'lighter' China Miéville ??

[Richard]

Greetings -
Read the 90 page sampler of Perdido Street Station on the nook.
Very much like the way Mr. Miéville writes, but found Perdido to be overly dark, and am not inclined to continue.
Not that I'm unduly averse to dark -- I loved Gaiman's American Gods and Pearl's Dante Club -- both of which I'd characterize as dark.
That said -- is Perdido representative of all Miéville's writing, or might there be some 'lighter' offerings?
Thanks kindly,
- Richard

[kvon]

He did do a children's book, Un Lun Dun. Also, The City the City is weird but less dark. And less slime.

[Dharmakirti]

I would suggest Embassytown.

[Sandi]

Dharmakirti wrote: "I would suggest Embassytown."

Embassytown takes an awful lot of brain power. I think it's even more dense than Perdido Street Station. I'm currently reading Railsea and think it might fit what Richard's looking for perfectly. I've seen it classified as Young Adult, but I think it's one of those books that is great for all ages.

[Richard]

Many thanks to all.

I do enjoy weird (which I've read is how Miéville characterizes his work),
as I do Theatre of the Absurd (Firesign Theatre's You Can't Get There from Here
comes to mind.)

At least, to a certain degree.

Not at all averse to dense (I loves me my Brunner Sheep & Zanzibar).

But, yeah, with regard to Perdido, less dark & less slime would be welcome.

Cheers,

- Richard

[P. Aaron]

Darren = lol.

Stupid internets ate my longer response. Probably my phone achieving sentience and telling me to shut my virtual yap. Brief version: reading Kraken right now, and not finding it any pain at all. Definitely easier than, say, Lovecraft or Kerouac.

[Cass]

the city the city was the first Mieville book I enjoyed. Kraken is good if you like Lovecraft although I would go with Stross instead. I did like Embassytown although it was pretty dense. no slime.

[Erick]

He's got a comic out with DC called "Dial H for Hero", where this guy gets a strange rotary telephone device that turns him into a new and strange hero every time he turns it, like Boy Chimney and Captain Lachrymose. It looks pretty out there, but I've heard good stuff about it so far!

Interview: http://www.dccomics.com/blog/2012/01/...