If you're planning a trip to your local bookstore today (or this week), make sure to look out for a new book that is hot off the presses. Just released is a fun, fantasy-driven adventure inspired by Lewis Carroll's classic novel, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland--It is Un Lun Dun, by China Miéville. Does the title have a familiar ring to it? Say it aloud. 
Hey, does it have something to do with the city of London? Indeed!
What is Un Lun Dun, exactly?
It is London through the looking glass--an urban Wonderland of strange delights where all of the city's lost and broken pieces 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 (watch out!), and a dark cloud dreams of burning the world (uh oh!). It is a city awaiting its hero--a 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.
WORD recently had a chance to speak to China Miéville, the mastermind behind this fantasy world. What follows below is our EXCLUSIVE interview! Make sure to read the whole interview to find out how to win a free signed copy of Un Lun Dun!
WORD: How did Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland influence your story? What were some of your other influences when creating Un Lun Dun?
China Miéville: Alice influenced me enormously. The matter-of-fact heroine, the fantasy which is a combination of literalised wordplay and dreamlike fabulation, the grotesquerie, and the way the illustrations have become inextricable from the text in many people's eyes (including my own). This was all stuff that was very inspirational. Other influences included Michael de Larrabeiti's Borribles trilogy, for the sort of punky London kick; Beatrix Potter for her somewhat scary and unsentimental animals; Walter Moers for his explosive imagination and his text-illustration weaving; Joan Aiken for Dido Twite; and others, too.
WORD: Were any of your quirky characters inspired by real incidents or people?
Miéville: Not really. Some were inspired by literary characters, but actual real people, not so much.
WORD: You did many of the illustrations for Un Lun Dun. Did those come first or did your story?
Miéville: The story came first, but during the writing of the story I was conceptualising it all in very visual, illustrative terms. I always tend to do this, as I do my own drawings for a lot of my stuff, but this is the first time I'd put them out there in the actual text. So while the illustrations came after, they were there in my head from the word go.
WORD: Do you have any advice for young writers and artists?
Miéville: Certainly for writers, I'd say don't be resistant to being edited. That doesn't mean agreeing with everything friends, readers, editors say, of course, but it does mean that the instinctive tug we feel towards defending our own writing should always at least be interrogated. In many cases a writer is not the best person to tell what works.
WORD: If you could live in Un Lun Dun, would you?
Miéville: Absolutely. Why would you not live in a fantastic world if you could?
WORD: If you could write about any other city, what city would you write about?
Miéville: I can write about any other city! That's one of the pleasures of being a writer, you can write about whatever you want. I like writing about London most of all, in various disguises. But I just like writing about cities in general, so I don't want to tie myself down to one other.
WORD: You have a knack for wordplay. Can you give us an activity or exercise that flexes their wordplay muscles?
Miéville: Wordplay doesn't just necessarily mean creating new words, or combinations: it can mean trying to reconfigure existing ones, and making them do new things. So with that in mind, how about this... Think of something generally agreed to be completely adorable. A puppy, or a kitten, or similar. Now write a scene in which that is an absolutely terrifying baddy, but you have to call it puppy, or kitten, or whatever, all the way through.
To win 1 of 5 autographed copies of Un Lun Dun, write a short story or poem about your town... the flipside of your town. Make sure to give your new town a wacky name (for instance, the flipside of Brooklyn could be Broke Lawn). Send your work to word@weeklyreader.com. As well as receiving a signed copy of Un Lun Dun, we'll also publish 5 stories here at WORD!
Read an excerpt of Un Lun Dun and find out more at the book's website.
Also, if you don't like free books, you can always buy one here.
