"I can squeeze between buildings through spaces you can't even see. I can walk behind you so close my breath raises gooseflesh on your neck and you won't hear me. I can hear the muscles in your eyes contract when your pupils dilate. I can feed off your filth and live in your house and sleep under your bed and you will never know unless I want you to."
These words open the door into this alternative world. And through these words I was lured into this story. This beginning is massive, overpowering, and breathtaking.
The story itself is also highly appealing. It's a fairy tale rewriting (and jeez, do I love fairy tale rewritings!), and Mieville did a great job. Here's how it goes:
The story itself is also highly appealing. It's a fairy tale rewriting (and jeez, do I love fairy tale rewritings!), and Mieville did a great job. Here's how it goes:
Something has murdered Saul Garamond's father, and left Saul to pay for the crime.. "But a shadow from the urban waste breaks into Saul's prison cell and leads him to freedom. A shadow called King Rat. Freedom and a new destiny: King Rat reveals Saul's royal heritage, a heritage that opens a new world to Saul, the world below London's streets.. "A heritage that also drags Saul into King Rat's plan for revenge against his ancient enemy, the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The Piper walks the world again, and wants to finish the job he started those long centuries ago. With Drum and Bass pounding the backstreets, Saul must confront the forces that would use him, the forces that would destroy him, and the forces that shaped his own bizarre identity.
It's stunning, dark and brutal at times (the best times probably, and no, I don't revel in violence)
"Saul was right in the middle of something horrendous, a kaleidoscope of bizarre and bloody murder..."Sometimes I feel it's full of potential and yet I can't really grasp it. What I mean is that I know all the references to the city and Jungle music (of which I'm totally ignorant) are important but I just can't get them. Not yet, at least.
Miéville's command of the language is delicious (slang and patois provide a fantastic linguistic ride) and how he manages to make movement and music so vivid for the reader is just impressive.
It's was a really interesting reworking of the classic fairy tale. It won't change your life, though. Unless... unless you end up believing that
It's was a really interesting reworking of the classic fairy tale. It won't change your life, though. Unless... unless you end up believing that
"...these things take place so close to the real city, and no one can see them. They take place ten feet away, somewhere in another world."
2 Comments:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
glad to find this!