If (for whatever strange reason) you ever wondered what a love child of "Alice in Wonderland" and Gaiman's "Neverwhere" would look like if it were raised by the Master of Weird - well, say hello to Un Lun Dun. 'I know you're not a sidekick.''No one is!' Deeba shouted. 'That's no way to talk about anyone! To say they're just hangers-on to someone more important.'This is an ode to all the sidekicks out there, those who were 'destined' to be on the sidelines, to be the 'funny one' or 'brainy one' or 'whatever one' to the Chosen One. Don't you hate that trope? I do. I know that in a fantasy setting I'd surely be the sidekick. I do not love that designation, and, apparently, neither does China Miéville. And while he is busy subverting that ages-old trope, he decides to overturn a few more genre clichés (the quests, the prophesies, all that), making it a delightful, fresh read.'If we planned ahead, sent a few messages', Obaday went on, 'maybe got a gnostechnician to check the travel reports on the undernet, stayed each night with friends in safe places in whatever borough we reached then it would be perfectly safe. Well, reasonably safe. Safe-esque. But, yes, it would be dangerous if we didn't think ahead, and we took a wrong turning into Wraithtown, or met some scratchmonkeys or a building with house-rabies, or, lord help us, if we ran into the giraffes.'The city-protagonist that CM excels at creating is the titular UnLondon, the 'abcity' (just like "Parisn't, or No York, or Helsunki, or Lost Angeles, or Sans Francisco, or Hong Gone, or Romeless") that can (of course!) be entered by 'booksteps' and 'storyladders', with the parallels to the 'regular' world in the same way as "Alice in Wonderland" has parallels to it. Miéville lets his boundless imagination run wild. The surreal world of the abcity is fantastic and neatly crafted - the extreme librarians, unbrellas, the living words, carnivorous giraffes, binjas, Black Windows in Webminster Abbey, Puzzleborough, donut-shaped UnSun, bus conductors that also conduct electricity, and even what to me looks like a version of Perdido Street Station... The details are fascinating, the world-building, as usual, mind-boggling. The world that would be amazing and captivating to the eyes of a child and an adult alike - but still, in true Miéville fashion, it has its ugly sides. And now it is threatened and is in need of the (Un)Chosen one."In the streets of UnLondon, a group of a girl, a half-ghost, a talking book, a piece of rubbish, and two living words was unusual, but not very."This book won its way into my heart because of its delightful bizarre weirdness, and stayed in my heart because of its 'sidekick', Deeba Resham. The funny, brash, not particularly sophisticated, snarky young girl with bad grammar, good heart, street-smarts, stubbornness and determination enough for a whole city, with an (Un-)milk carton Curdle as a pet, with complete disregard for tropes and destiny and prophecies and all that fluff. TEAM DEEBA! is the next t-shirt I'm investing in. Seriously.As for the villain of Un Lun Dun - well, some can call it comical, some - heavy-handed environmentalist message. I found it very creepy, especially after wondering over to Wikipedia to read about the London Great Smog of 1952. With all the recent environmental disasters all over the world, (view spoiler)[the idea of government backing up the monster is easy to swallow, and the ending of this book even more satisfying (hide spoiler)]
China Mieville, Un Lun Dun (Ballantine, 2007)I have written many times (more than I can count, certainly) about the dangers of message fiction. Chief among them is that the author gets so wrapped up in the message that he forgets he's first and foremost supposed to tell a story. When I realized that Un Lun Dun, China Mieville's first childrens' book, was of the “message fiction” stripe, I quailed in despair, thinking I might have encountered my first Mieville book (and I've read 'em all) I wasn't going to like. I should have known better.Message-fiction writers, listen up: the vast majority of you have a lot to learn from China Mieville. This is how you tell a story. Not just a message story, but any story. (Which is the point, really.) Perfectly-created characters that are rich and deep, a strong plot in which to set them (with no end of surprises-- Mieville is also poking some fun at the traditional fantasy-novel setup here), a setting that manages to both be original and wear Mieville's debt to Clive Barker on its sleeve, and a message that, yes, still manages to poke its head through! Believe it or not, you can have all these things in one book! Don't believe me? Read this one.Un Lun Dun is the story of Zanna, the Shwazzy (I'd explain that, but catching the many puns in this book before Mieville reveals them is a lot of the fun-- and he still nailed me with Klinneract), and her friend Deeba. The two of them live in a block of apartments in London. Strange things start happening to them-- animals trying to communicate with them in sign language, odd-shaped clouds, being followed by a broken umbrella. Then Zanna goes into a basement, turns a wheel, and everything changes. I wish I could tell you more. I want to tell you more. But I don't want to spoil anything, anything at all, about this book. You deserve all the surprises, and all the delights, awaiting you when you read it for yourself. If you've encountered China Mieville before, you should know what to expect, except on a more YA level than you're used to. If you haven't experienced China Mieville before, hie thee to the library or the bookstore yesterday, if not before, and pick yourself up a copy of Perdido Street Station, one of the best books that's been published in the past decade in order to get acquainted. Though actually, I have to say, Un Lun Dun is the first book of his I've thought would also make an excellent entry point into Mieville's alternate universes (while most of his books are set in the invented world of Bas-Lag, his first novel King Rat and many of his shorter works are set in an alternate London somewhat similar to the one he uses here). One way or the other, though, I will not stop in my quest to get everyone I come into contact with to read China Mieville's stuff until, well, everyone has. And that includes you, so hop to it. **** ½
What do You think about Un Lun Dun (2007)?
3.75 starsMy first introduction to Miéville's writing was Railsea. I had an almost instant reaction to it (confusion, frustration, amazement) that only grew stronger as the story progressed (and changed into shock, awe and adoration, and finished with the literary equivalent of being hit on the head with a shovel). Un Lun Dun disappointed me for the supremely unfair (on my behalf) reason that it didn't draw much of a reaction from me.I think that where YA and children's books are concerned, there are two essential kinds: those that cater only to the intended audience, and those that transcend these limits. Railsea is the later, Un Lun Dun the former and therein lies my disappointment.(view spoiler)[ Of course, there is a third category - those that are so terrible that NO ONE should like them, but that's totally irrelevant in this case, trust me. (hide spoiler)]
—Arielle Walker
I am not sure what to make of this book or its author.Considerable time is spent attacking cliches of the fantasy genre, yet Mieville's Unlondon is acknowledged as derivative of Gaiman's Neverwhere. Isn't being obviously derivative of your predecessors both a cliche and the worst crime of the fantasy genre? (I give credit for open admission of the debt, though.)One of the cliches attacked is that of the the Protagonist with a Heroic Destiny (PHD). Fairy Nuff, but you can see the attack coming from about page 5 and what form it is going to take: a Protagonist Switch (PS). Now for me, at least, the PS is a far worse literary crime than dragging out the PHD one more time. An author can only get away with a PS in a Greek Tragedy (or likeness there-of e.g. Shakespeare's Julius Caesar). Un Lun Dun is not a Greek Tragedy - the Initial Protagonist doesn't die horribly.There are all sorts of daft elements in the book, such as the Unbrellas that are created when umbrellas are broken or the pet milk carton so it would be tempting to catagorise the book as a spoof on the fantasy genre - but spoofs at least try to be continually funny. Un Lun Dun does not; there are funny incidents and funny puns (Binjas?!) but the humour is sporadic - so this is not Terry Pratchett's Disc World, either. Much of the time it wants to be a straightforward fantasy adventure. Eoin Colfer and Partick Landy have successfully created imaginative, humourous fantasies that are also gripping - but they have a uniform tone - this does not. It's not really comic relief, either - it's just random switches of mood.It's difficult to accept an author tacitly criticising his peers' use of cliche when he can't manage proper plot construction and use of tone to match situation and intensify reader involvement. Mieville has tremendous imaginative invention but he is not in control of his art.
—Robert
Un Lun Dun, by China Miéville, is about the underside of London. The forgotten parts. So far, so very Neverwhere, I thought, at first. But actually, Un Lun Dun is a different kind of book. Cleverer, in that it twists fantasy clichés ("the UnChosen one" being the biggest example), quirkier (I didn't see a living milk carton called Curdle, or living ninja bins, binja, in Neverwhere!), and lighter. It's definitely aimed at younger people, and actually, I think China Miéville does a good job of it. The pacing and description is much better than in Perdido Street Station, in my opinion, although the chapters are very short so sometimes it feels a bit choppy; possibly scene breaks would have been more appropriate than chapter breaks.I have to say, it is rather light on characterisation. Instead, it's more of a parade of quirky ideas -- Curdle, the binja, broken umbrellas having a life of their own... Normally, that'd be a problem for me. I'm very much the kind of person that gets attached to characters. Despite twisting the Chosen One archetype, the main characters ends up being rather the Chosen One type: smart, lucky, brave, etc, etc. It's not what you'd expect from China Miéville, if you've read any of his other stuff. It's not the best example of his work, because I don't think it's representative. It's light, and very easy and quick to read. I think that makes it pretty fun.And in case you didn't notice, I really like Curdle.
—Nikki
