A review by tea_tales_tomes
Un Lun Dun by China Miéville

5.0

This story and China Mieville's writing was described in another review as a combination of Alice in Wonderland and Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, which is not untrue even though I hate describing one book using other books. Sometimes it can't be helped. I will go further and say that it is like all the best bits of Neil Gaiman, Roald Dahl, Enid Blyton and J.K. Rowling all came together in a wonderful symphony. Un Lun Dun has the best elements of 'story' from unconventional characters (un-heroes and un-chosen ones), weird and wonderful words (like the 'through the looking glass cities' of UnLondon, Parisn't, Baghdidn't, Sans Francisco, Lost Angeles etc.), completely crack characters (like the nunchuck toting bin-warriors i.e.,binjas) and an underlying although not at all preachy environmental message (I think this really was an accidental by-product of the story). Best of all, Mieville is not a lazy author who masks incomprehensible plot twists, underdeveloped characters and bad endings as 'deep' writing. He builds this world that is so complete that you cannot help but become lost in it and at the same time, allows room for your imagination to run away with you.