I was hesitant to read Miéville short stories - his novels are so packed full of ideas, I imagined the short forms would be overloaded. Instead, for the most part, they're more focused. It was delightful to follow him down one thread and another. I appreciate his reshaping of language and in particular several haunting pieces and moments of insight. I like Miéville best when he's telling an engaging story on the surface and examining something profound and unsaid beneath it. ( )

I always find it wryly amusing when critics impressed at China Miéville rush to compare him to authors such as Zadie Smith or David Mitchell. As if Miéville were brilliant despite the fact that he writes fantastic fiction. Or as if the "weird fiction" tag attached to his books were somewhat dishonourable or demeaning. In reality, it is difficult to imagine Miéville writing anything but his particular brand of “new weird”. Not because he lacks versatility but, on the contrary, because the striking images which he conjures up fit so perfectly within the tradition of the fantastic and the surreal.

Take "Polynia", in my opinion one of the best pieces in this short story collection. We are in the near-future and icebergs suddenly materialise over London. From this simple yet haunting premise, set against the backdrop of a city at once familiar and strange, Mieville manages to fashion a little gem - a post-apocalytpic sci-fi story which also works as a realistic coming-of-age narrative, a tale which harks back to the adventure/explorer yarns of the 19th Century but which is at the same time underscored by very contemporary environmental concerns.

There are other stories which display Miéville’s knack for original plot lines. In “The Dowager of Bees”, he imagines a world where professional card players face a mysterious occupational hazard - the occasional, unexpected appearance of rogue cards with terrifying consequences. In “Keep” the world is in the thrall of an epidemic in which a moat digs itself in the earth around infected persons.

Miéville’s fantastic fiction is often politically-infused or inspired by social concerns and this collection gives us a number of examples of his “leftist weird”. Thus, “The 9th Technique” is an oblique critique of Western foreign policy and society’s complacency in the face of the use of torture techniques. “Dusty Hat" starts off as a bitter satire about the infighting within the political left, before turning into an existentially weird story. In “Covehithe”, the wrecks of ecological, marine disasters take life and roam the Earth.

Elsewhere, Miéville adopts a more traditional style and the results are none the worse for it. Try the escalating, unnerving horror of “The Mount” or the ghost/horror story “Säcken” inspired by the disturbing (and real!) execution method known in Roman Law as the poena cullei .
This anthology gives us a wide-ranging primer of the author’s work and, as one would expect, some of the stories had less of an impact than others. I didn’t particularly like the flash-fiction pieces which seemed little more than sketches compared to the longer tales – perhaps an indication that an original concept on its own is not enough. I also felt that some of the stories were too conceptual for their own good. I have in mind, in particular, “Watching God”, which I interpreted as an extended metaphor about religious belief.

So – is Miéville as good as Zadie Smith or David Mitchell? Believe me, they are as good as he is... ( )

As always, I find Mieville's stuff fascinating and horrifying at the same time. The stories in this collection seem sometimes to be brief explorations of a stray idea. Maybe that's what short works usually are. ( )

I always find it wryly amusing when critics impressed at China Miéville rush to compare him to authors such as Zadie Smith or David Mitchell. As if Miéville were brilliant despite the fact that he writes fantastic fiction. Or as if the "weird fiction" tag attached to his books were somewhat dishonourable or demeaning. In reality, it is difficult to imagine Miéville writing anything but his particular brand of “new weird”. Not because he lacks versatility but, on the contrary, because the striking images which he conjures up fit so perfectly within the tradition of the fantastic and the surreal.

Take "Polynia", in my opinion one of the best pieces in this short story collection. We are in the near-future and icebergs suddenly materialise over London. From this simple yet haunting premise, set against the backdrop of a city at once familiar and strange, Mieville manages to fashion a little gem - a post-apocalytpic sci-fi story which also works as a realistic coming-of-age narrative, a tale which harks back to the adventure/explorer yarns of the 19th Century but which is at the same time underscored by very contemporary environmental concerns.

There are other stories which display Miéville’s knack for original plot lines. In “The Dowager of Bees”, he imagines a world where professional card players face a mysterious occupational hazard - the occasional, unexpected appearance of rogue cards with terrifying consequences. In “Keep” the world is in the thrall of an epidemic in which a moat digs itself in the earth around infected persons.

Miéville’s fantastic fiction is often politically-infused or inspired by social concerns and this collection gives us a number of examples of his “leftist weird”. Thus, “The 9th Technique” is an oblique critique of Western foreign policy and society’s complacency in the face of the use of torture techniques. “Dusty Hat" starts off as a bitter satire about the infighting within the political left, before turning into an existentially weird story. In “Covehithe”, the wrecks of ecological, marine disasters take life and roam the Earth.

Elsewhere, Miéville adopts a more traditional style and the results are none the worse for it. Try the escalating, unnerving horror of “The Mount” or the ghost/horror story “Säcken” inspired by the disturbing (and real!) execution method known in Roman Law as the poena cullei .
This anthology gives us a wide-ranging primer of the author’s work and, as one would expect, some of the stories had less of an impact than others. I didn’t particularly like the flash-fiction pieces which seemed little more than sketches compared to the longer tales – perhaps an indication that an original concept on its own is not enough. I also felt that some of the stories were too conceptual for their own good. I have in mind, in particular, “Watching God”, which I interpreted as an extended metaphor about religious belief.

So – is Miéville as good as Zadie Smith or David Mitchell? Believe me, they are as good as he is... ( )

There are some clunkers here and there - short stories that should be longer, long stories that should be shorter - but overall this is solid work by Miéville. ( )