Re: What are you reading?
Posted: Mon Nov 16, 2009 2:41 pm

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Kind of want to read The City & The City at some point, but I don't really get all the fuss about Perdido Street Station - everyone goes on about it as some kind of genre redefining masterpiece of socially aware left wing fantasy, but I found that it had some cool ideas to start with (eg the Garuda social model) which it never really did much with, a corrupt government / oppressed proles type setting that's kind of unusual in fantasy but so standard as to be cliche in sci fi since forever, and had some fairly awesome moments (ie the Weaver is immense, the Council is pretty cool) but the entire second half was basically a generic action sci-fi / fantasy bug hunt. When from what I was heard I was expecting something that messed around with the whole genre like, I dunno, Neil Gaiman or Susanna Clarke or Alasdair Gray have done in recent yearssnuff wrote:^ great book...
just started this as Placido Street Statiom was superb
Sounds shit, isn't it just another "magical negro" tale?slothrop wrote: Oh, and I'm not currently reading it and have already mentioned it upthread, but everyone should read
because it's brilliant.
that art's awesome must be german expressionist, Franz Marc type stuff (though it's not him) the books ok, I did it at uni, just basically an attack on Christianity, has to be taken with a huge pinch of salt though.thomas wrote:I went a big ahead of myself and bought:
Good peice of art on the cover, even if i don't understand it.
For me, China Mieville's Perdido St Station series wasn't amazing from the point of view of the story, but his style/prose. The atmosphere was present from the very first page, which isn't something that's that common in sci-fi/fantasy. The other two books might be slightly better from the story perspective. But again, I think it was more possibly more a case of reading for his writing than the stories which did it for me.slothrop wrote:Kind of want to read The City & The City at some point, but I don't really get all the fuss about Perdido Street Station - everyone goes on about it as some kind of genre redefining masterpiece of socially aware left wing fantasy, but I found that it had some cool ideas to start with (eg the Garuda social model) which it never really did much with, a corrupt government / oppressed proles type setting that's kind of unusual in fantasy but so standard as to be cliche in sci fi since forever, and had some fairly awesome moments (ie the Weaver is immense, the Council is pretty cool) but the entire second half was basically a generic action sci-fi / fantasy bug hunt. When from what I was heard I was expecting something that messed around with the whole genre like, I dunno, Neil Gaiman or Susanna Clarke or Alasdair Gray have done in recent yearssnuff wrote:^ great book...
just started this as Placido Street Statiom was superb
I'd love it if you or someone else could justify the hype to me, though...
thomas wrote:I went a big ahead of myself and bought:
Good peice of art on the cover, even if i don't understand it.
I've been catching up with this sort of stuff over the last 18 months or so. The Antichrist is probably the one I've enjoyed the most... I refer to it an awful lot when arguing with my housemate.tr0tsky wrote:thomas wrote:I went a big ahead of myself and bought:
Good peice of art on the cover, even if i don't understand it.
Superb book.
As is Thus Spoke Zarathustra, On the Genealogy of Morality, the Antichrist and my favourite, Ecce Homo.
All fucking excellent books.
Totally. People who think Nietzsche is an anti-Semite either haven't read nor understand him. The whole point of the point of the Parable of the Jews is that the Jews of the temple were moral. This is why the following slave morality was not. Simple shit.magma wrote:I've been catching up with this sort of stuff over the last 18 months or so. The Antichrist is probably the one I've enjoyed the most... I refer to it an awful lot when arguing with my housemate.tr0tsky wrote:thomas wrote:I went a big ahead of myself and bought:
Good peice of art on the cover, even if i don't understand it.
Superb book.
As is Thus Spoke Zarathustra, On the Genealogy of Morality, the Antichrist and my favourite, Ecce Homo.
All fucking excellent books.
Worth keeping Nietsche in proper context though, he's got a rather bad rap over the years thanks to certain associates (whom he promptly disassociated himself from).
i think anything succesful inevitably becomes a victim of it's own PR. I read for pleasure though and am not going to over-think it too much, it's just as satisafying sometimes to read a trashy trashy terry pratchet novel as it is to read a balletic Alastair Reynolds...kay wrote:For me, China Mieville's Perdido St Station series wasn't amazing from the point of view of the story, but his style/prose. The atmosphere was present from the very first page, which isn't something that's that common in sci-fi/fantasy. The other two books might be slightly better from the story perspective. But again, I think it was more possibly more a case of reading for his writing than the stories which did it for me.slothrop wrote:Kind of want to read The City & The City at some point, but I don't really get all the fuss about Perdido Street Station - everyone goes on about it as some kind of genre redefining masterpiece of socially aware left wing fantasy, but I found that it had some cool ideas to start with (eg the Garuda social model) which it never really did much with, a corrupt government / oppressed proles type setting that's kind of unusual in fantasy but so standard as to be cliche in sci fi since forever, and had some fairly awesome moments (ie the Weaver is immense, the Council is pretty cool) but the entire second half was basically a generic action sci-fi / fantasy bug hunt. When from what I was heard I was expecting something that messed around with the whole genre like, I dunno, Neil Gaiman or Susanna Clarke or Alasdair Gray have done in recent yearssnuff wrote:^ great book...
just started this as Placido Street Statiom was superb
I'd love it if you or someone else could justify the hype to me, though...
The City & The City's sitting in my to-read pile. Read King Rat recently, the style's quite different. I'd be curious if anyone into DnB back in the day has read it as it makes a fair bit of reference to the music in its earlier days (which was when it was written), and what they think of his portrayal of it.