asandwich

I'm not going to bother pointing out all of the obvious influences that you can pick out in this book - there are plenty of other (better) reviews that do this already. Seriously, go and see - I'll wait here until you get back.







There. See? Told you.

What I will say is this: Un Lun Dun is a marvelously inventive, well-realised and well-written urban fantasy tale aimed at a younger audience than Miéville's usual fare. There's a lot of heart in this book - in fact, I'm getting a warm and fuzzy feeling right now just thinking about it, which is quite astounding considering I'm practically dead on the inside. Yes, that's high praise indeed!

But the very best thing about this novel? Oh, without a doubt it's the fact that China 'I've got a thesaurus permanently tattooed to the inside of my eyelids and I'm not afraid to use it' Miéville toned down his usually rather convoluted use of wordplay for the kids, which meant that I didn't have to consult a dictionary even once whilst reading through this novel! This is a Miéville first for me! Huzzah!