Thursday, December 30, 2004
Straddling the Line

First post on the blog. I am currently reading Mieville's Perdido Station. It is my second time through it and it is coming along much better than the first.

My biggest suprise is how much more I like it. The book is a bit dystopian, but damn! what a city. It hums like a real city, it feels like a real city. Not NYC, or Boston, or London, but it has its own charm and speed.

The prose is also quite excellent, which brings me to a point. It seems that most authors are either gifted in story (plot, characters, pacing, etc.) or gifted in writing (wordplay, use of language), but rarely both. Mielville straddles the line better than most.

To use a non-sci fi example, if you look at Jeanette Winterson, her prose is absolutely, spell blindingly amazing. But you read paragraph after paragraph and wonder, what is it all for? What's the point?

Anyone else have any good ideas as to who else straddles the line?

Posted by Michael Swietek 2004-12-30 15:50:22