Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories - Hardcover

Mieville, China

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 110188472X ISBN 13: 9781101884720

Publisher: Del Rey, 2015

Synopsis

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post NPR The Guardian Kirkus Reviews The fiction of multiple award winning author China Mieville is powered by intelligence and imagination. Like George Saunders, Karen Russell, and David Mitchell, he pulls from a variety of genres with equal facility, employing the fantastic not to escape from reality but instead to interrogate it in provocative, unexpected ways.
London awakes one morning to find itself besieged by a sky full of floating icebergs. Destroyed oil rigs, mysteriously reborn, clamber from the sea and onto the land, driven by an obscure purpose. An anatomy student cuts open a cadaver to discover impossibly intricate designs carved into a corpse s bones designs clearly present from birth, bearing mute testimony to . . . what?
Of such concepts and unforgettable images are made the twenty-eight stories in this collection many published here for the first time. By turns speculative, satirical, and heart-wrenching, fresh in form and language, and featuring a cast of damaged yet hopeful seekers who come face-to-face with the deep weirdness of the world and at times the deeper weirdness of themselves Three Moments of an Explosion is a fitting showcase for one of literature s most original voices.
Praise for Three Moments of an Explosion

China Mieville is dazzling. His latest collection of short stories, Three Moments of an Explosion, crowds virtuosity into every sentence. The New York Times

You can t talk about [China] Mieville without using the word brilliant. . . . His wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian

[A] gripping collection . . . Mieville expertly mixes science fiction, fantasy and surrealism. . . . Amid the longer stories are more cerebral, poetic flash pieces that will haunt the reader beyond the pages of this exceptional book. The Washington Post

The stories shine . . . with a winking brilliance. The Seattle Times

Mind-bending excursions into the fantastic. NPR
Bradbury meets Borges, with Lovecraft gibbering tumultuously just out of hearing. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Three Moments of an Explosion is a book filled with fabulous oddities. Entertainment Weekly
Mieville moves effortlessly among realism, fantasy, and surrealism. . . . His characters, whether ordinary witnesses to extraordinary events or lunatics operating out of inexplicable compulsions, are invariably well drawn and compelling. Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

About this title

Review

Praise for China MiEville
"The City & The City"
"Dark and thought-provoking . . . [This novel has] the gritty, grainy feel of many a murder mystery shot in black-and-white, with some of the foreboding, elusive narrowness-of-frame that a Cold War spy flick possesses."--"The San Diego Union-Tribune"
" "
"Embassytown"
"Richly conceived . . . "Embassytown" has the feel of a word-puzzle, and much of the pleasure of figuring out the logic of the world and the story comes from gradually catching the full resonance of its invented and imported words.""--The New York Times Book Review"
"Railsea"
"Other names besides Melville's will surely come to mind as you read this thrilling tale: "Dune"'s Frank Herbert, for example, & even Robert Louis Stevenson. But in this, as in all of his works, MiEville has that special knack for evoking other writers even while making the story wholly his own."--"Los Angeles Times"
"Perdido Street Station"
"Compulsively readable . . . impossible to expunge from memory."--"The Washington Post Book World"

Praise for China Mieville
"The City & The City"
Dark and thought-provoking . . . [This novel has] the gritty, grainy feel of many a murder mystery shot in black-and-white, with some of the foreboding, elusive narrowness-of-frame that a Cold War spy flick possesses. "The San Diego Union-Tribune"
""
"Embassytown"
Richly conceived . . . "Embassytown" has the feel of a word-puzzle, and much of the pleasure of figuring out the logic of the world and the story comes from gradually catching the full resonance of its invented and imported words. " The New York Times Book Review"
"Railsea"
Other names besides Melville s will surely come to mind as you read this thrilling tale: "Dune" s Frank Herbert, for example, & even Robert Louis Stevenson. But in this, as in all of his works, Mieville has that special knack for evoking other writers even while making the story wholly his own. "Los Angeles Times"
"Perdido Street Station"
Compulsively readable . . . impossible to expunge from memory. "The Washington Post Book World""

Advance praise for "Three Moments of an Explosion"
Horror, noir, fantasy, politics, and poetry swirl into combinations as satisfying intellectually as they are emotionally. . . . Bradbury meets Borges, with Lovecraft gibbering tumultuously just out of hearing. "Kirkus Reviews "(starred review)
Mieville moves effortlessly among realism, fantasy, and surrealism in this dark, sometimes horrific short story collection. . . . His characters, whether ordinary witnesses to extraordinary events or lunatics operating out of inexplicable compulsions, are invariably well drawn and compelling. Above all, what the stories have in common is a sense that the world is not just strange, but stranger than we can ever really comprehend. "Publishers Weekly" (starred review)"

Even when he is orbiting somewhere in a galaxy too far away for normal human comprehension, the genre-subverting English novelist China Mieville is dazzling. His latest collection of short stories, Three Moments of an Explosion, crowds virtuosity into every sentence. . . . There are things to admire in every story, even the ones you can t quite grasp. The book left me feeling unsettled, uneasy, nervous, and I think that is Mr. Mieville s point. He wants to draw attention to the scratching under the floorboards, the panic in our heads, the rebellion of nature and inanimate objects. As he says, These days there are so many odd and troubling noises in the city. Sarah Lyall, The New York Times
You can t talk about Mieville without using the word brilliant. . . . His wit dazzles, his humour is lively, and the pure vitality of his imagination is astonishing. . . . My favourite of all these tales is The Rules, two and a half pages long. Read it. You won t regret it, or forget it. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Guardian
[A] gripping collection . . . Mieville expertly mixes science fiction, fantasy and surrealism. . . . Amid the longer stories are more cerebral, poetic flash pieces that will haunt the reader beyond the pages of this exceptional book. The Washington Post

The stories shine . . . with a winking brilliance. The Seattle Times
Horror, noir, fantasy, politics, and poetry swirl into combinations as satisfying intellectually as they are emotionally. . . . Bradbury meets Borges, with Lovecraft gibbering tumultuously just out of hearing. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Three Moments of an Explosion is a book filled with fabulous oddities. Entertainment Weekly
Mieville moves effortlessly among realism, fantasy, and surrealism in this dark, sometimes horrific short story collection. . . . His characters, whether ordinary witnesses to extraordinary events or lunatics operating out of inexplicable compulsions, are invariably well drawn and compelling. Above all, what the stories have in common is a sense that the world is not just strange, but stranger than we can ever really comprehend. Publishers Weekly (starred review)"

Book Description

A highly anticipated collection of short fiction from one of the most exciting and original authors writing today.

About this edition

• Publisher: Del Rey
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 110188472X
• ISBN 13: 9781101884720
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 382