Un Lun Dun, released February 13^th of this year, is the newest novel by China Miéville, acclaimed author of King Rat, Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council. This novel is his first foray into the young adult book scene, but its YA status doesn’t preclude adults from enjoying it.

The story starts out with two young girls, best friends named Zanna and Deeba, in the city of London. Strange occurrences abound until finally, one night, they accidentally transport themselves to an alternate world filled with puns (though not as prolific, obvious, or painful as those of Pierce Anthony’s “Xanth” series). They discover that a menace looms that must be defeated, and can only be defeated by the Chosen, for whom the weird residents of Un Lun Dun have been waiting all this time.

The tale is beautifully fabulous, with the majority of the action taking place in Un Lun Dun. The strange world abounds with irrational characters and ideas usually not found in adult literature, even in adult fantasy: one has a bottle of ink for a head, in which it dips a pen to write. Another literally speaks words into existence: absurd, beautiful, grotesque, beings crawl from its mouth when it speaks (and even these living words become functional characters in the novel). Trash is capable of sentience, giraffes are dangerous carnivores, and various other normal things from the real world are twisted and reappropriated for weird and different use in this other-world.

A highly entertaining and well-paced adventure, it also contains enough subtext to intrigue any reader who likes delving beyond the surface.

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Despite being fictional high fantasy, Un Lun Dun has a bit of educational history mixed in, and as any well-thought-out other-world novel can and should, it touches on relevant socio-political topics. Misuse of resources and its consequences for humanity and its environment plays a big role in this story. Deeba constantly and successfully challenges authority, raising the question of how do we determine if those governing us are right, if they’re making the right choices and decisions… and what do we do if they’re wrong? Miéville’s tale also challenges traditional literary convention – often, characters in novels simply accept fate and established norms, whether it’s accepting that someone’s heroic destiny is written in the stars, or accepting that the feasibility of some occurrence or viability of some object is limited to some predefined scope based on tradition or hearsay and not on actual experience. But in this story, the (un) heroine doesn’t automatically accept anything as “predestined” or “just is” – she asks questions, she thinks, and she doesn’t leave things up to fate. If Un Lun Dun ended with one of those “moral of the story” statements, it’d be “rules are meant to be broken.”

My overall assessment: This is a book I’m glad to have on my shelf. Deeba’s a spunky character, I gotta love her. And Miéville leaves plenty of room for a sequel (or two). I look forward to seeing more of Deeba, UnLondon, and any other UnCity he dreams up. I certainly hope he writes another – I’d pick it up as soon as it came out.

Posted in Books, Fantasy, Young Adult |