China is sooo not my cup of tea either.

Tatiana wrote: "China is sooo not my cup of tea either."

It was my first time reading him but we didn't agree so well.

I feel like he might be too smart of a writer for me. Or he just writes in a way that is infinitely boring to me.

Tatiana wrote: "I feel like he might be too smart of a writer for me. Or he just writes in a way that is infinitely boring to me."

That was the thing. I thought the writing was beautiful, and I particularly dug the use of the ampersand because it made sense in context of the story and the ebbing and flowing but MAN it was so boring. Nothing. Happened.

are you sure it isn't YA? i ask because the book costs $18 in hardcover. that says YA to me.

unless you mean it doesn't read like YA, which i can totally believe. and no, china is not for everyone. if you have any interest in seeing what the hype os about, i would read The City and the City, which is probably his most accessible book.

Joel wrote: "are you sure it isn't YA? i ask because the book costs $18 in hardcover. that says YA to me.

unless you mean it doesn't read like YA, which i can totally believe. and no, china is not for everyone..."

You might be right -- but I would never consider the fact it's YA based on a price point alone (I looked it up on the pub's website, and it appears it IS being pubbed to the YA market: http://suvudu.com/2011/12/our-2012-be...). That's kind of crazy to me. It's not going to reach much of a YA audience. It's much more an adult literary novel than even a literary YA novel. Sort of an interesting angle for the publisher to be marketing since it's really NOT YA. It's going to appeal to fans of Mieville's work (I assume - I haven't read his other stuff) and those have been pubbed in the adult market.

he does have one YA book -- Un Lun Dun -- which is clearly YA in makeup. maybe they published it that way because of the age of the main character, or to try to capitalize on the success of Ship Breaker?

i wasn't kidding at all about the price point though. i haven't seen an adult hardcover from a major publisher for less than $20 in ages. even the dinky little ones.

Technically, Un Lun Dun isn't YA, either. It's middle grade with protagonists who are eleven.

Joel wrote: "he does have one YA book -- Un Lun Dun -- which is clearly YA in makeup. maybe they published it that way because of the age of the main character, or to try to capitalize on the succe..."

Could be, but we know in Shipbreaker the main character is a teenager. In Railsea, we don't. We know he's an apprentice, so we assume he's younger, but we don't know if he's a teen or not (maybe we find out past page 200, since that's where I stopped). This is one of my biggest beefs with books that are being targeted to the YA audience. I can overlook it for a solid teen-appealing story but I'm not sure this is the case here. I would have a heck of a time selling this to my teens, I know that much.

Trish wrote: "Technically, Un Lun Dun isn't YA, either. It's middle grade with protagonists who are eleven."

fair enough. i don't know about the divisions in that respect. (and i think it would be a challenging book for a lot of middle grade readers.) i guess it makes sense, considering the age of the characters.

Kelly wrote: "This is one of my biggest beefs with books that are being targeted to the YA audience. I can overlook it for a solid teen-appealing story but I'm not sure this is the case here. I would have a heck of a time selling this to my teens, I know that much."

i would be interested to know if he wrote it for that audience or it was the publisher's decision. i get the impression that they are still trying to launch him into a top-ten NYT author, but he's still stuck in the genre stacks. the YA lists have a lower barrier of entry.

personally, i think he's too esoteric to ever be a top tier mainstream success, but he's definitely got a lifelong following that will keep him in print.

Joel wrote: "Kelly wrote: "This is one of my biggest beefs with books that are being targeted to the YA audience. I can overlook it for a solid teen-appealing story but I'm not sure this is the case here. I wou..."

I think that is the entire question - who made the decision? And what you are saying about him not being a top-ten NYT author...well, MOST authors aren't. And there's nothing wrong with that, especially if they have an audience and a readership.

Now to address your comment about YA lists having a lower barrier of entry: that is entirely untrue and a pretty bad assumption about what YA is and isn't. YA authors are up against the same challenges of adult authors in terms of sales, if not maybe more. Just because it's "YA" doesn't make it lesser or easier. And thus my original comment about why this particular book isn't YA: it just doesn't have the solid storyline and plot in the way YA novels do.

i just mean in terms of gross sales. he is an author with a large and established adult audience that will be likely to buy the book regardless of genre/format -- he has, in fact, trained his readers to expect every book to be in a different genre. if all those readers buy the book AND he picks up sales in YA, he has a much better chance of appearing on best-seller lists. i wasn't trying to insult or belittle YA authors. i re-read my comment and don't detect any disparagement toward the genre or the difficultly of writing a good YA book.

also i said i thought they were trying to make him a top ten author. he wins tons of awards and gets a ton of press, so they want his sales to follow suit.

Joel wrote: "i just mean in terms of gross sales. he is an author with a large and established adult audience that will be likely to buy the book regardless of genre/format -- he has, in fact, trained his reade..."

But what my original point is is this: I don't think he WILL pick up additional sales in the YA market because this is not going to be appealing to that group in the way it'll appeal in the adult market. His fans will buy it, and that's not a big deal. But he's going into a market that's not easy to break into, and he's not offering up a book that's going to make a splash in that market.

that's fine. i was just talking about the publisher's strategy. maybe it is a stupid strategy.

After reading his last book embassytown i'm likely not to jump on the mieville bandwagon anytime soon.

Like Neil Stephenson Mieville is attempting to re-order our perceptions of Science Fact and Fiction. With weird new words and whatnot. It's boring to go through this kind of Crap. At least Stephenson was a good writer once, now it's like these guy are writing on restaurant Napkins, since they actually have a publisher and fans to read their DRIVEL!

And comparing this guy to HP Lovecraft, one of the great masters of Horror, is a Joke in the worst sense.

Funnily enough I did sign up to get a free book of Railsea but China is a writer that I won't be trusting in some time.

Get a dictionary idiot and read it!

Niceguysneverfinish wrote: "Get a dictionary idiot and read it! "

i'm pretty sure china is intimately familiar with the dictionary. or didn't you know that most of his "weird new words" are actual words?

Joel wrote: "i'm pretty sure china is intimately familiar with the dictionary. or didn't you know that most of his "weird new words" are actual..."

Ha. Of all the things he is criticized for, his extensive vocabulary is not one I've seen before. I think his word use is one of the best parts of his writing.

Kelly, I second Joel's recommendation. I thought that one very accessible even though I've struggled with his other work.

Elizabeth wrote: "Joel wrote: "i'm pretty sure china is intimately familiar with the dictionary. or didn't you know that most of his "weird new words" are actual..."

Ha. Of all the things he is criticized for, his ..."

I might have to give it a try!

I highly doubt that he wrote this book specifically for a young adult audience. I think it's his homage to the high-seas adventure stories like Kindapped! and Moby Dick (of course). I suspect that it was the publisher's decision to market it as YA. Compared to his "adult" novels it honestly does feel younger and simpler but it's still leaps and bounds more complex than your average YA fantasy (although not all). His writing definitely isn't everyone's cup of tea.

OMG! I couldn't keep reading it! The book was giving a headache! I thought something was oddly wrong with me because I wasn't catch the Moby-Dick references...

I would also suggest City & the City as another more accessible book for China.

I love China, but some books more than others. The Scar and The City & The City are my favourites personally. I'm only around 100 pages into Railsea, so the jury is still out.