I can't think of an author I've ever wanted to like more than China Mieville. After reading a description of his work, I immediately picked up a copy of Iron Council from the library, read it in the space of a few days, and hated it. At this point, I had already purchased copies of his other Bas Lag novels--and after a period of a few months, I finally started on Perdido Street Station.
Which only succeeded in disappointing me further. Despite Mieville's satisfactory prose and mildly impressive imagery, Perdido Street Station is unable to hide that it's little more than than a rather average monster flick with impressive production values. Meiville's powers of invention come off as theatric (in the hollywood sense) rather than artistic, and despite sparse moments of interest the too-long novel, in the end, was really just... normal.
This disappointment stems more than anything from the authors Mieville has been compared to--not to mention the tribute he pays to M. John Harrison and Mervyn Peake--many of who do constitute a significant variation upon genre fiction, including the two mentioned above, Harrison in particular, Michael Cisco and Jeff Vandermeer; others (unrelated but who acheive fantastic success) such as Murakami, Wolfe, or Delany; or authors coming in from the other side, such as Pynchon, Borges, Alasdair Gray, Carlos Fuentes, Umberto Eco, Salmon Rushdie, and Kathy Acker.
This explains Mieville's popularity, but while he does blend genres extensively and treat, it still feels... the same. I have the feeling I'll be undergoing a similar experience with George R.R. Martin and Harlan Ellison, but I have higher hopes for Zoran Zivkovic, Roberto Bolano, and possibly Norman Spinrad. Absolutely interested in suggestions for new reading material here.
Unfortunately, I still have a copy of The Scar stitting on my bookshelf. I'll probably read it someday, and I hope I like it, but based on the other Mieville I've read, I'm not looking forward to it.
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