Customer Reviews
A great book - By: Mr. M. Patchett, 07 Jul 2008 
This is the first book I've read by this author, so - looking at some of the other reviews here - I'm not influenced by comparisons with his other works. I loved this book - it's excellently written, the plot twists are actually twisty (i.e. not consistently predictable), it's paranoid & apocalyptic. Like the schizophrenic thoughts you'd get after a heavy session on speed & acid & three days with no sleep, made into real worlds. These stories have somthing of a Ray Bradbury quality of well-crafted vignettes, but with a consistently darker cast to them. Whilst I agree that the cartoon story - sorry, graphic novella - isn't that great, as a collection it rocks. Three stars? You're avin a larf!
Excellent collection - By: A. Whitehead, 03 Sep 2007 
Looking for Jake (2005) is China Mieville's fifth book & his first short story collection. The thirteen short stories & one novella are mostly setin London, butin nearly every story London has changed or been alteredin some strange, often undefinable manner, creating a highly unsettling atmosphere that permeates every storyin the collection.
The book opens with 'Looking for Jake' itself. The title story is a letter from one inhabitant of London to another, against the backdrop of a city where people have vanished & an overwhelming sense of listlessness has overtaken the populace. It's short, haunting & sets the tone for the book impressively. 'Foundation' follows things upin a similar manner & is arguably the most horrific storyin the collection, with it's protagonist who sees what other people cannot.
'The Ball Room', cowritten with Emma Bircham & Max Schaefer, is an ambiguous, murky little ghost story with an unusual setting which is highly disturbing, digging into the fears of every parent. On the other hand, 'Reports of Certain Eventsin London' is one of the most 'fun' storyin the collection. The narrator is Mieville himself, claiming to have received a curious package of documents through the post which suggest that there's far more to the winding backstreets of suburbia than first meets the eye. There's a nice line of humourin this tale that contrasts well with the grimness of some of the other tales, & is one of Mieville's stories where the influence of Neil Gaiman on his writing is most evident.
'Familiar' is a downright grotesque tale of survival & identity with some nevertheless darkly amusing moments. 'Entry Taken from a Medical Encyclopedia' is a nice idea, a sterile examination of an apparently supernatural event which concludes with a mundane explanation being given which is nevertheless still horrific. There's a nice little trap that Mieville lays for the reader which is quite funny, but I defy any reader not to momentarily worry about the consequences.
'Details' is another psychological horror story, probably not best read by or to anyone with OCD. 'Go Between' can be read as an intriguing take on the War on Terror, with the protagonist being used by one sidein an unknown conflict, & becoming paralysed by indecision: will acting save lives or kill them?
'Different Skies' opens with a pretty standard fantasy trope but its elderly narrator has a very different reaction to what you may expect from such a story. The tale plays with fears of mindless hatred & persecution & Mieville invokes the mindset of the OAP narratorin a most convincing manner. 'An End to Hunger' is an excellent commentary on those Internet charity chain-letters & the conclusion is darkly amusing.
'Tis the Season' is setin a world where Christmas has over-commercialised & priced out of the reach of most people, where only those with licenses can put up Christmas trees. The obvious (and perhaps slightly clumsy) metaphor is made up for by a nice line of cynical humour & a nice ending. 'Jack' is a must for fans of Perdido Street Station, returning to New Crobuzon & focusing on the character of Jack Half-a-Prayer. Those wondering what happened to him after the novel's conclusion have their question answered here, butin a manner they were not expecting at all.
The book ends with two different styles of story. 'On the Way to the Front' is a graphic short story, illustrated well by Liam Sharp, about a shadowy war being foughtin plain sight on the streets of London. It's the most subtle storyin the collection (which is saying something) with may different interpretations of the events possible. 'The Tain', on the other hand, is the longest story (actually a 100-page novella originally publishedin 2002 by PS Publishing) & sums up much of the feelings generated by the rest of the collection. London, & this time the world, has been devastated by an invasion it was not expectingin the slightest. One man leads the fight back. Or does he? The final line subverts the expectations the reader has been lured into by decades of SF movies & some of the more unimaginative fantasy epics.
Looking for Jake (****) is typical of Mieville's work, being haunting, original, dark, poetic & mysterious without ever being frustrating. A couple of the stories are less accomplished than the others, but this is still a fine piece of work from one of the best writers workingin the genre today.
Amazing storytelling - By: paul creston, 23 Jun 2007 There are some uneven storiesin this collection, but one story - FAMILIAR - is quite possibly the most brilliantly written, absorbing & exhilarating dark fantasy short story I have ever read. I keep going back to it & reading it over & over, overcome by the sheer brilliance of both concept & languagein this remarkable tale of a witch's unwanted familiar that will do anything to survive. The only thing I can compare it to at all is a similar sense of grandeur evokedin me when I read D.H.Lawrence's poem 'Little turtle.' If I had to die, & could choose to have penned one story before that moment arrived, it would be this singular one.
A very good selection of short stories. - By: Kuma, 18 Nov 2006 This isin some sense a rebuttal of the reviews for the hardback version of this collection. I found the selection very entertaining, combining well thought out concepts & excellent narrative structure. The stories are writtenin such a way as to keep the reader at arms length, often written from a first person perspective & exploitng thisin using the unreliable narrator to add depth to the story. I don't really want to go into too much detail as many of the stories hinge on a few but highly important details. On a more general note of content, there is a good short story from the Bas-Lag universe which adds to the scattered canon of work on Mieville's "robin hood" figure of Jack-Half-a-Prayer, as well as a copy of "the Tain" Mieville's hard to find novella. There has been some negativity around the collection & there are two disappointments. The first is the storyin graphic format "on the way to the front" which doesn't read terribly well or clearly & probably needed a short written introduction. The other is the "looking for jake" story which is a good read, but largely hinges on the composition of a letter, which is lacks for originality given that Mieville uses the composing of a letter as an integral narrative devicein "the scar". In conclusion I would like to recommend this collection to other readers, but ask them to be realistic the stories are considerably shorter than his other works & so should not be judged against them as other reviewers have attempted to do...
A dramatic let down - By: G. Mayers, 08 Mar 2006 
I consider China Mieville (apologies if the name is spelt wrong) one of my favourite authors. His novels setin the wonderfully realised & strange world of Bas-Leg (Perdido Street Station; the Scar & Iron Council) I rank asin my top ten favourite books. So when I saw his name on this collection of short stories I snapped it up.
I really wish I hadn't bothered now. None of the stories really grabbed me & despite their short length I found it a chore to finish them. The best of the lot is JACK (setin New Crobuzon of Bas-Leg) which delves further into the mysterious character encounteredin Perdido Street Station. The novella, the TAIN, is interesting but not particularly memorable.
Maybe if I hadn't enjoyed his Bas-Leg books so much then perhaps Looking for Jake would have given me a lot more enjoyment. There is no denying the author has a rare & unique writing style but what was a benefitin books like Iron Council here seemed rather overdown.
