356- ] English Literature
China Mieville
China Miéville's books: a guide
Kraken
by China Miéville
Another genre-bending
London-set novel which weaves the real with the inconceivable, Kraken is the
story of Billy Harrow, a marine biologist working at the city's Natural History
Museum, who upon discovering that the museum's prize specimen (a giant,
preserved squid) has vanished, is plunged into a world he could never have
imagined. Diving into a hidden London ruled by warring cults, assassins and
occultists of all forms, Billy is forced to confront his own beliefs and
question what is truly real.
Embassytown
by China
Miéville
Embassytown is a city
perched on the limit of the known universe, a tiny outpost of humanity on the
world of Arieka. The native Ariekei are, insectile aliens with two mouths and a
deep, deep love of words (they call it ‘Language’). Because of this,
communicating with them is tricky and humans have to employ specialised
Ambassadors – twins who have been genetically tweaked to speak in unison. The
result is a complex, and fragile, status quo. For a book ostensibly devoted to
aliens, Embassytown is very much about what defines us as human, interrogating
gender and sexuality, language and thought, identity and agency.
Railsea
by
China Miéville
A steampunk young
adult novel inspired, in part, by Moby Dick, Railsea takes place in a world
where travellers journey across endless tracks through shifting lands inhabited
by giant, dangerous moldywarpes—massive moles that tunnel beneath the surface.
Sham Yes ap Soorap, a young apprentice on a train hunting the creatures, is
both enthralled and disturbed by his first encounter with a hunt. Following his
captain as she obsessively searches for one beast, Sham's must evade pirates
and salvage-seekers and confront the possibility that Railsea might change
forever.
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