China Miéville

While rereading volume 1 of this China Mieville-written graphic novel, I learned that there was a volume 2. There seem to be many more artists for this book, but the overall look is much the same. Having survived the events of volume 1, Nelson and Roxie continue to seek after the mysteries of the superpower-borrowing dials, and to stay ahead of the mysterious figure who wanders the multiverse shutting the dials down. We see a lot more of the multiverse here, along with a great many new superpowers for our protagonists to acquire, plus a suitably villainous new antagonist. This was the last volume, and the story ends on a satisfying stopping point. Great fun here again to see Mieville's imagination on display. The books might be a good introduction to him for a comics fan who hasn't read his novels or stories, but most Club Read denizens would do best to start with one of the novels - [The City and The City] would be my suggestion.… (mer)

I don't read many graphic novels, but, hey, China Mieville. Nelson Jent is down on his luck, unemployed, overweight, and just had a heart attack before his 30th birthday. He accidentally discovers that dialing H-E-R-O in a certain disused public phone booth (remember phone booths?) will turn him into a superhero. But the transformation is only temporary, the dial won't always work - and Nelson becomes a different superhero each time. Captain Lachrymose, for example, paralyzes criminals with grief by bringing their saddest memories back irresistably. Mieville's fabulous imagination supplies numerous weird, funny, and sometimes disgusting, superpowers. Nelson must confront criminals, a rival dial-driven superhero, and entities from other dimensions as he seeks to understand what's going on.

Th artist team here provides suitably vivid renderings of Mieville's ideas. Lots of pages with story panels interspersed on top of a full-page image, so that the reader must figure out the reading sequence. Dramatic and active, but sometimes a bit of a chore to read.

Note that DC Comics cancelled this series, unfinished, after one more volume.… (mer)

This is a Young Adult novel by Miéville (whose adult works I have yet to read, but must). It has a completely whacky premise: a world in which there are no oceans, and where in their place is the endless ‘railsea’: a vast tangle of railroad tracks over which trains hurtle between islands of higher land, throwing switches on the run to change direction.

"This is the story of a bloodstained boy."

Thus we are introduced to Sham ap Soorap, a young man on board the moletrain Medes, whose captain is driven by an obsession to catch and kill a great white mole which has in the past severed her arm. Well, you get the idea. If the trick was only this recasting of Moby-Dick then there wouldn’t be much to the book. But Miéville spins out a much more interesting and complex story, full of sly references to books like Kidnapped, Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels.

I do like the way Miéville keeps breaking the ‘fourth wall’ and discussing what is going to happen with the reader. (Since I’ve just finished reading Barchester Chronicles, this reminds me a lot of Anthony Trollope doing the same thing). There’s a typographical quirk to the text too. Each and every instance of the word ‘and’ is replaced by the ampersand ‘&’. At first this annoyed me, but then I got used to it, and it does give an interesting feel to the story.

Lots of exciting adventure and interest. And in the end, there’s almost (stress almost) a justification revealed for the existence of the railsea. I really liked it.… (mer)