Welcome to the Maribyrnong Library Book Club

Love to read? Love sharing your ideas about books and writing? Then you've come to the right place.

This blog is an extension of our book groups which we welcome you to attend on the first Tuesday of each month.

Contact Maureen on 9688 0290 for more information.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Author Spotlight: China Miéville

At age 38, China Miéville, accomplished fantasy fiction/sci fi/horror author, teacher and political activist, is still one of the foremost experts on ‘weird fiction’, a new literary genre that blurs the boundaries and smashes preconceptions and stereotypes typically associated with the traditional fantasy, horror and science fiction genres.

China Miéville has won a number of Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult and Horror writing awards over the years and his stories are written to a very high and intelligent standard making him an author that I would recommend very highly to anyone seeking something a little different.

The first story of his I read was ‘Un Lun Dun’. When I first bought the book I was unsure which age group it was aimed at, but it sounded quite good and the cover looked great (I know, I know, don't judge a book by its cover, but seriously, it's awesome!). I read the first couple of pages and straight away thought that it was childish and ridiculous, but for some reason kept reading (And I've since found out that it -is- in fact a children's book). I found the book to be the most illogical story I have ever read, but it was extremely well written and absolutely brilliant! Though I'm not sure that I would recommend it to or for children as I found some of the imagery quite disturbing and I'm, well, you know, not a child anymore.

I then got my hands on ‘Looking for Jake’ which is a collection of short stories by China Miéville published in 2005 and spanning all fiction genres. I am completely in awe of this man’s imagination.

His other novels include ‘The Scar’, ‘The City & the City’, ‘Kraken’ and ‘Embassytown’. He also co-authored a ‘Pathfinder’ book, which is a reworking of Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition rules (table top roleplaying games featuring the d20 dice system). Geektastic!

Emma J. James

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