Review of “Un Lun Dun” by China Miéville
“Un Lun Dun” by China Miéville is a fantastic story with all the allure and mystery of Lewis Carrol’s “Through the Looking Glass.”
Twelve year old Zanna and her friend Deeba knew that something strange was going on. Not only did they see a cloud that looked suspiciously like Zanna’s face but animals started behaving strangely around the two girls, bowing to Zanna and seemingly going out of their way just to see her.
It all begins one night when Zanna and Deeba find a secret entrance that takes them out of modern day London to a parallel universe called Un Lun Dun by the locals. The girls quickly realize that the local name must really mean Unlondon, and sure enough that is exactly where they are. Unlondon is where are the broken, lost, and forgotten things of London go. Here even the smallest things can never be taken for granted. A seemingly ordinary house conceals an entire jungle, an empty milk carton is actually an affectionate pet, and a cloud of smog wants to burn the entire world.
This fantastic story stretched my imagination to new limits and took my mind to places that it had never been before. The plot is truly amazing and the world of Un Lun Dun is refreshingly new. China Miéville has created a fantasy that stands apart as an amazing departure from the ordinary. What is more the book is quite long, spanning over 400 pages of small type. Usually I can polish off the average book in an hour to an hour and a half, but this story actually took me some time to complete reading, and I feel that I still need to reread it to absorb the beautiful and magical world it creates. “Un Lun Dun,” is a book that you simply must read as soon as possible.
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