Un Lun Dun

Front Cover
Random House Worlds, Feb 13, 2007 - Young Adult Fiction - 448 pages
NEW 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
Copyright

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About the author (2007)

China Miéville is the author of King Rat; Perdido Street Station, which won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award; The Scar, which won the Locus Award and the British Fantasy Award; Iron Council, which won the Locus Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award; and a collection of short stories, Looking for Jake. He lives and works in London. Un Lun Dun is his first book for younger readers.

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