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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section China Miéville

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From China Miéville: Critical Essays
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China Miéville by Rob O'Connor LAST REVIEWED: 28 July 2021 LAST MODIFIED: 28 July 2021 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199846719-0174

China Miéville is a British author and a significant writer of Fantastika fiction in the 21st century, his work showcasing a desire to write across a variety of different forms and genres. Miéville is associated with the writing of the New Weird movement, although he does not describe his work in this manner anymore. Born on 6 September 1972 in Norwich, UK, Miéville was brought up and has lived in London for much of his life. Miéville taught English in Egypt for a year before attending university. Here Miéville developed an interest in politics, especially Marxism and socialism, which continues to influence his academic life and creative work. After studying social anthropology at Cambridge, Miéville gained a master’s in 1995 and a PhD in international relations from the London School for Economics in 2001. Miéville found his own political viewpoint being drawn firmly toward Marxism due to feeling dissatisfied with the postmodern theories he was exposed to during his studies. Miéville’s first novel, King Rat , was published in 1998, but it was the following Bas-Lag trilogy ( Perdido Street Station, The Scar , and Iron Council ) that cemented his reputation as a writer. Miéville wrote Perdido Street Station alongside his PhD studies. His work has won many awards, including the Hugo Award for The City & The City , the Arthur C. Clarke Award an unprecedented three times, the British Fantasy Award twice, and Locus Awards four times across different categories. Miéville has been the guest of honor at multiple conventions and conferences, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction in 2018, and has held positions in both politics and creative writing in UK and US higher education institutions. Socialist politics is a constant theme throughout Miéville’s biography and creative work. Miéville was previously a member of the Socialist Workers Party in the United Kingdom, leaving the party in 2013 in disgust at the leadership’s attempted suppression and refusal to deal with rape allegations against a party member. He stood for election as a candidate for the Socialist Alliance in the 2001 general election for the constituency of Regent’s Park and Kensington North. Alive with creative world-building and experimental representations of monstrous bodies, Miéville’s work challenges the borders between categorization and presents genres as literary spaces that can be both politically engaging and socially relevant.

Even though Miéville has a strong reputation among genre communities, not many full-length volumes of Miéville-focused criticism are available. This section highlights some introductions to Miéville’s fiction that readers and scholars will find as a useful overview of Miéville’s themes, politics, and approaches. Edwards and Venezia 2015 is a useful volume in terms of scope, with several scholars providing input on a variety of themes within Miéville’s work. Freedman 2015 also looks at a scope of subjects and, more significantly, each chapter focuses on a separate book from Miéville’s oeuvre, making it a very accessible format. Clute 2020 provides a useful starting point for consideration of Miéville’s biography and his contribution to genre fictions. VanderMeer and VanderMeer 2008 is a significant evaluation of the New Weird movement, so strongly associated with Miéville. Vint 2009 was the first Miéville-centric scholarly collection and remains an excellent evaluation of his earlier work. A second special issue is surely warranted. The Rejectamentalist Manifesto blog provides valuable insight into Miéville’s thought processes.

Clute, John. “ China Miéville .” In The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . Edited by John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls, and Graham Sleight. n. p.: Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, 2020.

Clute’s entry on China Miéville is a useful assessment of his work to date, with extensive links to subjects, themes, and other areas of interest that appear within Miéville’s work. Clute provides brief but succinct examination of Miéville’s novels and presents a useful, foundational overview from which to expand.

Cramer, Kathryn. The New Weird Archives .

An archive of an important discussion from April 2003 regarding the definitions of the New Weird movement, started by the author M. John Harrison on his The Third Alternative message board. Many authors and critics joined the conversation, discussing tropes, motifs, and literary style of the New Weird. Miéville gets involved in the debate and many other contributors cite Miéville’s work as a prototype for the movement.

Edwards, Caroline, and Tony Venezia, eds. China Miéville: Critical Essays . Canterbury, UK: Gylphi Limited, 2015.

A book-length collection of essays focusing on Miéville’s work and its central themes. Edwards and Venezia highlight Miéville’s taxonomic playfulness with an “UnIntroduction” that effectively summarizes the three key subjects of Miéville’s work: exploration of genre fluidity through application of the Weird, psychogeographical exploration of the urban, and sociopolitical commentary regarding revolution and utopia. A detailed, critical analysis of Miéville’s oeuvre.

Freedman, Carl. Art and Idea in the Novels of China Miéville . Canterbury, UK: Gylphi Limited, 2015.

The first one-author, full-length exploration of Miéville’s work, Freedman’s book establishes Miéville as not only one of the most relevant writers in modern fiction but also the important relationship in his work between fantastic literature and contemporary politics. In each chapter, Freedman focuses on one specific Miéville novel and uses it to critically engage with various themes such as Marxism, imperialism, revolution, and language.

Miéville, China. The Rejectamentalist Manifesto .

The closest thing to a dedicated author website, The Rejectamentalist Manifesto is a blog where Miéville deposits thoughts and extracts from discarded pieces or work in progress. Sporadic posting means that it is not an accurate reflection of Miéville’s developing portfolio. However, the website does have some fascinating fragments to consider and was also where London’s Overthrow and some of his stories from Three Moments of an Explosion were first made available.

VanderMeer, Ann, and Jeff VanderMeer, eds. The New Weird . San Francisco: Tachyon, 2008.

The canonical anthology of the New Weird movement, Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s book uses the 2003 M. John Harrison conversation on the New Weird as a starting point and presents influences, current examples, and academic essays about the movement. The anthology contains a reprinting of Miéville’s short story “Jack” (from Looking for Jake and Other Stories ), and Perdido Street Station is highlighted as the flashpoint of the movement’s growing popularity.

Vint, Sherryl, ed. Special Issue: China Miéville . Extrapolation 50.2 (Summer 2009).

An insightful and relevant analysis of Miéville’s work can be found in this special issue of the science fiction journal Extrapolation . Edited by Sherryl Vint, the articles in this special issue cover all the pertinent themes of Miéville’s work to date, such as capitalism, fantasy world building, urbanism, hauntology, socialism, and revolution.

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China Mieville Books In Order

Publication order of new crobuzon books, publication order of dial h: the new 52 graphic novels, publication order of standalone novels, publication order of short stories/novellas, publication order of short story collections, publication order of picture books, publication order of non-fiction books, publication order of contemporary writers: critical essays books, publication order of year's best fantasy books, publication order of anthologies.

China Mieville is one of the well known British authors who likes to write novels based on the fantasy, new weird, Steampunk, and weird fiction genres. He is also popular as a comic writer, novelist, and academic. Author China was born on September 6, 1972, in Norwich, England, The United Kingdom, and is working as a professional writer since the year 1998. He often portrays his work as weird fiction, inspired from the early twentieth century horror and pulp writers like H.P. Lovecraft. Also, he considers himself to be a member of the loose group of authors called as New Weird. Apart from writing exciting fantasy novels, author China keeps himself busy with the left wing politics in The United Kingdom. He was previously active as a member in the International Socialist organization in The United States, as well as the International Socialist Network for a short time. In the year 2013, author China went on to lay the foundation of the Left Unity along with several other members, after working as a member in some other political organizations. During the United Kingdom General Election of 2001, he stood for the Socialist Alliance. Later, he went on to publish his PhD thesis based on international law and Marxism in the form of a book. During the time between 2012 and 2013, author China was invited as the writer in residence at the Roosevelt University, located in Chicago.

Even though author China was born in Norwich, he spent most of his growing years in Willesden, located in northwest London. Since his childhood days, he has lived in this city along with his mother Claudia and sister Jemima. Claudia works as a writer, teacher, and translator. The reason behind the fact that author China remained throughout his life with his mother is that his parents got separated right after his birth. Because of this, he has said in his interviews that he does not actually know his father. His mother used the first name China after searching in the dictionary for a beautiful name. As of today, author China holds a dual citizenship of England and America, because of his mother’s birth in the New York City. China Mieville did 2 years of his schooling from the Oakham School, which is a co-ed independent school located in Oakham, Rutland. When he was of 18 years old in the year 1990, he used to teach English in Egypt. He worked there for a period of 1 year and during the same time, developed an interest towards the Arab culture and the politics of the Middle East. Later on, author China completed his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Clare College, Cambridge, in social anthropology in the year 1994. After that, he also gained his master’s degree as well as a PhD from the London School of Economics in the year 2001, in the subject of international relations. He even held a fellowship of Frank Knox at the Harvard University. Author China tried to study the theories of the post-modern history and politics, but was largely dissatisfied. Therefore, he went on to become a Marxist at the university. Consequently, he wrote and published a book version of his own PhD thesis, which was published in The United Kingdom in the year 2005 and then in the United States in the year 2006.

One of the most successful novel series written by author China Mieville is titled as ‘New Crobuzon’. This series is also known as the Bag-Lag series and consists of 3 books in total. Author China has described a fictional city-state named New Crobuzon, which is described as being located in the fictional world called Bag-Lag. Both the fictional city and country feature in the first and third novels of the New Crobuzon series and serve as the background and a plot device for the second novel of the series. The series is known by different named in different countries and was very much successful all over the world. The debut novel of the series is entitled ‘Perdido Street Station’. This book was published by the Ballantine Del Rey publishers in the year 2000. The main plot of this book is set around the primary characters named Issac Dan der Grimnebulin, Derkhan Blueday, Construct Council, Lemuel Pigeon, Yagharek, Bentham Rudgutter, Mr. Motley, and Lin. Author China has set the plot in a fictional city named New Crobuzon, located in the fictional world called as Bag-Lag. The book begins with the description of the city of New Crobuzon as lying beneath the bleached ribs of one of the ancient and deadly beasts. The city appears to be quite popular for its unsavory deal. Issac Grimnebulin is introduced as an eccentric and gifted scientist who keeps himself busy with his unique research work. Soon, he begins to face difficulties in his quiet life when a half-human, half-bird creature named Garuda comes to take him afar. Garuda makes a scientifically daunting request to Isaac, but he seems to be sparked by the curiosity of uncanny reverence of Garuda. In the end, the occurrence of an eerie metamorphosis takes place which permeates the city of New Crobuzon.

The first novel of the New Crobuzon series was followed by one of the other initial novels titled as ‘Iron Council’. This novel was published by the Del Rey publishers and is also set in the fictional country of Bag-Lag. This book appears to have a fantastic and fresh band of characters who form an important part of the plot set around several decades later in the city of New Crobuzn, than the first novel. At the beginning of the novel, it is depicted that conflict, wars, intrigue, and revolutions in taking place in New Crobuzon. These things are causing the destruction of the city, pushing it to the brink. The continuous rioting on the streets and the war with the neighboring city of Tesh is also affecting New Crobuzon a lot. After a mysterious figure begins a strange rebellion, the city gets filled with violence and treachery. Looking desperately for a solution and hope, a small renegade group escape from the city and cross the alien and strange continents. In the meantime, the dangerous hours begin in the city of New Crobuzon and rumors begin to spread that the time has come to the iron council. This book proved to be a lyrical and voluminous novel, which helped author China to become a more successful novelist and prolong his writing career.

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China Mieville: October

As an author of fiction and leftist activist, China Miéville in his last volume is able to offer a brilliant retelling of the Russian Revolution. The author starts the narration in medias res, leaving aside all ideological battles. One can say that among the vast range of critical works about this epoch-making event, this volume has the peculiarity of offering a historically accurate overview without adopting an academic tone and a strictly scholarly approach. However, this does not mean that the pages in question are not the result of an accurate enquiry, quite the contrary. And as evidence of this, one might mention two precious tools provided at the end of the volume: one is the glossary of the personal names which were involved in the revolution and the other is a selected list of titles that the author found extremely helpful when carrying out his research for the book.