58 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wish this was around when I was a boy., February 13, 2007
On my son's tenth birthday he will get this book. This will happen in a little over seven years from now.
Mieville has ventured into YA fiction with Un Lun Dun and it is a tremendous accomplishment within the genre. This is the story of a journey to another London that exists near the one we are familiar with. But things are different and there are some big problems for the two young ladies who find themselves in Un Lun Dun. Mieville's hallmark - imaginative monsters - is here and they exist in wonderful, fanciful piles. His punning creations are groan-worthy and painted a number of rueful smiles on my face. Mieville wants readers to have the joy of surprise, so I'm keeping quite about the details. But I guarantee you will never think of giraffes the same way ever again. There are also marvelous characters and companions, all vivid and memorable.
Un Lun Dun subverts your typical fantasy formula. The chosen one doesn't seem to be getting it done, prophecies are falling apart, and quests are veering outside of expectations. Mieville has been both lauded and slammed for being a "message" author. The message for youngsters is pretty straightforward - don't wait to be saved by the hero, question authority, try hard, and with the help of good friends and you can change things for the better.
Mieville has to this date been a very adult writer but he reigns in both the violence and the vocabulary to truly make this a YA title. There is violence and danger, but it is not excessive. He does keep the sense of excitement through the book and the pacing is very brisk. Un Lun Dun is not a departure for Mieville; he is just doing for young adult fantasy what he has already done for regular fantasy. He has given us a smart, non-formulaic, but always entertaining book.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
no condescension here, March 15, 2007
A great many YA novels attempt a modicum of maturity but fall far short and end up being what would appropriately be termed children's literature. The level of condescension present in many of them is almost offensive, suggesting that young adults cannot be subtle nor intuitive readers. Mieville takes a remarkable stand against this trend and delivers a novel that is enchanting and challenging to multiple levels of readers. His language is beautiful, challenging, and most importantly playful.
As with most of his novels, the setting of ULD is as much a character as is Deeba or any of her party. The inhabitants of the abcity Unlundun are rich in character and are conjured from the simplest of ideas into unforgettable characters--a conscious milk carton most of all. Mieville paints a city whose denizens force the readers to reconsider our lives: fated observer or willful participant? This is not a comfortable book to read, and readers will find themselves pausing frequently to compare their own cities with Mieville's abcities.
The social and political commentary is subtle yet insistent. Young readers with a growing awareness of social and political ideologies would benefit from reading this novel with careful consideration of the historical context. Mieville's own leftist political ideologies are not overt, but they do beg themselves to be considered in light of the turmoil in Unlundun, a turmoil not unlike what is developing (or is peaking) in our own world.
Subversion is a central theme, and Mieville does a masterful job of not only refusing to bow to the templates of the genre but of creating an entirely new one: heroes aren't heroic; prophecies aren't prophetic; and words aren't our own.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magical London comes alive in an adventure for kids and adults, March 12, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I'm a Londonophile--no, I'm not even certain that's a word, but it describes the feeling: a deep and abiding love of the city of London, which, since I don't live there, often manifests itself in my frequent devouring of books and movies that are set in, and especially celebrate, London. I'm especially fond of the subgenre of fiction "urban fantasy"--outrageous and fantastic events and characters set against the familiar backdrop of the Big Smoke, situations and events that illuminate our ordinary everyday world with a magical light. Among my favorite almost-otherworldly Londons: J. K. Rowling's "
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," Philip Pullman's "
The Ruby in the Smoke," G. P. Taylor's "
"Wormwood" and (an obvious but oft-overlooked choice in the genre) Charles Dickens's "
A Christmas Carol." Recently I've added China Miéville's wonderful, moody and spooky "
King Rat" and "
Perdido Street Station" to my library, and was delighted to discover he has also written "Un Lun Dun," a wonderfully nuanced and shadowy young adult novel that celebrates the joy and diversity of the city on the Thames.
Miéville's foray into young adult lit from his usual venue of adult fiction gives us an interesting and effective result. Like the best YA books, this is a novel that adults will appreciate too for its intelligent, lively wordplay and clever, imaginative characters and landscape--the best sort of "reading together" novel, and if you are sharing the volume with an older preteen or young teen you may find yourself battling for who gets possession of it at any time. A swift but rich reading experience, "Un Lun Dun" combines an eccentric anthropomorphic cast (Kung fu dustbins! Chattering books! Scheming smog!) with the familiar and comfortable quest adventure and the gentle but triumphant message to stand up for what's right and sometimes you can only rely on yourself.
When I do visit London every few years, one of my favorite tourist activities is to simply stroll around the city, surveying buildings, streets, gazing down mews and alleyways, looking for the unusual and eccentric to admire and photograph. My greatest delight is spotting something that I consider might not be usually seen by a passerby--an interesting and cryptic graffiti, an elaborate bas-sculpture on a wall, a funny or outlandish sign or notice. "Un Lun Dun" will now have me looking twice at discarded umbrellas and milk cartons, scrutinizing them for a sign of movement, looking for the shadows that are peeping out from an alternative UnLondon, and the adventure that lies within.
Many other Amazon reviewers have given great recommendations for books that you may like if you enjoy Un Lun Dun (or, vice versa!): popular fantasy novels like "Neverwhere" or fantastic movies such as "Spirited Away." I'd like to add my own recommendations--a trio of young adult novels of London: Tom Becker's "
Darkside," Charlie Fletcher's' "
The Stoneheart Trilogy," and Philip Reeve's "
Mortal Engines"--all charming and fantastic alternate versions of London. But I especially recommend the recent new
"Doctor Who" television series (especially the first season featuring Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper). For reasons of television production economy, Who has always had episodes set in Britain, but this new series connects the Doctor's companion Rose to her life and family in London, bringing her and the Doctor back again and again, not only to fight monsters and aliens under the London Eye or spaceships crashing into Big Ben, but also for the simple joy of eating a basket of hot salty chips--that's French fries to you and me--while wandering down the street. It's that mixture of the mundane and the fantastic that "Doctor Who"...and "Un Lun Dun" does so well, bringing alive an already-vibrant city with an air of adventure and magic.
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