Adrian Slatcher Online
Adrian Slatcher writes poetry, fiction and criticism, and lives in Manchester.
China Mieville
I first read China Mieville in an anthology of new “fabulist” writing (Conjunctions 39) and he stood out for me. I was surprised to find that he was a London-based writer, and also that his best known works were “fantasy” as its a genre I usually avoid. Reading “Perdido Street Station” his vast second novel was a revelation. Although his imagination is second to none, his books always feature strong characterisation and seem oblivious of the usual genre boundaries. This ability to rethink genre fiction was most apparent in his fascinating noir detective SF story “The City and the City”. Since that book he’s written a young adult novel “Kraken” and a new novel “Embassytown”. Unusually, Mieville is also a political theorist, and active in left-wing politics, and this adds a further dimension to his multi-layered work. Increasingly popular amongst a non-fantasy as well as a fantasy audience, he’s one of the most exciting talents in British fiction.
My review of “The City and the City”
Art of Fiction – Blogging About Literature
- The End of Cultural HistoryWhen Fukuyama wrote about the "end of history" in 1992 he was prompted by the fall of communism in 1989. taking the intellectual gamble that the "cold war" and its ending was a defining moment. Debunked somewhat since - not least by 9/11 - there's a certain sense-making that went into that declaration. The short twentieth century wou […]
- Manchester: City of LiteratureOn Thursday I attended the official launch for the bid for Manchester to become a UNESCO City of Literature, part of its creative cities network - an excellent initiative that sees cities worldwide networking and creating partnerships and exchanges through their mutual love of different art forms. I was at the launch a few years ago in Norwich when they anno […]
- Cop Hater by Ed McBainI don't read that much detective fiction but when I do I've always liked the hard-boiled or the noirish. Oddly I've never picked up an Ed McBain before, despite being a big fan of one of the writer's other pseudonym's Evan Hunter, whose 50s jazz noir "Second Ending" is even more a favourite than "Blackboard Jungle […]
- EEK! by EEK! - new electronic musicEEK! by EEK! is a new project of electronic instrumental music. 8 tracks of jittery electronica taking in old school techno, acid and trance, and mixing with contemporary dubstep, glitch, its ideal for Sunday morning listening or Saturday night jigging around. My first release for six months - this is a 30 minute side project that harnesses the digital sound […]
- The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh NguyenIn this Pulitzer Prize winning debut novel Viet Thanh Nguyen tells the story of what happened after the Vietnamese war to the diaspora of his people, through the effective telling of its narrator, a Captain in the South Vietnamese army. From the start we know that the Captain is telling the story as a confession to the Commissar, and that he is was a spy on […]
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