9/10: Un Lun Dun - Twists and Turns **Spoilers Possible**

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

There were a couple of twists in the story. (Not just the conventions, which is the other thread).

Where you surprised by the twists, or did you see them coming? Did you think they were well handled?

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

In general, I saw all the various twists coming from a mile away. Was anyone surprised by the turnings?

What parts worked? What parts could've been done better?

[Aubrey]

I can’t say I was too surprised by the twists and turns in the book. The major one I definitely saw coming a mile away just because Mieville kept hammering the point of everything in UnLondon being so very…’Un’. UnSun, UnGun, ect. So of course it’s not the Chosen that’s needed to save the world but the ‘Un’Chosen.

Mieville has a great imagination, I just wished he spent more time on characterization. Zanna and Deeba were given a few physical descriptions that told us how they were different but other than that I found them pretty interchangeable. I knew someone was going to save the world but by the end it didn’t really matter to me who did the saving.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I agree, Aubrey. It sort of annoyed me, in a way, that the UnLondoners placed so much importance on the Chosen One, considering how Un everything was.

I agree that Mieville has a great imagination. Did you ever feel like the world was less a cohesive whole, and more just a ramshackled excuse for him to drop every random, interesting idea he'd ever had into the conglomery?

[Aubrey]

Oy vey, yes. At times the world was such a huge hodgepodge of odd creatures and scenery that I felt sometimes too much was being thrown at the reader all at once. It seemed like I’d wrap my mind around one setting just to be thrown right into another without a backward glance.

Granted, there were a lot of his creations I enjoyed, like the terrifying giraffes, the utterlings and Obaday for instance. The world just didn’t feel very cohesive, which might have been Mieville’s intent but it just didn’t work well for me. What about you?

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I definitely felt that way. Like you, there were some parts and characters I liked, like the bus conductor guy (whose name I forget) and the bishops at Webminster Abbey - but it never really came together into a "world" I could really wrap my mind around.

[Book]

I think Brokken-whatever-his-name-was could've been dealt with better. I think he was at his best when he was first introduced, and then just got weaker and weaker.

[Christine]

Colleen ~blackrose~ wrote: "I agree, Aubrey. It sort of annoyed me, in a way, that the UnLondoners placed so much importance on the Chosen One, considering how Un everything was.

Actually, that didn't bug me so much. I agree with the comments that the world could have been a little more cohesive, but the Unlondoners focusing on the Chosen on as opposed to the unchosen one made sense to me. I saw it more as having to do with how society thinks. Even Deeba didn't see herself as the ONE (chosen or otherwise). I saw the belief like all those chosen characters in Hollywood. Does anyone at this point really think a mainstream Hollywood movie's chosen one isn't going to be a white guy or maybe a white girl? I think having even the Unlondoners scribe to the same view was believable.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

That makes sense, Chris. I guess it was more after everything happened, and Zanna was out of the picture, and everyone was like "Deeba, you can;t possibly do it" that bugged me more than the people actually waiting for or hoping for the Chosen one in the first place.

@Amy: I totally agree. Brokkenbroll went from being my potentially favorite character to one of the worst.

[Dawn]

I agree that most of the "twists" were pretty obvious. I remember being surprised at one point by something, but can't for the life of me remember what it was. But that says something in and of itself, that there was only one moment in the whole book that I remember feeling surprised.

And I'm with you guys about Brokkenbroll. I loved him at first, and then liked him even more when it was revealed he was a bad guy, but he sort of fizzled out in the end. I really expected more of a fight from him.

[Jesi]

I couldn't stand Brokkenbroll at all - I thought that he was just too stereotyped as The Mafia/Gangster, from his title to the way he thought. There wasn't any uniqueness to him at all, which, considering the rest of the creativeness going on in the book, was disappointing.

[Mawgojzeta]

I am assuming all of us are adults in this discussion. If I am incorrect, I am sorry. Anyway, based on that assumption, I wonder if the criticisms of the story would be the same coming from a 12 year old or even a 17 year old. Or, would they find the twists and turns were generally surprising? Was this book written exceptionally well for that age group?

I am not saying anything bad about young readers, it is simply that the life experiences and development of critical thinking, etc. are at a different level. I remember thinking I was very strong in both areas as a teenager, but re-reading some books as an adult I realized how much I missed because of my age at the time.

Oh, and I saw all of the twists before it happened. Nothing surprised me, except how the gun ultimately worked. Don't know why, but I just kept thinking she would reload with the right "stuff" once it was empty.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Mawgojzeta - now that you mention it, I think I was uncertain how the gun would work, too, though I think I thought it would shoot Nothingness or turn the Smog into Nothingness, not that it would suck it into the barrels.

As for the age-group - you're quite right in that the age group it's written for might be a bit less critical, and, being less experienced, perhaps, in the cliches and things, be more surprised.

Of course, I also think that the humor of this book relies, at least in part, on being aware of the general outline of a quest story.

That said - I read a lot of YA and Juvenille fiction, and I'm rarely truly surprised by the twistings and turnings of a story, whether YA or adult, unless it's specifically written in one of those "gotcha" type ways (which usually applies to mystery, more than anything else).

But, personally, I don't think it's really the lack of real surprise which made this book fall a bit flat, for me. I'm less a plot-based reader and more a character-oriented one. If I loved the characters, and cared about and empathized with the characters, then I would care a lot less about the predictability of the plot.

But if it's more a plot-based book, then it best be a good plot.

I suppose it could be argued whether this is more a character-oriented book or a plot one. I think I would have to argue for plot, though - at least partially because the characters were so thinly drawn.