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This Census-Taker
''This Census-Taker'' is a 2016 novella by British author China Miéville. It tells the story of a boy who witnesses a violent event, which he recalls initially as his mother killing his father, but later as his father killing his mother. Centred on the mysterious events surrounding the alleged murder, it is told alternately in the first and third-person by an unreliable narrator. The writing style is sparse, Kafkaesque and a departure from the detailed world-building of Miéville's prior work. The book explores the uncertainty and trauma experienced by the boy and features secret messages and keys as motifs. Reviewers found the story creative and praised its eerie atmosphere, but were divided about the plot due to its open-endedness. NPR described the novella as "a beautiful chocolate that you bite into and find filled with blood", and ''The Scotsman'' found its unresolved nature tantalising, while ''The New York Times'' termed it "an exercise in haunting, lovely frustration". ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WikiProject Novels
A WikiProject, or Wikiproject, is a Wikimedia movement affinity group for contributors with shared goals. WikiProjects are prevalent within the largest wiki, Wikipedia, and exist to varying degrees within sister projects such as Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikidata, and Wikisource. They also exist in different languages, and translation of articles is a form of their collaboration. During the COVID-19 pandemic, CBS News noted the role of Wikipedia's WikiProject Medicine in maintaining the accuracy of articles related to the disease. Another WikiProject that has drawn attention is WikiProject Women Scientists, which was profiled by '' Smithsonian'' for its efforts to improve coverage of women scientists which the profile noted had "helped increase the number of female scientists on Wikipedia from around 1,600 to over 5,000". On Wikipedia Some Wikipedia WikiProjects are substantial enough to engage in cooperative activities with outside organizations relevant to the field at issue. For e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
King Rat (Miéville Novel)
''King Rat'' is an urban fantasy novel by British writer China Miéville, published in 1998. Unlike his Bas-Lag novels, it is set in London during the late 1990s. It follows the life of Saul Garamond after the death of his father and his meeting with King Rat. As King Rat takes Saul under his wing, the young man is quickly embroiled in a centuries-old rivalry. ''King Rat'' was Miéville's debut novel. Plot summary Saul Garamond returns to the flat he shares with his father in London late one evening, skipping on greetings and heading straight to bed. In the morning he is awakened by police pounding on the door, come to arrest him. It appears he is the lone suspect in his father's murder case. After spending most of a day being interrogated and in a holding cell, Saul finds he has a mysterious visitor, who introduces himself as King Rat. The two begin a one sided rooftop escape as King Rat carries Saul along. At the end of this journey, King Rat reveals to Saul that he is his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicoletta Vallorani
Nicoletta Vallorani (born 7 February 1959) is an Italian science fiction writer. Born in Offida, in the Marche region, she holds a degree in Foreign Languages with a dissertation on Contemporary American Literature, honed her writing skills as a translator and currently teaches English Language and Literature in the University of Milan, Milan. Her work as an essayist focuses on Italian science fiction criticism, and science fiction from women in particular. She contributed to various genre magazines, including ''Cosmo'', ''La città e le stelle'', ''Studi e ricerche sulla fantascienza'' and ''Ucronia''. For Mondadori she did volume prefaces, articles, interviews, columns. Starting in the mid-1980s she published novels and short-story collections. She won the Premio Urania 1992 with the novel ''Il cuore finto di DR'', a science fiction/noir cross-pollination published by Mondadori under the ''Urania'' inprint the following year, and also translated in French. She also writes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosmicomics'' collection of short stories (1965), and the novels ''Invisible Cities'' (1972) and ''If on a winter's night a traveler'' (1979). Admired in Britain, Australia and the United States, he was the most translated contemporary Italian writer at the time of his death. Italo Calvino is buried in the garden cemetery of Castiglione della Pescaia, in Tuscany. Biography Parents Italo Calvino was born in Santiago de las Vegas, a suburb of Havana, Cuba, in 1923. His father, Mario, was a tropical agronomist and botanist who also taught agriculture and floriculture. Born 47 years earlier in Sanremo, Italy, Mario Calvino had emigrated to Mexico in 1909 where he took up an important position with the Ministry of Agriculture. In an autobiographical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Freedman (writer)
Carl Howard Freedman (born 1951) is an American writer, literary theorist and professor of English literature at Louisiana State University. He is best known for the non-fiction book ''Critical Theory and Science Fiction'', and his scholarly work on the writer Philip K. Dick. Freedman's other works include a series of books on Isaac Asimov, Ursula K. Le Guin and Samuel R. Delany, and several essays and a book on China Miéville. In 2018, he won the Pilgrim Award for lifetime contribution to science fiction and fantasy scholarship. Life and career Carl Freedman was born in North Carolina in 1951. He received his BA in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Oxford University, and his PhD from Yale University. He is currently the William A. Read Professor of English literature at Louisiana State University, where he was named a distinguished research master in 2013. Freedman's most highly cited work is his 2000 book, ''Critical Theory and Science Fiction' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strange Horizons
''Strange Horizons'' is an online speculative fiction magazine. It also features speculative poetry and nonfiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables. History and profile It was launched in September 2000, and publishes new material (fiction, articles, reviews, poetry, and/or art) 51 weeks of the year, with an emphasis on "new, underrepresented, and global voices." The magazine was founded by writer and editor Mary Anne Mohanraj. It has a staff of approximately sixty volunteers, and is unusual among professional speculative fiction magazines in being funded entirely by donations, holding annual fund drives. Editors-in-chief * Mary Anne Mohanraj, 2000–2003 * Susan Marie Groppi, 2004–2010 * Niall Harrison, 2010–2017 * Jane Crowley and Kate Dollarhyde, 2017–2019 * Vanessa Rose Phin, 2019–2021 * Gautam Bhatia, 2021–present Awards Susan Marie Groppi won the World Fantasy Special Award: Non-Professional in 2010 for her work as Ed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Embassytown
''Embassytown'' is a science fiction novel by British author China Miéville. It was published in the UK by Pan Macmillan on 6 May 2011, and in the US by Del Rey Books on 17 May 2011. A limited edition was released by Subterranean Press. The plot of the novel surrounds the town of Embassytown, the native alien residents known as Ariekei, their Language, and the human interaction with them. The novel was well reviewed and won the 2012 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Plot ''Embassytown'' takes place mostly in the city of the title, on the planet Arieka. It exists on the very edge of the known universe, which given its distance from everything else, is only accessible by sailing through the "immer" (see § Style below for the meaning of Miéville's neologisms). Embassytown is a colony of a state called Bremen; and its trade goods (precious metal and, especially, alien-influenced biotech), along with Embassytown's unique position at the edge of the known universe, make ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bas-Lag
Bas-Lag is the fictional world in which several of English author China Miéville's novels are set. Bas-Lag is a world where both magic (referred to as "thaumaturgy") and steampunk technology exist, and is home to many intelligent races. It is influenced by the themes and tropes of multiple genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Novels So far there have been three novels set in Bas-Lag. They are: *''Perdido Street Station'' *'' The Scar'' *''Iron Council'' Additionally, the short story "Jack", featured in the 2005 collection ''Looking for Jake'', is a Bas-Lag story. Geography Bas-Lag possesses a number of continents. Two landmasses, Rohagi and Bered Kai Nev, are named in the three novels, though numerous other landmasses and unique structures play important roles. Rohagi The exact proportions and geography of Rohagi are unknown. New Crobuzon lies about ten miles (16 km) inland from its eastern coast, which borders the Swollen Ocean. Immediately south of New Crobuz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secondary World
A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes may appear in novels, comics, films, television shows, video games, and other creative works. The subject is most commonly addressed in reference to fictional universes that differ markedly from the real world, such as those that introduce entire fictional cities, countries, or even planets, or those that contradict commonly known facts about the world and its history, or those that feature fantasy or science fiction concepts such as magic or faster than light travel—and especially those in which the deliberate development of the setting is a substantial focus of the work. When a large franchise of related works has two or more somewhat different fictional universes that are each internally consistent but not consistent with each other (suc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iron Council
''Iron Council'' (2004) is a weird fantasy novel by the British writer China Miéville, his third set in the Bas-Lag universe, following ''Perdido Street Station'' (2000) and '' The Scar'' (2002). In addition to the steampunk influences shared by its predecessors, ''Iron Council'' draws several elements from the western genre. ''Iron Council'' is one of China Miéville's most overtly political novels, being strongly inspired by the anti-globalization movement, and tackling issues such as imperialism, corporatism, terrorism, racial hatred, homosexuality, culture shock, labour rights and war. The novel won the Arthur C. Clarke and Locus Awards in 2005, and was also nominated for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards the same year. Plot ''Iron Council'' follows three major narrative threads that join to form the novel's climax. Although Miéville weaves back and forth between narrative, time and space, this summary will follow each narrative individually, discussing their relatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Scar (novel)
''The Scar'' is a weird fantasy novel by British writer China Miéville, the second set in his Bas-Lag universe. ''The Scar'' won the 2003 British Fantasy Award and was shortlisted for the 2003 Arthur C. Clarke Award. ''The Scar'' was additionally nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award in 2002 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2003. It is set directly after the events described in ''Perdido Street Station''. Plot summary ''The Scar'' opens with the journey of a small ship which has set out from the city New Crobuzon (the setting of ''Perdido Street Station''). It is heading to the city's new colony, Nova Esperium, which lies across the Swollen Ocean of Bas-Lag. On board the ship are: *Bellis Coldwine, a cold, reserved linguist who is fleeing for her life for her alleged connection to the events in ''Perdido Street Station''. *Johannes Tearfly, a scientist whose interests lie in megafauna and underwater sealife. *Tanner Sack, a Remade criminal (that is, he has had his b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perdido Street Station
''Perdido Street Station'' is a novel by British writer China Miéville, published in 2000 by Macmillan. Often described as weird fiction, it is set in a world where both magic and steampunk technology exist. It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was ranked by ''Locus'' as the 6th all-time best fantasy novel published in the 20th century. ''Perdido Street Station'' is the first of three independent works set in the fictional world of Bas-Lag, and is followed by '' The Scar'' and ''Iron Council''. Background ''Perdido Street Station'' is set in the fictional world of Bas-Lag, in the large city-state of New Crobuzon; the title refers to a railway station at the heart of the city. Miéville described the book as "basically a secondary world fantasy with Victorian era technology. So rather than being a feudal world, it's an early industrial capitalist world of a fairly grubby, police statey kind!". The book was published simultaneously in the UK and Australia in March 2000 by Ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
