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The Tain, China Miéville
Bleak, chilling, and incredibly complex, it is a story to
keep your mind working on the subject matter for a long time. It may even
change the way you look at yourself and the world around you.
Sholl, the hazy character leading off the story, is a refugee in a
war-torn London. This ongoing devastation is not the easily understood
Blitz of the second World War, though. The enemy here is like nothing the
humans have ever faced, yet is as familiar as, say, the lines in one's
palm. And if there is a way to fight back against the invaders, no one has
found it yet. The good and bad people of Old Blighty are on their way to
extinction.
Miéville's choice of boogeymen is unexpected and unnervingly apt. Not
content to leave readers shaking their heads over a vision of London as a
ghost town, he forces us, instead, to examine our own behaviour, to wonder
if we somehow brought this upon ourselves, to realise that we just never
even gave this possible enemy a serious thought. That is the most
terrifying conclusion of all.
Now, it is up to Sholl, no one's idea of a conquering hero, to find a
solution that will salvage a seemingly hopeless situation. He knows what
he must do, but precisely what is anybody's guess. And never forget for an
instant that Sholl is far from the only variable in this incalculable
disaster. What of the enemy? What is it that will truly satisfy them?
There is no ready answer to that.
And as acclaimed author and critic M. John Harrison suggests, DO NOT read
the introduction before you plunge into the story. Save it for later when
you are still shaking your head.
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