Post/Author/DateTime	Post
dkoz 08-16-05, 01:00 PM	If any of you are looking for some good fiction to inspire scenes, settings, and situations please pick up any of China Mieville's books. I just finished reading his latest, "Iron Council", and loved it. His fantasy writing seriously diverges from the happy ending/epic romance style that pervades the genre. "Perdido Street Station" -- Mevielle's signature city New Crobuzon is a great guide to making a place like Sharn very gritty and dangerous at all levels of society. The antagonists in this book are amazing. The Orwellian milita looking over everyone's shoulder provides some great inspiration for city guards or organizations like the Dreaming Dark. Although, my absolute favorite is the main monstrous villain. Avoiding spoilers, so I will just say "wow!" (If anyone else has read this book do you know if a d20 equivalent for this creature exists anywhere? If not, I guess I should make one) "The Scar" -- The pirate city Armada is another awesome, and non-traditional, city that could be included into Eberron fairly easy. Mevielle's take on magic and technology is once again refreshing. The plot and motivations in "The Scar" are very detailed and any shortened explanation would either spoil it or not do it justice. "Iron Council" -- This novel takes the reader back to New Crobuzon and the political struggles involved in that dark city. This was my favorite book of the three. Mevielle's description of his catoscopic stain, a Mournland equivalent, will be read to my players once they enter into that blasted land. Also a fair number of Iron Council's creatures will find there deaths on the end of some d20 blades. While none of these books are direct sequels they do take place in a continuous timeline and I recommend reading them in order. Not to mention that each book builds more and more on Mevielle's world of Bas Lag. Each novel increases your appreciation. Has anyone else read these novels? If so, what did you think? -dkoz
Serpentine 08-18-05, 08:46 PM	China Mieville's stuff is extremely portable to Eberron, and I agree. As I was participating in jury duty a month ago, I thought about converting versions of the races in New Crobuzon to d20.
Korhal_IV 08-19-05, 02:03 AM	My local library has all three of these, so I shall add them to my hold list. :)
Sereno 08-19-05, 10:16 AM	I've enjoyed all of Meiville's "New Crobuzon" novels. They were all good and, I believe, got better as they've gone on. I think I enjoyed "Iron Council" the best; but I love trains and the idea of a train that's constantly moving was brilliant, especially when they traveled through the "cacotopic stain" -- awesome imagery of the magically tained landscape and lots of "put them in the Mournland" ideas to steal. The creatures in the first novel were incredible and would make excellent D&D opponents for a high-level party. However, unless you significantly weakened them, they'd be far too deadly for anything else. No no seemed able to resist their main power without protection. Of all his creatures, though, I liked the Weavers, the best. They strike me as something that could easily fit into Eberron, too. The Remade were interesting, if creepy. And all of his clockwork constructs and magical devices were exceptionally cool. One of my biggest complaints about the writing was some of the unnecessarily gross imagery he uses. I realize that most of the grimmest imagery was all told from the point of view of a seriously depressed Garuda, but I found it distracting. A city couldn't possibly be as decayed and foul as he sometimes made it seem, and still be functioning on such a high level of culture and (magical)technology.