A serendipitous library find. We'd borrowed this once before, but hadn't gotten around to reading it. This time, thanks to a nasty headcold, it was the book of choice while I wallowed in bed for two days, feeling stuffed up and sorry for myself.

I am a fan of China Mieville's adult fiction, in particular Perdido Street Station, so I was curious to see how he'd go with a young adult book. I do have to admit that the opening chapters were a bit too young for my tastes and felt slow and awkward, but there were some potentially great ideas, and I stuck with it, sure that it would settle down (or that I'd settle into it).

And I'm glad I did. What felt forced in the first half became effortless in the second, and I really soaked up all the imaginative details and the page-turning plot. Highly recommended, especially for Neil Gaiman and Lewis Carroll fans. ( )

I loved this fantasy about 12-year-old girl who finds a strange magical city below London, called UnLondon. There she meets a half-ghost, a tailor whose head is a pincushion, a friendly empty milk carton, and a host of others; and becomes involved in a quest that has been prophecized for many years. But this being UnLondon, things don't always go as the prophecies say! I loved the way Miéville plays with the conventions of the Quest, never going the expected route, but winding up in the right place just the same. ( )

I came across this book a few months ago while browsing my wife's library. We had recently been to London, and the flap copy, describing an adventure set is some sort of fantasy mirror of the real London, sounded intriguing. My wife gave it a thumbs up, so I put it on the "to read" list. It took me a little while to get around to it, but a recent beach vacation provided the perfect opportunity.

Zanna and her friend Deeba find themselves mysteriously transported to "UnLondon," an alternate London where Zanna is greeted as the "Shwazzy"—the choosen one predicted by a prophecy to come from London and save UnLondon from the evil Smog---an intelligent malevolence formed from the smoke and fumes generated by the city.

So far, this sounds like the plot of yet another good-vs-evil, heroic quest novel. But that's where the real fun starts. Author China Miéville deliberately sets up many of the plot conventions of standard fantasy novels, only to unexpectedly take the story off in completely unexpected directions.

UnLondon is described as the place that unwanted and broken objects from London go. Houses are built from old television sets, broken umbrellas flap and fly about the city, a discarded milk carton becomes a pet, etc. In addition, strange mirrors of London landmarks appear in UnLondon. The city is built around the river Smeath (Thames spelled backwards, sort of). The UnLondon-I is a gigantic water wheel. There is an adventure at Webminster Abbey, etc.

But most of all, UnLondon is a canvas for Miéville's endless creativity and imagination. All manner of people inhabit UnLondon. There are fighting garbage cans, a tailor with a pin cushion head, a bird with a rather remarkable cage, and more. Throughout it all clever puns abound.

The plot is highly episodic, consisting of one small adventure after another, often with the larger story arc—the quest to defeat the villainous Smog and the heroines efforts to return to London—moving into the background. Combined with the division of the book into nearly 100 bite-sized chapters, I think this would make Un lun dun great read-aloud book. There are lots of easy stopping points where a young lister won't feel that she is being left hanging in suspense. That said, I haven't actually tried reading it to our daughter... yet.

This was a wonderful book filled with quirky and interesting characters. I liked how Mieville played with descriptions and turned London into UnLondon. I especially admired Deeba's courage and her insistence that sometimes prophecies may not come true exactly as written. ( )

This is an example of one of my favourite genres in fiction, what I like to think of as liminal mythology. This is a brilliant example continuing a long line of books fascinated by the question of what’s in the back of the wardrobe or down the rabbit hole or through the looking glass; the world that lies alongside ours. China Mieville takes us on a journey through an alternative London where the broken and lost exist; not easy to reach but possible to find. This is a brilliant, surreal world full of dark and dangerous things and also a quest to protect Un Lun Dun and London from the Smog. Quirky illustrations and characters bring this world to life. Well worth reading. ( )