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General Category => General Chaos => : rayner23 May 24, 2009, 07:17:30 PM

: Why you should read China Meiville's "Perdido Street Station"
: rayner23 May 24, 2009, 07:17:30 PM
Meiville gets a lot of inspiration for his writing from old AD&D monster manuals. He has crafted a really interesting world that melds creepy Kafka-esque motifs with high-concept and bizarre fantasy. His role-playing days really reflect in his writing because the novel sometimes feels like a fully-fleshed out module, but it is particularly interesting when he comments on different aspects of fantasy. For example:

The heroes of the novel need some hired muscle to fight the big bad monster and they decide on hiring some adventurers. This is the conversation that takes place:

"Apparently, there's a few serious adventurers in town right now, claiming to have just liberated some major haul from the ruins in Tashek Rek Hai. Might be up for a little paid work."
 . . .
"I don't trust them, though. Thrill-seekers. They court danger. And they're quite unscrupulous graverobbers for the most part. Anything for gold and experience."


As soon as I read that, I thought of RPPR and laughed.
: Re: Why you should read China Meiville's "Perdido Street Station"
: Zeernebooch May 26, 2009, 06:12:24 PM
Way to get in intrigued by yet another book!
Time to check it out and eventually add it to the never-ending-pile-of-books-I-need-to-read.
: Re: Why you should read China Meiville's "Perdido Street Station"
: Setherick May 26, 2009, 07:57:11 PM
Way to get in intrigued by yet another book!
Time to check it out and eventually add it to the never-ending-pile-of-books-I-need-to-read.

Perdido is kind of slow, just to warn you. I thought the Scar and Iron Council were much better in terms of pace and development of characters.
: Re: Why you should read China Meiville's "Perdido Street Station"
: rayner23 May 26, 2009, 07:58:13 PM
After the last Dark Tower book, I am moving on to the Scar.