Short stories ranging from the brilliant (title story, The Tain) to the retarded (On the Way to the Front, Familiar) to the disappointing (Jack). Interesting way to pass an evening, but not much beyond that. Mieville has an interesting voice, but also has an irritating tendency to start and end these short stories like a six year old telling a joke: no punch line and lots of discursion. With a lesser writer this would be irritating beyond belief, but with Mieville it does not rise to that level, you must keep reading, but shake your head when you finish. ( )

I loved the excerpt from Borges in the back ( )

This is both the first collection of Mieville's short fiction to be published and the first of his work I've had occasion to read beyond his loosely-connected Bas-Lag 'trilogy' (Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council). Having finished it, I can only hope that there will be more to come, on both fronts.

"Looking For Jake" is the first story in this collection, and stands as a very good introduction to the rest of the book. 'Everything's changed', the nameless narrator states early on, and much the same thing could be said to describe the stories that follow. Later stories also retain much of that first work's atmospheric tone, and of the narrator's feelings of loss and confusion, and Mieville's infectious delight in the unexplained and inexplicable remains constant throughout the book.

Many of the pieces in this collection are set in London ... not a London which will be entirely familiar to readers, however, but one in which the fantastic has become commonplace, or a sudden change has rendered the city alien and abandoned, or in which a web of secrets and conspiracies is being unearthed. Fans of Mieville's earlier work should also enjoy "Jack", another Bas-Lag story that helps to fill one of the gaps between Perdido Street Station and Iron Council.

Many of the stories in the collection seem, if not quite melancholy, at least regretful or introspective. Many of them are genuinely funny, too, though Mieville's humour is generally rather bleak.

Yet if I were to pick a single word to describe the contents of this book I'd go for unsettling. The stories here aren't the sort that should be torn through quickly, I feel, but are best read slowly, with at least a modest pause between finishing one and starting another. (I read the collection in bits and pieces over the course of three or four days, and while it would be easy enough to read in one sitting, I wouldn't recommend that approach). As with much of my favourite short fiction, I often finished these stories torn between wanting to read more and sensing that the story had been told as much as it needed to be - while the narrative could have continued, it would have been telling a different and separate tale.

Not every story in the collection works as well as the rest, of course. The highlights, for me at least, were - in no particular order - the title story, "Reports of Certain Events in London", "Details", the angry-and-amusing "An End To Hunger" and the novella "The Tain" that ends the collection. I hesitate to say too much about this last work (as it seems much easier to unwittingly 'spoil' shorter pieces of fiction than long ones by giving away too many details in advance); suffice to say that it might be the best thing Mieville's written to date. Only a couple of the pieces here failed to impress - if "On The Way To The Front" had a point, I missed it, and "Familiar" was a bit too overtly horrific for my liking.

A wonderful collection overall then (in both sense of the word), and one I'd certainly recommend, both to established fans of the author and those interested in reading something by him who have yet to try any of his longer works.

I didn't care for this as much as Mieville's novels; his detail-rich style is better suited to building up vast worlds than for shorter formats. ( )

This collection of short stories takes fantasy to new levels. Some of the tales border on horror, treating subjects that are supernatural, and others investigate dystopian worlds, usually in the ruins of London. Only one is humorous: about a futuristic Christmas entirely taken over by commercialization. The stories are excellent in terms of language and creativity, voice and characterization. It sometimes evokes Delaney's [Dhalgren]. Miélville has stories to tell, and he knows how to tell them. ( )