Review : Written by Aldarion, Of Malazan.Com. And WoT mania.
*SPOILERS*
Here's what I said about it elsewhere, with spoilers:
Sometimes, great things come in small packages. Sometimes. But before you worry about this novella being an exception to that rule, think again.
I personally prefer a minimalist style to writing whenever possible. In most fantasies, that is nigh impossible due to bloated book lengths, which often stretches a story out of whack. In the introduction to The Tain that I posted yesterday, M. John Harrison notes this, saying that he believes that Miéville's message fits better within the structure of a novella rather than a large novel.
And what a message! The story is set in a post-apocalyptic London, one that is being swarmed by creatures known as imagos. The "protagonist" in the story is a human named Sholl. But the story, while borrowing a bit of its mood from movies like Planet of the Apes, is in the end strikingly imaginative.
For the imagos are but our escaped images from mirrors, reflected creatures bound to serve and mimic our expression in mirrors, in particular the backpart, or tain. Horrified at thousands of years of imprisonment, the imagos manage to escape and in increasingly less-reflected actions of their human enemies, take over the city, remaking it in their own fitting "image."
The story focuses on how images and "reality" clash and co-exist, working and feeding off of each other. There is no true "good" or "evil," as reflected in the thoughts and actions of Sholl.
The ending is a bit of a surprise, at least for those who expect a clearcut "victory." But it does fit in with other themes that Miéville has expounded upon in his novels. I found it to be very fitting, binding the threads of the novella together into a coherent, provocative force.
I liked this story a lot. There is much of the Perdidos and Scars in the story, but with a much more taut structure. It's as if Miéville distilled his message to be even more pure in The Tain, and for that, it makes for an interesting read. If this novella is any indication, then it would appear likely that future Bas-Lag stories should (pardon the expression) reflect Miéville's continued maturation as a writer.
It is unfortunate that this story is not widely available, since I have but one of 900 First Edition copies available. I hope that Miéville writes a few more of these stories and issue them as a collected works book, so more can enjoy and appreciate his gifts.
So yeah, I liked it a lot. I think novella-length fiction suits Miéville even more than his longer fiction, and I loved both PSS and The Scar.
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Review at Infinity Plus Website:
www.infinityplus.co.uk//nonfiction/tain.htm*
Brief Review fron the SF Site:
China Miéville's New Crobuzan has many of the same traits as Di Filippo's Linear City, but it is not the subject of his story The Tain. Instead, Miéville visits New Crobuzon's model London in this post-apocalyptic tale. Vastly depopulated of humans and now home to numerous imagos and vampires, the London of The Tain shares a feel with the classic novel The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham. Miéville focuses his attention on Sholl, a loner and survivor who finds time to question the existence of the imagos and, eventually, commandeers a troop of irregulars to help him gain answers. Miéville also tells the story of an imago who has made his way from the other side of the mirror world, which has invaded our world. The opposing (literally) viewpoints, raise the story above the level of simply the tale of survival and invasion. Furthermore, the story is written with Miéville's standard exceptional flair for atmosphere and his catastrophic London comes alive.
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