Un Lun Dun is the first novel I read by China Miéville, and it definitely won’t be the last. It’s the first novel he’s written for young adults and I can’t wait to read his stuff for adults.
Un Lun Dun or UnLondon, similar to Neverwhere, is a parallel version of London, connected through the Odd. There’s cities like that around the world (like Parisn’t and No York. And probably Viennain’t). The story follows twelve year olds Zanna and Deeba, who get pulled into the story quite unwillingly, at first. Zanna, apparently, is the Chosen One, chosen to protect UnLondon from the threats of the smog, a sentient poisonous cloud.
Reading Un Lun Dun is an adventure. With every page you turn, you can discover a new thing [the binja! the giraffes! the extreme librarians! etc etc]. And you can’t wait to do just that. All the ideas Miéville has, it’s just amazing!
And then, the whole thing is illustrated by Miéville as well – and the illustrations are wonderful. (The only thing he can’t do, apparently, is writing a blog. I would love to read that…)
The characters are wonderful, I really liked them. And they’re funny.
With every turn of events I was more like “YES!!! YOU GO, GIRL!”. Seriously, Un Lun Dun might be one of the most feminst books I’ve ever read. And definitely one of the most intelligent.
The book has a definite UK-English feel to it – the narrator’s voice in my head definitely had an UK-English accent. [Usually, it’s more of an US-American accent, like my own.]
I loved every minute of it.
[And somebody should have warned me that I would find images like that when I google China Miéville. He’s hawt.]
kalafudra's Stuff 
Read The Scar. I read it a long time back, and loved it. And are you sure that’s him? :)I read up on him back then, and I don’t remember what he looks like, but I don’t recall anything that looked like THAT. Did recall that he had some fairly extreme political viewpoints.
*adds yet another title to wishlist…* Yay!!
@ramblingperfectionist:
Yeah, I’m sure that’s him. There’s also a picture on Wikipedia, if you don’t believe me. ;)
His political views are interesting, that’s true.
@liberrydwarf:
:) I hope you’ll like it as much as I did.
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