Book Review: Un Lun Dun

First, the backstory: My friend Deanna is a copyeditor for science fiction and fantasy novels, and she's very good at what she does. Many of the books that she has worked on have been nominated for Hugo and Nebula awards.  A while back she was talking about China Meiville, one of the authors that she copyedits for, and his books kept coming up in blog posts and conversations.  I started looking into his books, and there's a lot, so I asked Deanna where I should start, and she suggested Un Lun Dun.  So, that's where I started.  I read Un Lun Dun on my Kindle, and the illustrations from the book were rendered flawlessly in this version. (Click on the image to see Amazon descriptions and reviews.)



Un Lun Dun is technically a young adult novel, but it is an absolutely fantastic story of a girl and her friend who enter a mystical parallel universe to their home in London.  It very much has a feel like Alice in Wonderland, where the characters in Un Lun Dun are not what you expect, and say and do things that make sense to them, but wonder why the main characters are confused.  The character development and descriptions of the environment are wonderful, and like the city itself, nothing is what it seems or progresses in a straight and predictable line.

The story has a traditional arc, looking at good conquering evil, but it's not that simple. I was genuinely surprised at many points in the book when plot points took an odd turn.  If you're looking for a book that you and your child can both read and enjoy, I highly recommend Un Lun Dun.  I plan on letting my almost-9-year-old read it, and I know he'll love the "silly" aspects of the Un Lun Dun characters, such as the pet milk carton, the bird with a human body, or the flying buses.  I certainly plan on reading more of China Meiville's award winning novels!