Mieville, China - Un Lun Dun
Tue, Mar. 18th, 2008 07:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterOh, I love this!
Zanna and Deeba find themselves crawling into UnLondon (ergo the book title), where Zanna is the destined savior ("the Shwazzy") against the encroach of the deadly Smog. That said, Deeba is the character I love, and she is made of awesome. Girls of color who kick ass for the win!
I'm putting most of this under spoiler cut. So for those of you who haven't read it, go read it! It's wildly inventive and fun and I love it so much for some of its takes on genre tropes, and it has binjas and unbrellas and an UnSun and smombies, and like![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cofax7 says, it reminds me of The Phantom Tollbooth, only with a kickass girl of color and a world that both feels timeless and very modern.
I started out very worried; I knew there was a girl of color whom both Minnow and Cofax thought was awesome, but I was very disgruntled by Zanna's designation as the Destined Hero and Deeba as the supposed sidekick, particularly since Zanna is tall and blonde and Deeba... is not. Deeba is short and Asian (as in British Asian as in Indian).
And then Zanna gets caught by smog and Deeba finds out that the plot is thicker than previously realized, and she returns alone to UnLondon to fight the smog. I LOVED this. I love how Mieville subverts the usual "Chosen One" savior, I love the moment Deeba finds out she's supposed to be the Funny Sidekick, I love how she decides plot coupons are dumb and goes straight for the last one, I love that she chucks the books out of the window. It reminded me very strongly of Buffy and how Buffy deals with the Watcher's Council and all her prophecies. I love how the villains are scary and banal at the same time; the most frightening remind me the most of the facelesss time-waster guy from Phantom Tollbooth, which I remember as the scariest villain in the book.
I should say more, except I haven't written this up for days and days because I can't quite get through what I want to say. So just go read it!
Links:
-minnow1212's review
-cofax7's review
-gwyneira's review
Zanna and Deeba find themselves crawling into UnLondon (ergo the book title), where Zanna is the destined savior ("the Shwazzy") against the encroach of the deadly Smog. That said, Deeba is the character I love, and she is made of awesome. Girls of color who kick ass for the win!
I'm putting most of this under spoiler cut. So for those of you who haven't read it, go read it! It's wildly inventive and fun and I love it so much for some of its takes on genre tropes, and it has binjas and unbrellas and an UnSun and smombies, and like
cofax7 says, it reminds me of The Phantom Tollbooth, only with a kickass girl of color and a world that both feels timeless and very modern.I started out very worried; I knew there was a girl of color whom both Minnow and Cofax thought was awesome, but I was very disgruntled by Zanna's designation as the Destined Hero and Deeba as the supposed sidekick, particularly since Zanna is tall and blonde and Deeba... is not. Deeba is short and Asian (as in British Asian as in Indian).
And then Zanna gets caught by smog and Deeba finds out that the plot is thicker than previously realized, and she returns alone to UnLondon to fight the smog. I LOVED this. I love how Mieville subverts the usual "Chosen One" savior, I love the moment Deeba finds out she's supposed to be the Funny Sidekick, I love how she decides plot coupons are dumb and goes straight for the last one, I love that she chucks the books out of the window. It reminded me very strongly of Buffy and how Buffy deals with the Watcher's Council and all her prophecies. I love how the villains are scary and banal at the same time; the most frightening remind me the most of the facelesss time-waster guy from Phantom Tollbooth, which I remember as the scariest villain in the book.
I should say more, except I haven't written this up for days and days because I can't quite get through what I want to say. So just go read it!
Links:
-
minnow1212's review-
cofax7's review-
gwyneira's review
(no subject)
Wed, Mar. 19th, 2008 03:10 am (UTC)