(no subject)

[nilchance]

Go watch this awesome vid: On the Prowl, which has the summary of where is our line? and earns it so hard. Warnings for violence and steadily increasing levels of gore.

Sadly, it was my palate cleanser after reading the ending. I've been sitting on this book for about a year because it horrified me so bad (ugh the thing with the mother who had her dead infant's arms grafted to her face), and yet I wanted to know how they defeated the slake moths.

Answer: it was very clever. All of the book was very clever. The world-building was awesome, so damn smart, elegant in its construction and its small details. And I want to get the book out of my house, because SERIOUSLY, WHAT. LIN. WHAT.

I mean, it's what "fate worse than death" is made of. Hey, you escaped your cult-like childhood where you were raped by your brothers to pursue a career in academia and the arts! Awesome! Except now you're going to be brutalized, raped and reduced to a mindless lobotomized thing, only aware enough to realize that you lost something. You're welcome. Hope you enjoy the view from inside the fridge.

Ugh, just thinking about it again is making me sadface.

Comments

[robanybody.livejournal.com]

Oh, damn. China Miéville is one of those authors whose books intrigued me and made me wish I had more money to buy them. But I don't think I can deal with the fridging, especially after she had to deal with the brutal rape before. Ugh.

Do all her books have that kind of brutality or was this just a one-book kind of thing? :|

[realpestilence.livejournal.com]

I've been curious about her writing, and this book in particular. You've just told me enough to say no, thanks. If I've gotta slog through all that, I want at least a ~little emotional payoff at the end. D:

[ladyfalcon.livejournal.com]

When I flew to Prague a few months ago, I was about halfway through Perdido Street and brought it with me on the plane. Coincidentally, my seat-mate had bought the book on a whim in Hong Kong and was beginning it on the same flight.

At the end of the flight, I had finished the book. He turned to me and said, "So... does it get any better?" I had to admit that it did not.

Yes, the worldbuilding is great. But it is also deeply unpleasant for no very good reason. I think New Corbuzon is like Ankh-Morpork with all the humor and joy taken out of it.

It's a shame that I disliked Perdido Street so much, because I've wanted to read The City & The City ever since I realized the cover art is a picture of the Old Town Square in Prague.