A neat, satisfyingly weird little fable, an alternative history of WWII Paris, in which the Surrealist Resistance uses art come to life to fight the Nazis. What more can you ask for, from the the wickedly weird imagination of the delightful Mr. Miéville?
Think of it as the love child of the Strugatsky Brothers "Roadside Picnic" and Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle" ...
Paris has been turned into a no-go Zone by an infernal device invented by a young acolyte of Satanist Aleister Crowley. The imagination of 20th Century Modernist artists and writers has been weaponised and brought to life, stalking the streets, and terrorising trapped Resistance fighters, Nazi soldiers and civilians alike. Young Thibault -- who is a sensitive, and can tell the difference between ordinary objects and surreal "manifs" (or manifestations ...), and should be able to warn his Resistance comrades of possible dangers, and even control the manifs a little -- has led his comrades into a manif ambush, with horrifying consequences, and now only wants out of the endless fighting.
Sam is a mysterious young woman who has gained access to the blighted arrondissements of Paris (when no one should be able to go in or out), and says that she is working on a photography project, recording the manifs for posterity ... but is she ...?
It's all excellent good, mind-blowing stuff -- witty, thoughtful and weird. I loved it, even if sometimes the in-jokes about Modernist artist of the 1930s dragged a little in the middle (you hadda be there, I guess ...) But there are cameo appearances by "... two austere activists, Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil and her lover, the Irishman Beckett ...", and I would love it for that alone ...
Think of it as the love child of the Strugatsky Brothers "Roadside Picnic" and Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle" ...
Paris has been turned into a no-go Zone by an infernal device invented by a young acolyte of Satanist Aleister Crowley. The imagination of 20th Century Modernist artists and writers has been weaponised and brought to life, stalking the streets, and terrorising trapped Resistance fighters, Nazi soldiers and civilians alike. Young Thibault -- who is a sensitive, and can tell the difference between ordinary objects and surreal "manifs" (or manifestations ...), and should be able to warn his Resistance comrades of possible dangers, and even control the manifs a little -- has led his comrades into a manif ambush, with horrifying consequences, and now only wants out of the endless fighting.
Sam is a mysterious young woman who has gained access to the blighted arrondissements of Paris (when no one should be able to go in or out), and says that she is working on a photography project, recording the manifs for posterity ... but is she ...?
It's all excellent good, mind-blowing stuff -- witty, thoughtful and weird. I loved it, even if sometimes the in-jokes about Modernist artist of the 1930s dragged a little in the middle (you hadda be there, I guess ...) But there are cameo appearances by "... two austere activists, Suzanne Dechevaux-Dumesnil and her lover, the Irishman Beckett ...", and I would love it for that alone ...
