reading

[egypturnash]

Halfway through China Miéville's first book, King Rat. It's all too short, I think... I'll likely have devoured it by the time I go to bed. (I'd picked it up Saturday evening, read a couple chapters this morning, went out, then started my supper and started reading it.)

It's the book that Neil Gaiman wanted to write when he wrote Neverwhere. Short, dense, slyly mythic, gritty. Urban fantasy. Like Miéville's later books, the city is a definite presence in the story, halfway to being its own character, but the city in this one is real: London. There isn't a magical Other London for the hero to dive into here, just the back alleys and sewers. And rats.

Pretty good so far.

(This entry will likely be updated later tonight when I finish the book.)

Good to the end.

The climactic battle takes place at a rave, BTW. There 's a bit where Miéville "dances about architecture" decently well, describing weird noisecore D&B rather compellingly.

Comments

[electricgecko.livejournal.com]

Weird noisecore D&B?

The sheer volume of electronica genres never ceases to amaze.

(And I gotta hear some of that.)

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Well, that's how I'd describe it. He just calls the track in question a piece of D&B, but it's described as being made up primarily of manipulated static. More into the realm of noise music to me. Or depending on just how beaty the static bursts really are, it might've been IDM. Certainly not just straight jungly d&b.

[fourprint.livejournal.com]

"People have been talking a lot about 'intelligent drum & bass', which presumes, I suppose, that there is such a thing as 'stupid drum & bass'. I think personally I should be more inclined toward stupid drum & bass." -- John Peel (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/alt/johnpeel)

[mattlazycat.livejournal.com]

Coo. That's gone firmly to the top of my wishlist, along with Perdido Street Station and Scar. All look fascinating. All will be mine. Curiously, King Rat isn't available in eBook format, even though the other two are. Pesky.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Different licensing deals, perhaps... the copy of King Rat I have is a US edition from Tor, and claims to have been first published in England by Macmillan; the copies of Perdido and Scar are also originally Macmillan UK editions, but put out in the States by Del Ray.

Though isn't Tor pretty aggressive about doing e-books? Hm, maybe that's it, they have the US e-book rights to Rat tied up.

Me, I just curl up with the dead-tree version still, because I like to see my hoard of books slowly grow (even if it has taken over half my living space) and I still like the physical experience of it. If I had a laptop I might consider them more, but the only portable computng device I have is my PDA. Reading The Hobbit on it when I was going through LOTR and didn't feel like spending even more money on JRRT was kinda amusing, but it's not really good for reading.

[mattlazycat.livejournal.com]

See, I'm the opposite there. If I was stuck on using a laptop, I wouldn't bother at all, but my PDA is tiny and actually fits in my pocket with room to spare. And it's got a nice gentle green backlight, a screen with a higher dot-pitch than my PC monitor, and a very readable font. I find that it's every bit as portable and comfortable to use as a hardcopy edition, and maybe more so because I can curl up in bed with the lights off, or sit in the bath in dim candle-light and read away. I'm frequently frustrated by having to carry a paperback now - it's just can't go everywhere with me unless I carry a bag.

All this isn't to say that I dislike books. I have a pretty huge collection of dead-tree editions too. I like the feel of them, and the ability to just pass them on to people when I'm done with them. And they smell nice, which you don't get with PDAs. But it's a fair compromise for me. :)

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

My PDA used to fit in my pocket, but then I started wearing skin-tight jeans. So my wallet and keys and PDA and whatnot all go in my backpack. Which also carries the 9x12 sketchbook.

And my PDA is a cute little Visor Edge. Stylish (well, not so much any more now that the cover's hinge is ragged and the big sticker of Spyro on it has mostly rubbed off), but just 160x160 resolution. It's like reading off a Commodore 64. A very jagged experience.

E-books are cool in concept, but my equipment just doesn't cut it.

[mattlazycat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my Clié T425 is 320x320 and about 1cm thick. I prefer combats/cargo pants which have a bunch of pockets, but even the pants that don't have leg pockets aren't usually an issue with something that size.

Also, I'm doubtless ruining my eyes. :)

[hydra-velsen.livejournal.com]

I might have to give it a look.