Un Lun Dun

Un Lun Dun, by China Miéville, is a young adult fantasy novel. I've been meaning to read something by Miéville for a while, and saw this in bookshops a few times, and it grabbed my attention each time, so I eventually picked it up.

It's a great little urban fantasy piece, set in Unlondon, the counterpart of London, where all the broken, rejected things from London disappear to. It's one of many "abcities", cities that parallel cities in the real world. Two girls from London, Deeba and Zanna, are drawn across from London into Unlondon, in order to fulfill a prophecy and save the world (or at least Unlondon).

It's fast-paced and very imaginative. They encounter all kinds of strange people and creatures and things, and each suburb of Unlondon has it's own peculiar theme. Major landmarks in London have bizarre counterparts in Unlondon. The plot works well, and just as it is shaping up to be a bog-standard fulfill the prophecy story, it takes a turn and derails its own plot. This happens more than once.

It's an easy and entertaining read, and I'll certainly be encouraging the young adults (well, nearly-ten-year-olds) in my house to read it.