Apocalypse Fiction Club: China Miéville's Three Moments of an Explosion
December 29, 2015 6:10 PM - Subscribe
Wednesday, January 6th, we'll start talking about China Miéville's recent short story collection - Three Moments of an Explosion. As an experiment, I'm going to try doing a few posts, one for each of several of the more "apocalyptic" stories in this collection...
On the 6th, I'll post about the first story in the book, "Polynia". Comment below if there are other specific stories from this book that you'd like to talk about. I'll shoot for 3 to 5 posts next week, highlighting 3 to 5 stories from this book. As not all the stories are especially apocalyptic, this seemed like an experiment in how to focus discussion for a short story collection. Feedback and suggestions re: format welcome.
On the 6th, I'll post about the first story in the book, "Polynia". Comment below if there are other specific stories from this book that you'd like to talk about. I'll shoot for 3 to 5 posts next week, highlighting 3 to 5 stories from this book. As not all the stories are especially apocalyptic, this seemed like an experiment in how to focus discussion for a short story collection. Feedback and suggestions re: format welcome.
Cool, I just happen to be reading this book right now and discussing it with MeFites sounds great...
posted by overglow at 12:59 AM on January 1, 2016
posted by overglow at 12:59 AM on January 1, 2016
I've never read Mieville. Would this collection be a good introduction or should I start elsewhere?
posted by cazoo at 10:14 PM on January 1, 2016
posted by cazoo at 10:14 PM on January 1, 2016
I've only read a couple of his books but these short stories do seem like a good enough introduction. ..
posted by latkes at 3:13 PM on January 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by latkes at 3:13 PM on January 2, 2016 [1 favorite]
Mieville has a pretty broad range... he's written in, around, and outside of a variety of genres... I think this collection is as good a place to start as any, though none of the stories I've read it in so far are secondary world fantasy, which is a big aspect of some of his most famous novels.
posted by overglow at 1:47 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by overglow at 1:47 PM on January 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
I think one may also need some context, and the only context is from China. I picked one of his books, Iron Concil maybe and could make not head or tails, and I'm a pretty hardcore SF reader. Perdido Street Station made a lot more sense, in a "what the god forsaken hell is going on here" sense, that is.
posted by sammyo at 3:12 PM on January 8, 2016
posted by sammyo at 3:12 PM on January 8, 2016
The few short stories I read from this collection were straight forward enough to work without context. Where they confused, they did so deliberately.
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:56 AM on January 11, 2016
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:56 AM on January 11, 2016
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posted by stet at 5:21 PM on December 31, 2015