Un Lun Dun

infobox Book |
name = Un Lun Dun
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cover of first edition (paperback)
author = China Miéville
illustrator = China Miéville
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Young adult fantasy novel
publisher = Macmillan
release_date = January 2007
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 522 pp
isbn = ISBN 0-230-01627-8
preceded_by = Looking for Jake
followed_by = The City & the City

"Un Lun Dun" is a young adult fantasy novel by China Miéville, released in 2007. The title is derived from 'UnLondon,' the name of the alternate realm where the book is set. It also contains illustrations by Miéville. It was first released as a hardback in the United Kingdom in January 2007 by Macmillan Publishers, then in the United States on February 13 2007 by Del Rey Books. The novel also won the 2008 Locus Award for Young Adult Book. [cite web|url=http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/agendas/committees/to/to980401/it105.htm|title=Locus Online News: 2008 Locus Award Winners]

Plot summary

The book begins with two twelve-year old girls, Zanna and Deeba, who have begun to notice several strange things happening around them. A woman in a bus driver's uniform comes up to Zanna, who is with her friends in a cafe, and seems very excited to meet her. She refers to Zanna as "Shwazzy." Animals, too, give reverence to her. Zanna and Deeba see graffiti on a bridge reading, "Zanna For Ever!" Zanna also receives a letter that says, "We look forward to meeting you when the wheel turns," and includes a weird travelcard for Zanna Moon Shwazzy.

One day after school, Zanna and her friends are surrounded by a dark cloud. Zanna's father hits one of her friends in the fog. While he seems to have fallen asleep at the wheel, Zanna covinced that the fog was trying to attack her.

Zanna spends the next two nights at Deeba's house. Deeba is awakened in the middle of the night by what seems to be the "skritch-skritch" of a spying broken umbrella. The girls follow it (although Zanna is the only one who is able to see the trail) into the basement of a building. The room is filled with pipes, and Zanna, despite Deeba's urgings not to, turns a gauge on one of them the size of a steering-wheel.

They are drawn through a gap between worlds to Un Lun Dun, or UnLondon - a nonsensical mirror version of London, inhabited by wildly varying creatures and animated items who have been discarded by the inhabitants on London. First off they are attacked by a giant pile of living trash. A boy named Hemi saves them but abruptly leaves. The two girls are confused by the strange sights and sounds of this new world. Hemi returns to return a living milk carton from the trash that he thinks might be a pet. It seems friendly so Deeba adopts it and names it Curdle. An eccentric tailor named Obaday Fing scares Hemi away, explaining that the boy is a ghost who was trying to get close enough to them to possess one of them. In conversation he realizes that Zanna is the Shwazzy, a prophesied chosen one who is destined to save UnLondon from the Smog - an evil, sentient cloud of pollution.

Zanna, Deeba, Fing and Skool (a friend of Fing's in an old-fashioned diving suit), decide to travel by bus to the Propheseers to learn more. The buses in UnLondon had to adapt to the wide variety of terrains in the city. Some have giant rubbery wheels, one has gecko legs instead of wheels but the Scrollscrawl bus travels by balloon. They meet Conductor Jones and Rosa the bus driver.

The bus is attacked and the girls have to get off in order to escape. As Jones instructed them, they find Chief Badladder of the Slaterunners, a tribe of people who walk only on the roofs. Despite being attacked by servants of the Smog the Slaterunners help the girls find the Pons Absconditus, the bridge that serves as the office for the Propheseers.

The Propheseers explain that the Smog was created in London by mass amounts of pollution during the Industrial Revolution but that it was defeated. Although they don't know exactly what happened, it seems a group of weatherwitches called the "Armets" battled it with a magic weapon called the "Klinneract." However, the Smog was not killed. Instead, it travelled to UnLondon. It is prophesied in the Book (a talking tome) that the Shwazzy would come one day and save UnLondon.

But, in spite of what is prophesied, Zanna fails in her first battle against the Smog. Brokkenbroll, master of broken umbrellas ("un"brellas) arrives in time to shew the Smog away using a new technique he and Benjamin Unstible (a Propheseer who was presumed dead since no one had heard from him after he left for London in search of a way to defeat the Smog) came up with. Zanna is severely injured and is sent home with Deeba with her memories of the city erased. Instead, the city turns to Brokkenbroll and Unstible who begin handing out Smog-resistant unbrellas to defend the people of UnLondon.

However, Deeba, who still remembers unLondon, begins to search for things related to UnLondon on the internet, hoping she can find someone to talk to. She discovers that Armets is really RMetS. This leads her to question everything she's learned. Upon further investigation she discovers that Unstible has been reported dead but that he had been studying the Clean Air Act. Just as UnLondoners mishear "RMetS" as "Armets," they misheard "Clean Air Act" as "Klinneract."

She decides to travel back to UnLondon. After several trys, she finally finds a way back. She goes to Wraithtown, the town of ghosts, where, with the help of Hemi, who was really not interested in hers and Zanna's bodies at all, she verifies Unstible's death and sets out to warn the Propheseers. Unfortunately, on the way, Deeba and Hemi are taken to Brokkenbroll, who is revealed to be working with the Smog, which has re-animated Benjamin Unstible's body.

They escape to warn the Propheseers, who refuse to listen to her. They run from them as well escaping with the Book, which, although it has proved to be less-than-accurate, agrees to help them fulfill the Shwazzy's tasks and defeat the Smog in the limited time Deeba has before everyone in London forgets that she exists (this happens to everything that comes to UnLondon). With the help of Obaday, Rosa, Jones, the wordlings Diss, Bling and Cauldron, Yorick Cavea and Curdle, the group collect the UnGun, an ultimate weapon which can be loaded with anything, and Deeba, under the banner of 'the Unchosen One', uses it to defeat the Smog and save unLondon.

Characters

Zanna

Zanna has the title "the Shwazzy," which is related to the French adjective "choisi," meaning "chosen". She hates her given name, "Susanna," but she hates "Sue" even more. She is tall and striking but she always tries to stay in the background. This doesn't work very well.

Deeba

Since Deeba takes Zanna's place as the savior of UnLondon, she is called "the UnChosen." On Zanna's first day at Kilburn Comprehensive, Deeba is able to make her laugh, something most people can't do.

Hemi

Hemi is a half-ghost - the result of a union between an UnLondoner and a dead Londoner. While normal ghosts cannot speak in a way that non-ghosts can hear them, Hemi can speak to both ghosts and non-ghosts. He has trouble fitting-in because both ghosts and non-ghosts for being a 'half-breed'. Most inhabitants of Wraithtown do not have to eat. Since Hemi does, he's taken to stealing or "extreme shopping," as he calls it.

Connection to other works

Though "Un Lun Dun" is not directly related to the Bas-Lag universe or to any of Miéville's other works, it does contain various subtle references to his other books:
*One protagonist mentions Varmin Way, which is a living street first mentioned in the short story "Reports Of Certain Events In London" (found in the collection "Looking for Jake").
*"The Courageous Egg", a book spotted by Deeba whilst between worlds, is featured in "The Scar" as the book from which Shekel first learns to read.
*The Wordhoard Pit, the extensive library which connects all libraries, shares its name with a ship in "The Scar," called "The Wordhoard" located in Armada's Haunted QuarterSome reviewers have made mention to the similarities of the setting with "Alice in Wonderland", "Neverwhere" and "The Phantom Tollbooth".

References

External links

* [http://www.randomhouse.com/delrey/unlundun/index.html Official Un Lun Dun website] at [http://www.randomhouse.com/ Random House]