Reality is Relative

Updated.

Sheesh. Another category I need work on- reading topics and books. I am a voracious reader. On average I consume one to three novels a week and that is not counting the dizzying array of articles, news, blogs, twitters, and other coverage I slurp up.

Lately I have been reading China Mieville. I started off with King Rat which was pretty good for a first novel. Then moved on to Perdido Street Station and The Scar. Both are set in his New Crobuzon world and are fast paced, phantasmagoric, and the characters are bizarre, varied and truly weird. Many will probably deny it, but I detect very faint traces of influence from the late Roger Zelazny’s excellent Chronicles of Amber (The first five.) and Phillip Jose Farmer’s interesting, although not as well written, The World of Tiers.

China’s works are probably the cornerstone of the New Weird genre and it is certainly a movement I can get behind as it puts some zing back into the “fantasy” genre. The New Weird is a literary movement or literary genre presently now in progress. The writers involved are considered to be parts of the science fiction or speculative fiction genres. Its most notable voices include Steven Cockayne, Jeff Vandermeer, Ian R Macleod, M John Harrison, Thomas Ligotti, Alastair Reynolds, Justina Robson, Steph Swainston (more on her below) and, of course, China Mieville.

I am now re-starting Mieville’s Iron Council but it seems to lack the luster and attention grabbing ability of Perdido Street Station and The Scar. At any rate I found his books after using Amazon.com’s suggested reading feature and then reading more about Mieville at Wikipedia. I have found using the Amazon feature coupled with the Wikipedia to be a great way to zero in on good reads. I am older now so I have to a bit more choosy about my pleasure reading given my finite time. Perhaps there will be reading in the after-life, but I am not banking on it. Shame really. I love to read.

I have also read two of Steph Swainston’s novels (The Year of Our War and No Present Like Time) and will cover them later. I have heard people charge that her works are poor rip-offs of Mieville’s. Give me (and Steph) a break.

Yes- there are certain and obvious elements of China in her works, but that is why his works are the cornerstone of the genre. Her world is equally as rich, strange and attention catching too. As I understand it she also has a full time job aside from writing. I admire any creative writer who can do that! Granted she is not China and I think she is still working into her voice but the novels are good efforts. A review from Scifi if your interest is piqued.

Books referenced in this entry if you want some delightful reads in sci-fi, or fantasy:

China Mieville:
King Rat
Perdido Street Station
The Scar
Iron Council

Steph Swainston
The Year of Our War
No Present Like Time

Roger Zelazny
The Great Book of Amber : The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 (Chronicles of Amber)

Phillip Jose Farmer
The World of Tiers: Volume One (World of Tiers)

If that isn’t enough for starters check out Amazon’s Top 100 Hot Science Fiction & Fantasy

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