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2018/37: The Last Days of New Paris -- China Mieville
2018/37: The Last Days of New Paris -- China Mieville
This is more novella than novel, but Mieville packs in enough high-culture weirdness, alternate history and arcane travelogue for a much longer book. I'm not sure I'd have had the stamina, though: the prose veers wildly from lyrical and immediate to borderline pretentiousness.
( no spoilers )
... the demons winced through their sneers. They rubbed their skins gingerly when they thought they weren’t observed. When they killed and tormented it was in faintly needy fashion. They seemed anxious. They stank not only of sulfur but infection. Sometimes they wept with pain. [p. 28]
This is more novella than novel, but Mieville packs in enough high-culture weirdness, alternate history and arcane travelogue for a much longer book. I'm not sure I'd have had the stamina, though: the prose veers wildly from lyrical and immediate to borderline pretentiousness.
( no spoilers )