New Releases by China Mieville

Science Fiction Stories by some of the world''s greatest SF authors, all precisely 2001 words long.

A mythmaker of the highest order, China Miéville has emblazoned the fantasy novel with fresh language, startling images, and stunning originality. Set in the same sprawling world of Miéville''s Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel, Perdido Street Station, this latest epic introduces a whole new cast of intriguing characters and dazzling creations. Aboard a vast seafaring vessel, a band of prisoners and slaves, their bodies remade into grotesque biological oddities, is being transported to the fledgling colony of New Crobuzon. But the journey is not theirs alone. They are joined by a handful of travelers, each with a reason for fleeing the city. Among them is Bellis Coldwine, a renowned linguist whose services as an interpreter grant her passage-and escape from horrific punishment. For she is linked to Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, the brilliant renegade scientist who has unwittingly unleashed a nightmare upon New Crobuzon. For Bellis, the plan is clear: live among the new frontiersmen of the colony until it is safe to return home. But when the ship is besieged by pirates on the Swollen Ocean, the senior officers are summarily executed. The surviving passengers are brought to Armada, a city constructed from the hulls of pirated ships, a floating, landless mass ruled by the bizarre duality called the Lovers. On Armada, everyone is given work, and even Remades live as equals to humans, Cactae, and Cray. Yet no one may ever leave. Lonely and embittered in her captivity, Bellis knows that to show dissent is a death sentence. Instead, she must furtively seek information about Armada''s agenda. The answer lies in the dark, amorphous shapes that float undetected miles below the waters-terrifying entities with a singular, chilling mission. . . .

Filled with beauty, terror and strangeness, This Census-Taker is a poignant and riveting exploration of memory and identity. "One of our most important writers." Independent on Sunday In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a traumatic event. He tries - and fails - to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape. When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over. But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether? PRAISE FOR CHINA MIEVILLE ''You can''t talk about Miéville without using the word "brilliant".'' Ursula Le Guin, Guardian ''Miéville is gifted with an incomparable visionary imagination.'' Financial Times ''Miéville - twice winner of the British Fantasy Award and three times winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award - is head and shoulders above other writers in this genre.'' The Times ''With each book Miéville becomes more and more ambitious, with a profusion of ideas and images on each page that makes other contemporary books look thin and reductive.'' Scotland on Sunday

The multi-award-winning China Miéville has been called ''the equal of David Mitchell or Zadie Smith'' (Scotland on Sunday), whose ''inventiveness and precision is awesome'' (Independent), and who writes with ''an imagination of immense power'' (Guardian). In this extraordinary series of stories, defying definitions and literary stereotyping, he once again proves why he ''is one of the most interesting and promising writers to appear in the last few years in any genre'' (Carlos Ruiz Zafon). In these stories, glistening icebergs float above urban horizons; a burning stag runs wild through the city; the ruins of industry emerge unsteadily from the sea; and the abandoned generations in a decayed space-elevator look not up at the stars but down at the Earth. Ranging from portraits of childhood to chilling ghost stories, from dystopian visions to poignant evocations of uncanny love, with beautiful prose and melancholy wit, this breath-taking collection poses searching questions of what it is to be human in an unquiet world. It is a humane and unsentimental investigation of our society, our world, and ourselves.

Dial 4-3-7-6 to call onÉBoy Chimney! Iron Snail! Human Virus! Shamanticore! Captain Lachrymose! Overweight, unemployed slacker Nelson Jent is not a hero. But with the twist of a dial, he can become one. A broken-down payphone down a forgotten alley holds the power to transform anyone with the right number into a host of different superheroes. And Nelson knows the number: 4-3-7-6. The number that spells HERO. Award-winning novelist China Miu008eville (winner of the World Fantasy Award, the British Science Fiction Award, the Hugo Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award) and artists Mateus Santolouco (AMERICAN VAMPIRE) and Alberto Ponticelli (UNKNOWN SOLDIER) breathe new life into a classic Silver Age series with this surrealist masterpiece. This special Deluxe Edition includes the complete series of DIAL H as well sketches from the artists and afterword by China Miu008eville. Collects DIAL H #0-15.

A brand new series by best-selling and Hugo Award-winning novelist China Mieville! What would happen if you discovered the H Dial, an unbelievably powerful artifact that turned you into a super hero? What if you found out that the very device that''s become your uncontrollable obsession threatens the entire world?

From the award-winning author of Perdido Street Station and The City & the City "Richly conceived." The New York Times Book Review Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the universe. Avice is an immerser, a traveller on the immer, the sea of space and time below the everyday, now returned to her birth planet. Here on Arieka, humans are not the only intelligent life, and Avice has a rare bond with the natives, the enigmatic Hosts - who cannot lie. Only a tiny cadre of unique human Ambassadors can speak Language, and connect the two communities. But an unimaginable new arrival has come to Embassytown. And when this Ambassador speaks, everything changes. Catastrophe looms. Avice knows the only hope is for her to speak directly to the alien Hosts. And that is impossible. PRAISE FOR CHINA MIEVILLE "[Mieville s] wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing." Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian (on Three Moments of an Explosion) "Dark and thought-provoking." The San Diego Union-Tribune (on The City & The City) "Mieville more than delivers." San Francisco Chronicle (on Kraken) "Compulsively readable." The Washington Post Book World (on Perdido Street Station)

Call me childish, but I love all the nonsense - the snow, the trees, the tinsel, the turkey. I love presents. I love carols and cheesy songs. I just love ChristmasTM. It would be a dream come true to be able to celebrate Christmas properly: to wake up to a StockingTM, visit SantaTM and open PresentsTM around the Christmas TreeTM. But this is a luxury reserved for those with shares in YuleCo - controllers of this joyful season - who don''t agree that it''s a holiday for one and all. In this short story, China Miéville''s astonishing imagination allows us a glimpse of how a dystopian Christmas might be.

Being chased by cults, a maniac, and the sorcerers of the Fundamentalist and Sect-Related Crime Unit, cephalopod specialist Billy Harrow inadvertently learns that he holds the key to finding a missing squid--a squid that just happens to be an embryonic god whose powers, properly harnessed, can destroy all that is, was, and ever shall be.

"An eye-opening genre-buster. The names of Kafka and Orwell tend to be invoked too easily for anything a bit out of the ordinary, but in this case they are worthy comparisons." The Times, London When the body of a murdered woman is found in the extraordinary, decaying city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks like a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he probes, the evidence begins to point to conspiracies far stranger, and more deadly, than anything he could have imagined. Soon his work puts him and those he cares for in danger. Borlu must travel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own, across a border like no other. With shades of Kafka and Philip K Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & The City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights. MORE PRAISE FOR THE CITY & THE CITY "If Philip K. Dick and Raymond Chandler''s love child were raised by Franz Kafka, the writing that emerged might resemble China Mieville''s ... The City & the City." Los Angeles Times "An excellent police procedural and a fascinating urban fantasy, this is essential reading for all mystery and fantasy fans." Booklist "This spectacularly, intricately paranoid yarn is worth the effort." Kirkus

Special over-sized issue! An all-star creative cast leaves five new holiday tales under the tree—including Brian Azzarello, Jamie Delano, China Mieville and more! See what the season has in store for the always-naughty, never-nice John Constantine.

"Beautifully evocative language, social conscience, a clear sense of history, romantic longing, intelligence, despair. This is, very possibly, greatness." The Boston Globe A novella and thirteen short stories of brilliant diversity, from a master of literary fantasy. Step into a London ravaged by unearthly creatures at once utterly alien and chillingly familiar. In China Mieville''s award-winning novella The Tain, we learn the reason for the invaders'' terrible revenge. One survivor must trek through the ruins of the city with a desperate plan to stand against their assault. In addition to The Tain, this superb collection contains thirteen short stories, of visionary cityscapes and urban paranoia, ghosts, monsters and impossible diseases. Several of the stories are published here for the first time: these include one set in New Crobuzon, the location of the award-winning series of novels that began with Perdido Street Station; and one in comic-strip form, illustrated by top graphic artist Liam Sharp. This collection displays the sheer imaginative scope of China Mieville''s work. PRAISE FOR CHINA MIEVILLE "[Mieville s] wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing." Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian (on Three Moments of an Explosion) "Dark and thought-provoking." The San Diego Union-Tribune (on The City & The City) "Richly conceived." The New York Times Book Review (on Embassytown) "Mieville more than delivers." San Francisco Chronicle (on Kraken) "Compulsively readable." The Washington Post Book World (on Perdido Street Station)

WINNER OF THE 2005 ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD "Mieville moves effortlessly into the first division of those who use the tools and weapons of the fantastic to define and create the fiction of the coming century." Neil Gaiman The third novel in China Mieville''s amazing imaginative sequence focused on the fabulous city of New Crobuzon. With economic slump and growing social unrest, New Crobuzon has become a fraught and dangerous place. The militia patrol in uniform, there is tension between its myriad races, there are even rumours of war. In an attempt to spur trade, a major company is building a railway across the continent, but the project involves brutal suppression of both the workers and the native inhabitants they pass. As mutiny grows among the slave labourers, one train is hijacked on the half-finished line. They tear up the track for a few miles behind them, then begin to rebuild it in front of the train -- diverging from the original route and disappearing into the desert. This renegade train, ''The Iron Council'', soon becomes an icon of freedom to the repressed urban population, till the city government has no choice but to hunt it down and destroy it. Whatever happens, they cannot allow it to escape-and so begins a desperate pursuit across alien wild lands filled with bizarre populations, monsters and hazards. PRAISE FOR CHINA MIEVILLE "[Mieville''s] wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing." Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian (on Three Moments of an Explosion) "Dark and thought-provoking." The San Diego Union-Tribune (on The City & The City) "Richly conceived." The New York Times Book Review (on Embassytown) "Mieville more than delivers." San Francisco Chronicle (on Kraken) "Compulsively readable." The Washington Post Book World (on Perdido Street Station)

From the author of Perdido Street Station, an epic and breathtaking fantasy of extraordinary imagination A colossal fantasy of incredible diversity and spellbinding imagination. A human cargo bound for servitude in exile... A pirate city hauled across the oceans... A hidden miracle about be revealed... These are the ingredients of an astonishing story. It is the story of a prisoner''s journey. Of the search for the island of a forgotten people, for the most astonishing beast in the seas, and ultimately for a fabled place - a massive wound in reality, a source of unthinkable power and danger. PRAISE FOR CHINA MIEVILLE "[Mieville''s] wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing." Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian (on Three Moments of an Explosion) "Dark and thought-provoking." The San Diego Union-Tribune (on The City & The City) "Richly conceived." The New York Times Book Review (on Embassytown) "Mieville more than delivers." San Francisco Chronicle (on Kraken) "Compulsively readable." The Washington Post Book World (on Perdido Street Station)

"Compulsively readable." The Washington Post Book World "A work of exhaustive inventiveness ... superlative fantasy" Time Out The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the centre of its own bewildering world. Humans and mutants and arcane races throng the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the rivers are sluggish with unnatural effluent, and factories and foundries pound into the night. For more than a thousand years, the parliament and its brutal militia have ruled over a vast array of workers and artists, spies, magicians, junkies and whores. Now a stranger has come, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand, and inadvertently something unthinkable is released. Soon the city is gripped by an alien terror - and the fate of millions depends on a clutch of outcasts on the run from lawmakers and crime-lords alike. The urban nightscape becomes a hunting ground as battles rage in the shadows of bizarre buildings. And a reckoning is due at the city''s heart, in the vast edifice of Perdido Street Station. It is too late to escape. PRAISE FOR CHINA MIEVILLE "[Mieville s] wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing." Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian (on Three Moments of an Explosion) "Dark and thought-provoking." The San Diego Union-Tribune (on The City & The City) "Richly conceived." The New York Times Book Review (on Embassytown) "Mieville more than delivers." San Francisco Chronicle (on Kraken)

Something is stirring in London''s dark . . . "A startling debut" Kirkus Something is stirring in London''s dark, stamping out its territory in brickdust and blood. Something has murdered Saul''s father, and left Saul to pay for the crime. But a shadow from the urban waste breaks into his prison cell and leads him to freedom. A shadow called King Rat. In the night-land behind London''s façade, in sewers and slums and rotting dead spaces, Saul must learn his true nature. Grotesque murders rock the city like a curse. Mysterious forces prepare for a showdown. With Drum and Bass pounding the backstreets, Saul confronts his bizarre inheritance - in the badlands of South London, in the heart of darkness, at the gathering of the Junglist Massive. Like the DJ says: ''Time for the Badman.'' PRAISE FOR CHINA MIEVILLE "[Mieville s] wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing." Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian (on Three Moments of an Explosion) "Dark and thought-provoking." The San Diego Union-Tribune (on The City & The City) "Richly conceived." The New York Times Book Review (on Embassytown) "Mieville more than delivers." San Francisco Chronicle (on Kraken) "Compulsively readable." The Washington Post Book World (on Perdido Street Station)