Customer Reviews

The Tain

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is really a novella, not a novel, and issued in a limited edition that will make it difficult to obtain without a fairly high outlay, but with this story Mieville proves that he doesn't need the expanse of 700 pages to tell a captivating tale. He starts from the assumption that what we see in our mirrors is not just reflected light beams, but rather are real beings that inhabit more dimensions than humans are accustomed to, and have been trapped into faithfully showing an image of this world as a result of losing a long ago war with men. Never mind what violence this concept does to the laws of physics - science is a tool that China uses and discards according to the needs of his story.

As our world has gotten more industrialized and the use of mirrors and other reflective surfaces has grown, these beings are more and more tied down to this imprisonment. Ah, but here Mieville throws another curve - what of those beings who don't have reflections? Vampires have been with us in legend and folk tale for a long time, and under Mieville hands they are transformed into advance scouts, spies on our world, for these denizens, whom Mieville calls 'imagos', finding ways to break their prison.

Now to top off this already fantastic idea, China describes what happens to our world when these imagos finally do break free of their prison. The resulting bleakness of a war ravaged world fits the Mieville mold perfectly (no sunshine pollyanna stories for him!), as we follow the attempts by one man, Sholl, to communicate with what is left of humanity and get closer to these beings. This individual may be a unique human - no vampire will touch him, except for one, his analogue in the mirror world. And with this juxtaposition of opposites Mieville imbues this story with multiple levels of meaning, a labyrinth of mirrors, opposites, reflections and non-reflections, philosophies and points of contact with our world. All told in China's inimitable style, where he shows his great command of the English language to describe, to illuminate, to evoke mood and feeling, though in this work it is not quite so overpowering as it has been in his previous novels. The ending is quite fitting, and not a very predictable one at all, providing yet another layer of thought and meaning to a story already richly imbued with this.

Perhaps there could have been a little deeper look at the inner thoughts and society of the imagos, and a little more background to his protagonist, but as it sits this is a small, polished gem, waiting for the unwary reader to get lost inside its multiple (self-reflecting) facets.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

First off, this isn't a typical Amazon title, rather it is the product of PS Publishing, which puts out limited, signed editions by various science fiction and fantasy authors. Specifically, "The Tain" was limited to 300 hardcover and another 500 paperback titles, all of which have long since sold out from the publisher. That said, there are copies available on the internet, and any fan of quality fiction, but especially those who are fan's of Mieville's, will want to track down a copy for themselves.

But tha's enough about the publishing arrangement, what sets "The Tain" apart is not its packaging, but its fascinating story. On the simplest level, this is Mieville taking a turn at apocalyptic fiction, but of course its more than that. Mieville never sees fiction the way one would expect any other author to, and so instead of disease, or nuclear war, the reader is treated to a London ravaged by our escaped reflections. More accurately, these "imagos", as Mieville describes them, are beings that operate in entirely different dimensions than our own, but as a result of a war in the long forgotten past, they were imprisoned in mirrors "in the tain" in any reflective surface. Thus, they were forced to adapt their essence to our corporeal forms, and as mirrors became more prevalent, their imprisonment became all the more onerous.

Some managed to break free into our world, where they killed their reflective twin and moved among us. Mieville quite cleverly uses the vampire myth here, as they have no reflections and do not die except by violence. Moreover, they are imbued with the inhuman strength and nature of the imagos, and thus come to act as spies in our midst. Like the vampire, though, they are always alone, even among there own kind, as they are trapped in the forms they most despise.

So that's the gist of the plot, but there's so much more going on. The story is narrated in alternate chapters by an unnamed vampire, and by Sholl a human who is disconcertingly ignored by all of the imagos. Both are outsiders in their own way, and both are uncertain as to what is required of them in this new, blighted landscape. The vampire knows who he is, but not where he belongs or what he should do, and Sholl knows what he must do, but is uncertain as to what he really is. Thus, the two reflect each other even as they are at odds. Moreover, there is an inversion of Matheson's "I Am Legend" in that they can move freely among their enemies but are uncertain among their own kind. While this might seem like a handy trait, it leads to an alienation far more profound than being at war with the rest of the world.

At only eighty-nine pages, this is a short story, and to go on any further would risk spoiling critical plot elements. Suffice it to say that Mieville has put his fingerprint on another genre. Fans of his work will be struck by how "the Tain" echoes his prior novels while traveling in completely different paths, and new fans will be introduced to him at his best, utterly unique and masterfully spinning the English language. While this is a book that will probably only be read by his most devout fans, not least because of its limited accessibility, I would encourage all of those who enjoy insightful literature to track and down and savor it.

Jake Mohlman

The Tain is a nice, meaty bite of dystopian fantasy from Mieville, one of my favorite authors. But the question facing the potential buyer is not whether to read, but whether to buy an expensive limited edition on the secondary market. You can read The Tain for very little money in Cities, an anthology with Paul Di Filippo, Geoff Ryman and Michael Moorcock. For the potential collector, let me put on my bookdealer hat and describe the hardcover book for you and assess its potential as a collectible.

First the wraparound cover artwork by Edward Miller is great and really captures the desolate mood of the novella. PS Publishing is currently a hot publisher among SF small press and most (if not all) of their efforts have been well received. The cloth is blue, tightly bound and with a neat gold spine stamp. The limitation page is signed by Mieville and M. John Harrison. Harrison wrote a wonderful introduction and is experiencing a small but well deserved increase of interest, which makes the book all that more succulent. Most introductions to limited editions are crap, this one is great.

The book has a small limitation (400 hardcover, 500 trade) and is physically attractive, and as collectibles go this is a good bet. It also won the Locus award in 2003 for best novella, which helps a little tiny bit. It sold out in hardcover at publication, so there may be a bunch of speculators out there holding onto copies, I predict a brief and small dip in prices eventually. More importantly the work has intrinsic merit and the authors are of high quality. As a collectible, I give this book 4 stars. You may want to wait until about 5 years after publication date to snag a copy, I find that's when people try to "cash in" on their limited edition and the market tends to briefly flood with expected lowering of prices.

No one can blame China Mieville of lacking imagination and wit. His stories are usually brilliantly written and full of originality. His dark fiction - Mieville is part of the New Fabulists movement - is often horrific, often fantastical, and always epic in size.

The Tain is a short novellette that, although it does feel like vintange Mieville at times, lacks the power and strength of his longer works. London has been ravaged by vampire creatures that have walked straight out of mirrors. That's right, our reflections are really trapped entities that are tired of mimicking our every action. And so, when they find a way to escape their glass prisons, they seek revenge on humans.

Sholl, a regular man (only a few of them are remaining, most men are actually enlisted in the army) is intrigued by these vampire creatures. He finds a way to break into their world to try and restore the peace that these creatures have stolen from mankind.

Overwrought and long-winded, The Tain is predictable and not very original. It feels like just another revisionist tale (and, maybe that's just what it is). This feels more like the outline for a longer, better novel. Or maybe it's a short story trapped in too many words and unecessary subplots.

I am a big fan of Mieville's work. But The Tain disappointed me greatly. It pains me to see Mieville fall into the trap so many novice authors tumbled into. Hopefully, his next work will be more original and as powerful as ever.

I've been plowing through Mi?ville's books and finally got to this one. As the seconds ticked down until the date whereupon I was to return my novels to the public library, I weighed the higher likelihood of finishing "The Tain" vs. "King Rat". I started "The Tain". Finished it last night or should I say, stopped reading it last night, because Mi?ville basically just stopped writing it in the middle of the story. The Tain is entertaining and moves quickly and I would have liked for it to go on to a more fulfilling ending. It doesn't. [...]. The reader is left with a number of loose ends and a case of bookus interruptus. Maybe there's a history or eureka moment here that I missed, but I just don't see it. The writing is awesome, the ideas behind the novella are ripe with deep thought and lyrical violence, the characters are interesting and challenging. But it's not a good book. Like a good headline, The Tain makes you want to read more, but somone threw away the rest of the paper. I read the first two chapters of King Rat this morning and I already wish that I'd read it instead.