China Miéville's (Perdido Street Station, Embassytown) reputation for writing New Weird fiction--macabre postmodern pieces imbued with urban grittiness and a deep-seated social conscience--precedes him, and the 28 stories in Three Moments of an Explosion do not disappoint. They are fantastical tales that often end with cliffhangers, inviting readers to formulate their own conclusions amid a sea of fear, doubt and the unknown.
A woman succumbs to metamorphic limbo in "The 9th Technique," when a coveted black-market purchase--a cocooned caterpillar once used as a torture device on a Guantanamo prisoner with a fear of insects--fails to metamorphose and consumes everything in its path. Two lovers embarking on a German country getaway earn the ire of a vengeful ghost punished gruesomely in life for infanticide in "Säcken." Miéville imagines a condition termed "New Death" in which corpses horizontally orient themselves, with feet always pointed toward the viewer, and in "The Dusty Hat"--the darkest story and also most philosophical piece in this collection--he explores the hazy aftermath of death on history and memory. His left-leaning protagonist has fought to protect her political views only to find that such arguments become moot the moment one ceases to exist. Brief interludes that play like abbreviated scenes in an apocalyptic thriller bridge each story.
Miéville's images are visceral and unexpected, the language complex and cleverly molded to the personalities of its speakers. His stories, which offer glimpses into the genius of an exceptionally original writer, extend bewildering questions that will linger and haunt readers long after the cliffhangers are resolved. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant