Un Lun DunNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Endlessly inventive . . . [a] hybrid of Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, and The Phantom Tollbooth.”—Salon What is Un Lun Dun? It is London through the looking glass, an urban Wonderland of strange delights where all the lost and broken things of London end up . . . and some of its lost and broken people, too–including Brokkenbroll, boss of the broken umbrellas; Obaday Fing, a tailor whose head is an enormous pin-cushion, and an empty milk carton called Curdle. Un Lun Dun is a place where words are alive, a jungle lurks behind the door of an ordinary house, carnivorous giraffes stalk the streets, and a dark cloud dreams of burning the world. It is a city awaiting its hero, whose coming was prophesied long ago, set down for all time in the pages of a talking book. When twelve-year-old Zanna and her friend Deeba find a secret entrance leading out of London and into this strange city, it seems that the ancient prophecy is coming true at last. But then things begin to go shockingly wrong. BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from China Mieville’s Embassytown. Praise for Un Lun Dun “Miéville fills his enthralling fantasy with enough plot twists and wordplay for an entire trilogy, and that is a good thing. A-.”—Entertainment Weekly “For style and inventiveness, turn to Un Lun Dun, by China Miéville, who throws off more imaginative sparks per chapter than most authors can manufacture in a whole book. Mieville sits at the table with Lewis Carroll, and Deeba cavorts with another young explorer of topsy-turvy worlds.”—The Washington Post Book World “Delicious, twisty, ferocious fun . . . so crammed with inventions, delights, and unexpected turns that you will want to start reading it over again as soon as you’ve reached the end.”—Kelly Link, author of Magic for Beginners “[A] wondrous thrill ride . . . Like the best fantasy authors, [Miéville] fully realizes his imaginary city.” —The A.V. Club “Mieville's compelling heroine and her fantastical journey through the labyrinth of a strange London forms that rare book that feels instantly like a classic and yet is thoroughly modern.”—Holly Black, bestselling author of The Spiderwick Chronicles |
Contents
Spilling Certain Beans | |
The Interrogation Chapter 49 Trussed | |
Malevolent Breather | |
Out of the Fire | |
Skeptical Authorities | |
A Hasty LeaveTaking | |
Renegade Quester | |
Crossroads | |
Pins and Needles | |
Location Location | |
Perspective | |
Public Transport | |
Safe Conduct | |
Encounters on a | |
Attack of the Manky Insect | |
A Sort of Delivery | |
Stuck | |
The Upside | |
Highs and Lows | |
The Evasive Bridge | |
The Welcome | |
An Unlikely Place of Work | |
History Lessons | |
The Meaning of the Trail | |
An Interruption in the Process | |
The Addicted Enemy | |
Folders and Unfolders | |
A Wall of Cloth and Steel | |
The Laboratory | |
Hope Hiding with a Cauldron | |
Taking Leave | |
London or UnUnLondon Chapter 31 Clearing the | |
Memento | |
The Powerful Resurgence of the Everyday | |
Curiosity and Its Fruits | |
Conversation and Revelation | |
Concern in Code | |
An Intrepid Start | |
The Booksteps | |
Life during Wartime Chapter 38 ClassMarks All the Way Down | |
Due Diligence | |
Ghostwards | |
Monsters of the Urban Savannah | |
Haunts and Houses | |
Flickering Streets | |
Postmortem Bureaucracy | |
Nasty Rain | |
Old Friends | |
The Other Abnaut | |
Insulting Classification | |
Incommunicado | |
The Quiet Talklands | |
Touching Base | |
Despotic Logorrhea | |
Insurgent Verbiage | |
Hired Help | |
Into the Trees | |
The Source of the River | |
Alpha Male | |
The Smoky Dead | |
Skipping Historical Stages | |
Weapon of Choice | |
The Functionarys Tireless Hunt | |
Arms and the Girl Chapter 69 The Balance of Forces | |
The Gossamer Edifice | |
Men of the Cloth | |
The Truth about Windows | |
An Unusual Social Ecology | |
SpiderFishing | |
The Room Nowhere | |
Dwellers in the Smoke Chapter 77 Fruit | |
Night Eyes | |
Constructive Munitions | |
Rendezvous | |
Fight Night | |
A Special Boat Service | |
The Tangle | |
Wracked | |
Across the Yard | |
Six of | |
The Unintended Attacker | |
Words of Persuasion | |
The Baleful View | |
The Vengeful | |
Stitch | |
Reactions | |
AutodaFé Dreams | |
Shed Skin | |
The Dreadful | |
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Common terms and phrases
abcity alright Armets Bastor binja bird Black Window Bling breathe brick bridge Brokkenbroll can’t carton Cavea CHINA MIÉVILLE couldn’t Curdle dark Deeba and Hemi Deeba and Zanna Deeba heard Deeba looked Deeba saw Deeba stared Deeba thought Deeba whispered didn’t door eyes friends front ghosts giraffes girls glass grabbed grossbottle hand happened He’s head Hemi’s Inessa knew leapt Lectern legs London Mortar mouth moved Murgatroyd muttered nodded noise Obaday Fing Pons Absconditus Propheseers pulled Rawley rebrella roofs rubbish shook shouted Shwazzy Skool Slaterunners smiled Smog Smog’s smoglodytes smoke smombies someone sound Speaker stink-junkies stood stop streets talking tell There’s they’re things told trying turned Un Lun Dun unbrellas Unbrellissimo UnGun UnLondon Unstible Unstible’s UnSun utterlings voice waiting walked wall wasn’t watched what’s going who’s words Wraithtown Yeah You’re Zanna and Deeba