City of Saints and Madmen, by Jeff VanderMeer

[Listener]

Basically, the premise is:  there's this city called Ambergris, and it's one of those dystopia/dictatorship cities on a world somewhere.  Kind of like if you've ever read anything by China Mieville.  A series of short stories (four of them) and a ton of appendices.

The story is in the style I enjoy reading, but I wasn't drawn in like I hoped I would be.  The book had a blurb from Mieville, whose books I very much enjoy (except Iron Council, which was still very vivid and interesting, just not as enjoyable as The Scar and Perdido Street Station), so I thought I would like CoSaS.

Oh well.

I think what turned me off the most was that one story was one of those "the author gets trapped in his own literary creation" endeavors that are just so trite, even if they ARE well-written.

[Beefy]

I've tried to read Mieville twice now, to no success.  Granted, I didn't attempt them at the best point in my life to do so, so perhaps I should revisit them later.

[Listener]

I've tried to read Mieville twice now, to no success.  Granted, I didn't attempt them at the best point in my life to do so, so perhaps I should revisit them later.

Well, Perdido Street Station is difficult to read and very full of neat little details... The Scar is a better book, and you CAN read it first, but PSS really sets up the world.