China Miéville’s last book, The City and the City, has been nominated for a Nebula award, but recognition came much earlier with his fantastic novels set in his Bas-Lag universe – Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council. The nomination is but another milestone in the career of one of contemporary science fiction’s most-admired (and read) novelists. Miéville combines a gift for language with a brave imagination, a creative pre-occupation with form, and a compassionate political engagement. Excerpts from a freewheeling conversation:

On working with the concept of a city:
I like creating a sense of estrangement in my writing. World creation, as in the Perdido Street novels, is about the ‘We’re not in Kansas anymore’ sense. The city is a much more reliable zmilieu. It’s about working without the totality of alienation, but creating an uneasy familiarity – it’s not rococo, totally radical estrangement. Beszel (one of the two ‘alterities’ in The City and the City) owes a lot to Prague, Budapest; Ul Qoma (the other city) to Istanbul, Singapore, a little Cairo. These coagula create the ‘not quite’ sense. I loved working with it.

On the labels of ‘genre’ fiction:
Genre serves two purposes: one is to taxonomise, broadly and the other is to act as a border guard, as in, ‘I won’t read this’. You often see disavowal. I don’t disavow genre, in spite of my irritations with certain things, like the parochialism, the reverse-snobbery – I speak from within my tribe. Genres are inevitable.

On monster movies:
I haven’t seen a good one in a while. Pan’s Labyrinth stands out. I also liked The Burrowers. It was a pleasant surprise. Movies are mostly boring and irritating these days. I don’t think creating-by-committee is good for cinema.

On speeding through India:
It’s been really amazing and somewhat frustrating – having had a fantastic experience so far – to not have more time. I hope to return. I can’t say more without sounding like a celebrity on a junket, can I? [Int. You love the colours?] I love the colours. Your ancient wisdom and your spices.

mina more

Crime novelist Denise Mina drew inspiration for her first book, Garnethill from her Ph.D work on the ascription of mental illness to female criminal offenders. Her fiction, which includes the Garnethill trilogy and her Paddy Meehan novels, are part of a wide-ranging Mina canon which includes two runs of DC’s Hellblazer comics, plays, and a forthcoming graphic novel, A Sickness In The Family. Excerpts from a chat:

Which writers inspire you?
I started reading after I came across Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita. Garcia Marquez’s novels. (Conversely) American right-wing novels – where the bad guy gets shot without a trial at the end. It’s a very reactionary form.

They say detective fiction is about restoring order to chaos – does that ring true?
It does. Some degree of order does return at the end of a novel, even if contemporary readers are more comfortable with the chaos coexisting. But we’ve moved beyond the convention of a comeuppance.

Tell us about writing Hellblazer.
It was amazing. They asked me to write, and one of my male friends said, ‘I could punch you – you’re living my dream life!’

Subscribe to Verve Magazine or buy the Verve issue on stands now!