jez wrote:
hi, this is my first post and i hate to come across like a troll cos i'm not, but i really have to get this off my chest about the china mieville 'spectacular' in this month's dragon.
i've been reading dragon since about '91, and i've always appreciated that the guys putting it together have a hard time pleasing everyone, especially as in my experience us gamer geeks can be a tough audience. some issues i've found more inspiring or useful than others, (obviously!) but i've always enjoyed reading each issue... until this one.
i don't like china mieville as an author or a person. there is nothing in the huge amount of pages dedicated to his work that i want to include in my games. and i'm really disappointed with this issue. when i saw the preview in last month's issue i felt a sense of dread and some of my friends told me i should have not bothered buying it, but i didn't listen. i should have done!
see, i get that some people really dig his work and find it very radical and new and that's cool. whatever floats your boat. but it doesn't work for me. i could have happily turned a blind eye to a two-page novel approaches style article - but this was the lion's share of an entire issue!
i thought the novel approach articles were a great idea. really fantastic. i get loads of ideas from them, and odten end up rummaging on my bookshelves for a book i'd almost forgotten about.
and there are so many cool new fantasy books out there! a couple of days ago i started reading philip reeve's 'mortal engine's' series and they're way cool! delightfully imaginative and slightly askew, and real rip-roaring adventures.
but mieville doesn't do it for me.
see, there's a lot of fantasy out there that i don't like. i don't as a rule like tolkien clones (i don't particularly like tolkien), i don't like pretentiousness on the part of the author, i like fresh ideas and new ways of looking at things.
now i know mieville thinks of himself as a revolutionary, both politically and literally, but i don't view him as...
I agree, for the most part. My younger brother and I are both avid lovers of fantasy literature as well as diehard D&D'ers. I bought Perdido Street Station for my little bro based entirely off of this particular issue of Dragon magazine. The article itself proved to be far more interesting than the book (so well done Dragon staffmembers!). It was certainly a fresh, albiet *boring* take on fantasy literature, that's for certain. However, (and this is just my opinion), one needn't read any further than the bit about the Vodyanoi stevedore strikes to see that the entire novel is meant as something of a socialist fairytale/manifesto. Additionally, I'm QUITE glad I read it before giving it to my 14 year old brother to read. Again, this is just my opinion, but I would hope that any parent whose child asks to read Perdido Street Station does the right thing and scans through the book to decide whether or not it's appropriate for them. I've already told my brother that it's definitely a *very* adult book and gave it to mom and pop to hang on to until such a time as they think it's appropriate to give to him.
Still, my final ruling on the issue in question - Perdido Street Station is a very creative but, on the whole, very average novel...*however*, the staff of Dragon did such a fine job on the article that it definitely makes a decent gaming world. Also, I definitely plan on using "He-who-hums" at some point in my current Greyhawk campaign. Good stuff...