York for New York, Lost Angeles for Los Angeles, Hong Gone for Hong Kong, Romeless for Rome, ect.). And it’s like the world of Mirror Mask because it has the quirky and dream-like aspect to it. It’s so great. It seems like he had a hell of a time coming up with this world, basically the city of Unlondon. There are TONS of details and facts and just plain fun, imaginative wonderfulness. He explained it so well that I almost feel like an expert on the place now. It was a great escape (just what I needed).

Along with the super inventiveness of the city of Unlondon, it had a nice twist on the whole ‘chosen one’ or ‘ancient prophecy’ deal. In the beginning I wasn’t really sure who the main character was. It mainly centered on Zanna and Deeba (LOVE those names by the way), but as the story went on it became obvious that Deeba was the lead of this book. Weird because Zanna’s the one that the prophecy’s about (she’s the ‘Shwazzy’ or ‘chosen one’). But here’s the twist: Zanna doesn’t actually do anything! She’s barely in the book at all! It’s Deeba that does it all (she’s the ‘unchosen one’). I just think that so brilliant! It’s a nice change of pace, and goes hand in hand with the originality of the world he created. I LOVE it.

Deeba’s such a COOL character, by the way. She’s so tough and very clever with a nice common sense approach to everything. She reminds me of another certain British TV show character (*cough* Donna Noble *cough*)...But anyway. I really liked her.

Another thing I like about this book is the fact that it has a subtle environmental theme to it. The main enemy was the Smog, which is exactly what it sounds like: a cloud of smog that has so many chemicals in it that it started to think for itself and so on and so on (“a dark cloud that dreams of burning the world” in the summary). And the simple fact that the Smog is made of pollutants and the Smog is the villain, that it just screams “control your greenhouse gases!” But that wasn’t exactly stated in the book, so I thought that was good move, making it subtle (just adds more depth to the story).

And another cool thing that this subtle environment message connects to is today events. I was looking on Yahoo a few weeks ago and they had a list of the top ten most polluted cities in the world. London was on it, and that’s the connecting city to Unlondon. And even though this book was written a few years ago, it still applies today, and probably will continue to apply for quite some time (sadly).

Another awesome thing about this book is the illustrations that decorate the sidelines. Don’t get me wrong, this is NOT a picture book. It just so happens to have pictures. It doesn’t really have to have them, but it just adds to the quirkiness of the world, and basically adds depth to the whole story. Plus it’s easier to imagine the wacky things in the book. It also helps that all the illustrations are amazingly drawn.

So that’s basically it. I could go on and on about the world of Unlondon, but I won’t. The book basically says it all. If you really want to know more about Unlondon, just read the book. It’s a nice escape from the real world and you won’t regret reading it. Remember: Smart entertainment is the cleanser of the soul.
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Mar 03, 2008 Janice rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

i think i would have to give this 4 and a half, though it was derivative of some other "lower london" books i've read, which shall remain nameless. i like this one better. but what i really liked was how it turned the whole young-adult phenomenon on its head, breaking all the rules laid down by the likes of narnia, dark is rising, harry potter, etc. unfortunately, he has to set up that sort of young adult world in order to smash it down, so the first 100 pages or so are not indicative of the res...more

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Feb 21, 2008 Chloe rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Fan of escapist, plot driven stories and psychedelic fantasy.

Recommended to Chloe by: Bridget

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, experamental, ya-j

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Some books are mixed bags. There are good parts, parts that leave you dazzled or moved. Then, there are those weak moments: poor characters, clichés, general silliness… Many books are mixed bags. This book is not. This book is a mixed magician’s hat. Nothing so drab as a bag could enclose the majestic wonders described in Un Lun Dun. A bag is too commonplace to hold the world Mieville has created. Only something truly spectacular could contain it. However, wizard’s hat container or no, it’s stil...more Some books are mixed bags. There are good parts, parts that leave you dazzled or moved. Then, there are those weak moments: poor characters, clichés, general silliness… Many books are mixed bags. This book is not. This book is a mixed magician’s hat. Nothing so drab as a bag could enclose the majestic wonders described in Un Lun Dun. A bag is too commonplace to hold the world Mieville has created. Only something truly spectacular could contain it. However, wizard’s hat container or no, it’s still a mix.

I first wish to say that I enjoyed this book. I like to be taken into a fantastic world where the strange and supernormal can create wondrous visions in my mind. Mieville has a genius for doing just that. He can take you into a place so absurd that you never could have even dreamt it, and then he lets you see it in glorious Technicolor. However, that being said, I also enjoyed Mirrormask, The Labyrinth, and countless cheesy old suspense radio programs and pulp fiction magazines. Call it a weakness. All of these have excellent qualities that make them enjoyable, but they also are mixes of good and bad. If you can suspend your belief to enjoy at least one of the above, you probably will like Un Lun Dun.

Un Lun Dun is a refreshing step away from the stereotypical fantasy. It ostensibly has all of the same attributes (the prophecy, the chosen one, the evil “emperor”, the sidekick, the mentor, the fearless band, et cetera). However, soon you realize that the chosen one really isn’t chosen and it is up to the courage and strength of another, thrust into the story by forces beyond her control, to save the day. This is like a fresh, spring breeze entering a stuffy room when it comes to modern, teen fantasy. Almost every teen fantasy follows the same plot anymore: some young fellow (more often than not an apprentice to someone) is told by a wise so-and-so that he or she has a destiny… to save THE WORLD! (As my friend says, if the hero has such a destiny, why tell him or her? Won’t it come to the hero naturally? If he/she is predestined? If not, then he or she does not have a destiny, wouldn’t you say?) However, in stepping away from this dead horse, Mieville’s work actually brings to mind the work of an author he claims to hate: Tolkien. Unlike stories in which the hero is chosen by a destiny, the hero of The Lord of the Rings, Frodo, is an unlikely hero who must rely on his courage and strength to save the day from events that he is thrust into by forces beyond his control. So, in rejecting one fantasy archetype, Mieville has picked another, equally iconic, one. Not that this is at all wrong, but it is worth pointing out. Character-wise, the story is not quite as original as it seems.

In fact, Mieville’s characters are little more than archetypes. The unlikely hero is present. We have our “evil emperor” (the fact that it is smog and not a person does not make it any less evil or any less of an “emperor” figure). We have a mentor: a wisecracking, talking book. Sure, it may make tons of mistakes, but it does help the heroine and offer advice. We even have a sidekick, the milk carton; and a band of fearless underdogs. The sad part of all of this is, though as different species they are original, none of the characters display especially original personalities. In fact, the reader never really gets to know anyone. As one reviewer pointed out, the two girls from London above are practically the same. No one develops enough for the reader to build sufficient emotional attachment to anyone. The characters do not seem to have lives outside of the story. Great characters, such as Scarlet from Gone with the wind, Cathy from Wuthering Heights, Elizabeth from Pride and Prejudice, Tom from Tom Sawyer, Lucy from The Chronicles of Narnia, Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings, Harry from Harry Potter, are far more fleshed out. If you mentally popped Scarlet into a masquerade ball, you would know how she would react. If Cathy met Elizabeth, we could easily picture the results. Tom’s style of behavior is second nature to us. If Lucy went to Middle Earth, we know how she would react. And, of course, Gandalf is iconic. But, if I tried to imagine any of the Un Lun Dun cast in a situation outside of their book, I would be stumped. They do not exist outside of the story. They are not quite real enough.

No, the appeal of the book is not in the characters. The appeal is not even in the plot. The plot itself is simply the wanderings of the Unlikely Hero through Un Lun Dun as she and her Fearless Underdogs decipher clues to find special items and defeat the Evil Emperor. It’s fairly simplistic and a little thin. The author seems to want to write Alice in Wonderland or The Phantom Tollbooth. However, both of these stories had a main character with a distinct personality, one we could relate to and who has an existence. In fact, all of the characters in The Phantom Tollbooth are well developed, regardless of however little we know them. On top of this, they were both original, and Un Lun Dun sometimes feels like a rip-off, especially regarding words. I had a hard time not seeing The Phantom Tollbooth in my mind whenever they came up. No, characters and plot to not make the story.

What does make the story? Why read it at all? The world. That is why I enjoyed the tale, and that is why I am giving the book three stars. While the characters are as forgettable as a generic brand cheddar, the world is memorable. Not only that, it is real. If Mieville had developed his characters only half as well as he developed his world, their names would be as common as all of the iconic characters I listed above. On top of this, the world does have an existence that transcends the story. I am perfectly willing to believe that the world goes on after the tale, and that it existed before the story began. If I dropped a dazed elephant into the world, I know how the world would react. The world of Un Lun Dun is the most memorable character in the book. It breaths excitement and will keep you turning the pages, drinking in its awesome beauty. Mieville evocative prose further strengthens the vision of Un Lun Dun by painting it clearly and in vivid colors in your head. It is hard remove these pictures from your brain long after the book is closed. The world is spectacular, vast and brimming with a imagination as powerful as an atomic missile. You will not be able to get enough of the gorgeous scenes the author paints in your mind: forests in houses, window spiders, living litter, a bird in a VERY peculiar cage. What is more, you never feel confused or lost in this world, though it could easily have swallowed the reader whole and spat him/her out again. Perhaps this is why the plot, as skimpy as the skeleton of a living umbrella, is so easily forgiven by the five-star reviewers. You are so busy exploring the world that you don’t have time to think about a complicated story.

This does not mean that the world is without its flaws. The concept of an underground London world, populated by strange characters, has already been done. Popping an unlikely hero into the world has been done, too. The story I am referring to is Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. In fact, more than one reference seems to have been lifted from Gaiman’s work. The fact that Neverwhere is a superior book, with fully-realized characters as well as a world just as wondrous and tangible as Un Lun Dun, does not help Mieville’s case. Fans of Neverwhere may even find themselves angered by Mieville’s liberal lifting. Those who have not yet read Gaiman’s work (I had not read Neverwhere when I read Un Lun Dun) may find Mieville’s story cheapened when they do so. Such was the case with me.

In all, Un Lun Dun is a fantastic voyage into a strange world. Not unlike Mirrormask (another Gaiman work, I might add), it fills up the empty spaces left by the lack of character development and a strong plot with amazing visuals that dazzle the mind like so much glam. (A CGI artist would have a ball with this.) But, the glam is not superficial, and moves and brings the reader to a place of awe with great skill. Enough skill, I say, to make the book a worthwhile read.
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Jan 30, 2008 Wealhtheow rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: young fans of Piers Anthony, Neil Gaiman, the Phantom Tollbooth, Diana Wynne Jones

Shelves: ya, urban-fantasy, fantasy

Reads like a modern The Phantom Tollbooth. Zanna and Deeba, two young friends, are abruptly transported from London to UNlondon, where the obsolete and unwanted bits of London go. There, they fight their way across the city, through menacing trash piles and piratical insects, to reach the Propheseers, who can tell them why they've been transported and why everyone calls Zanna "the Schwazzy". Zanna, it turns out, is spoken of in prophecies as the Chosen One who can defeat the Smog, sentient poll...more

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Aug 08, 2007 Tommy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

First off, if you haven't read China Mieville yet, I wouldn't recommend starting with this book, which is the author's first exploration into writing for young readers. Go pick up Perdido Street Station, one of my favorite books of the last fifteen years.

Un Lun Dun was a fun read, but a bit of a disappointment after the Revelation of the New Crubozon books by Mieville. It was all a bit too familiar, especially after books like Neverwhere and a lot of the comics in the Vertigo line.

And 'too fami...more

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May 15, 2007 Alanahurley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having read China Mieville's excellent and sadly under-the-radar New Crobuzon trilogy (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Iron Council) I was rather leery of reading Un Lun Dun, his first work of young adult fiction. However, Mieville brings the same bizarre perspective and riotous imagination to his YA fiction as he does to his other writing. The story's main characters, Zanna and Deeba, find themselves sucked into UnLondon, London's warped mirror-city. A war between the UnLondoners and the Smog...more

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Aug 13, 2007 Evan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: fans of fun fantasy

Shelves: youngadult, fantasy

This is an awesome book. There are some books that make me squee in girlish delight(Kiki Strike In the Shadow City), some that make me cackle with insurrection (Trickster's Queen), some that make my heart race with the adrenaline of music and new love (Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist). Un Lun Dun makes me giggle with glee. A lot. Just seeing the book on the shelf can make me burst out again.

Some notes: The characters aren't flushed out so well. It starts a little slowly as it pulls you into...more

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May 11, 2007 Carissa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who likes sci-fi with twists

I read lots of these types of books and I loved this one. It's about two girls, Deeba and Zanna, who are schoolmates in London. Weird stuff has been happening to Zanna recently. People (and animals!) she's never met seem to know her and someone walked up to her in a cafe and said, "schwazzy." Whatever that means. Pretty soon, the girls find themselves on an exciting adventure in a very strange city called "UnLondon" where the conventions of our lives have been turned topsy-turvy and nothing is q...more

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Jul 24, 2012 Rachel Brown rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish, fantasy, children-s

Full of clever wordplay and subversions of fantasy tropes, but way too self-consciously cutesy and twee for my taste. The tone is somewhat similar to The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland, which I also didn't finish for the same reasons.

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Feb 13, 2008 Blair rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kids-and-young-adult, fantasy

From all I've read about this, I was expecting to adore it, but it's all just a bit... silly, really. Yes, it's a children's book so I probably should have expected that, but positive reviews in the likes of the Guardian Review led me to believe the book has more crossover appeal than it really does. Enjoyable but pretty daft and implausible, and a lot of the character names, conceits etc were really annoying. (I know it's for kids, but does the book really have to signpost everything so blatant...more

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Sep 03, 2007 Tim Hicks rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: imaginative people

Shelves: fantasy

I'll read this book again every few years. I like all of Mieville's work, and I was wondering what he'd do for a younger audience. I wondered that about Neil Gaiman too, and his "Coraline" was great. "Un Lun Dun" is equally great. How can you not like a book in which a lead character has a pet milk carton? It's wildly imaginative, but follows the basic rule of SF/fantasy: assume whatever you like, but after that be consistent and follow the rules you just invented. There are some wonderful chara...more

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