Quote:
|
Originally Posted by mikeo Was it just me, or were they all a bit difficult to like as people? |
No mikeo, it wasn't just you. I too find many of China's characters very difficult to like.
Like many people seem to have done I also started reading Mieville from The Scar, and am now halfway through Iron Council (in the slow back-story of Judah, to be exact). I have to agree that the strength of his writing keeps me interested more than any other part of the book. (For instance the confusing and random structure!)
I know that a good writer does not make all his characters "goody-two-shoes" free from moral complications, but it can get a bit tiresome when
all the characters seem to be spiteful, boring, sulky or just plain crude. A good writer has the ability to bond characters to readers, even if those readers don't always agree with the actions of the character. Unfortunately I have not yet bonded with any of Mievilles characters and find them rather irritating.
Also - has anyone else noticed that there doesn't seem to be much beauty in the world of Bas-Lag? Sure there are amazing things, but the closest I think Mieville has got to actual beauty was the description of the underwater Crab City in the Scar. I loved those people, but about half-way thorough The Scar they seem to have been forgotten, and I have not encountered them in any parts of the books since. Every other town or city in the whole of Bas-Lag seems to be dirty, dingy, scummy and depressing in appearance and in population. I find it rather tiring.
That said, Mieville is definitley a writer of innovation, and it is his incredible creativity that keeps me reading