In and Out of the Rabbit Hole

China Miéville’s Un Lun Dun is a singular phantasmagoria that nonetheless tempts comparisons to Alice in Wonderland, Narnia, and His Dark Materials. In his acknowledgments Miéville thanks Lewis Carroll, Tanith Lee, and Neil Gaiman, among other writers, clearly signifying what is to come for the reader. By not shrugging off his influences, Miéville can integrate them unselfconsciously with his own ideas and language. Miéville is a master of the switcheroo and the sneak. He thumbs his nose at conventions of the fantasy genre like councils and prophesies. And happily, he values libraries and librarians. The extreme librarian and bookaneer Margarita Staples says,

“I used to really look forward to requests for books way down in the abyss. There are risks: hunters, animals, and accidents. Twenty years ago, I was in a group looking for a book someone had requested. We were led by Ptolemy Yes…after weeks of searching we ran out of food and had to turn back…he’s out there still in the Wordhoard Abyss living off shelf-monkeys, looking and he’ll be back one day, book in his hand.”

Un Lun Dun is shelved in my library’s YA division and I think a lot of geekier older teens would love it. However, the book would be just as appropriate in any adult collection. It is irritating that a book is considered YA if it is fantasy and features teenage protagonists. Un Lun Dun’s heroines are the tall blonde Zanna and the awkward round Deeba, who both find themselves in Un London, one of many abcities including Lost Angeles, Baghdidn’t, Parisn’t. The story of the abcities is a critique of disposable culture and environmental collapse. Broken things find their way to abcities where they are repurposed as tools and weapons.

While Miéville packs his story with too many characters to remember, Un Lun Dun delights with its many inventions: Brokkenbroll, smombies, Smog, Klinneract, Wraithtown, Webminster Alley, Storyladders, the Black Windows, and MOIL (Mildly Obsolete in London.) Miéville enlivens his inventions with great illustrations that give a sense of how cinematic this novel could be.

One of Un Lun Dun’s most subversive moments occurs when Deeba is accused of terrorism by Inspector Churl. “Were you terrified, Murgatroyd? There you go girl: you’re a terrorist. You make me twitchy, and under Article Forty-one of the 2000 Terrorism Bill, that’s all I need. Time for some reasonable force, I think.” It is exciting to see a fantasy novel marketed to a teenage audience exposing corruption and the erosion of civil liberties. I only hope that readers can draw the obvious parallels to our present-day situation.

Un Lun Dun was exciting to me in a way a book hasn’t been since I was nine, reading by flashlight under the covers. It is a smashing combination of dystopian anarchism and realist hope.