Stand so tall

[glenatron]

This evening there was a pink moon hanging over the ground mist along the water meadows and beyond the old abbey as I was driving home. It made me wish I had a camera.

We're in the final throes of sorting out the artwork for the album. It's the part where everyone agrees that it's generally right but disagrees on details. Frustrating for everyone, but soon it will be over and everything will be off at the mastering and printing house and we have a moment to pause and take breath before it all really kicks off.

I just finished reading Iron Council and it was, well, interesting. It was as wildly inventive, clever and politically sharp as China Mieville's other books but for me there was something lacking. I think the problem is partly the question of the limits on magic- the world that New Crobuzon inhabits is so strange and diverse that anything seems possible and when that happens it becomes much harder to care about events and characters. It's full of moments like this: "Onnager held the frying pan over the fire and the air filled with the mouthwatering scent of bacon. Suddenly the rock he was leaning against turned into a tiger, swallowed him whole and dashed away into the forest."

Previous to that I was reading The Prayer Of The Night Shepherd, the only Merrily Watkins story I've not yet read. If you haven't read any of this series yet you are missing out- they are dark, spooky, genuinely scary detective stories that walk the perilous line between the criminal and the paranormal and never miss a step. If you like things which are good you will like these. As usual, start at the beginning with The Wine Of Angels. You might as well read it- I'm not going to stop badgering until you at least give them a try...

Comments

[spoondog.livejournal.com]

I'm not enjoying Iron Council as much as the Scar, but some bits of it have really touched me and the part where the Handslinger first appears is an excellent piece of writing.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

The writing is still very much up to standard and it is by no means bad, it just doesn't seem as awesome as his previous work.

I've heard that if you like China Mieville you may also like Jeff Vandermeer and Steph Swainson, but I've not yet got to experiment with it...

[life-of-tom.livejournal.com]

I'm about a hundred pages in with Iron council. Have to say I'm not quite getting into it yet. That might be because I'm reading it in a bit of a disjointed way, a bit on the bus, a bit in my break at work, so on and so on.

can't say enough that's good about Steph Swainston; her books are set in a world that the author had been thinking about since she was about four, with a load of immortal superheroes picked as the best at their chosen fields defending humanity from an invasion of giant marauding insects. oh, and the central character is an angel who's a drug-addict. It's well-written, fast-paced, and- oh, just go read it.

[shiva-matimbres.livejournal.com]

i finished it the other day and really enjoyed it, the end was pretty damn cool too (won't spoil it for anyone else though)