Un Lun Dun

First review of 2025. This was a fun book, first title I've read from China Miélville targetted at a younger audience. Fun story, as if the author had decided to take a variety of puns and through the lens of surrealism bring them to life. There are some unexpected directions it goes in but follows the YA epic model of fantasy, multiverses, and magic.

Fun low stakes read for those who never grow out of the genre.

For some reason I held off reading this for years, because it seemed too close to Gaiman's Neverwhere. But it really isn't, it's well worth reading if you like urban fantasy or books with spunky child protagonists. I particularly liked the way it turned certain fantasy tropes on their head. I can't quite decide the target age group, but it feels definitely less horror tinged than Neverwhere..

An excellent (if occasionally frightening, peculiar, and downright uncanny, per Mieville's usual tone) YA fantasy novel.

My only quibble is that I spent a good amount of the book twitching at the protagonist's vernacular English, which reads especially odd when read by someone from outside the UK.

If you want to start them on Mieville young this is the book to do it with. A colourful urban fairy-tale.

Really cool to see Miéville writing at the YA level. Nothing about this book was bad, per se, but somehow it just didn't grab me like some of his other novels have... it's a little Lemony Snicket and a little Mirrormask and a little Phantom Tollbooth and a little Neverwhere. Somehow, perhaps because of its similarity to so many other stories, it just read as a little formulaic and less purely inventive than his other work. A very fun read though.

Fantastic young adult urban fantasy filled with puns and homonyms and magic. Mieville's storytelling is rich, evocative, and engaging.

Si me lo hubiese leído hace 16 años, con 16 años, posiblemente le habría dado las 2 estrellas que le faltan.

Another great Mieville book! This one isn't too dark or gruesome (it's YA after all), but still has all the neat language and setting of his other works.
A more in-depth review is available here: strakul.blogspot.com/2012/01/book-review-un-lun-dun-by-china.html