Looking For Jake And Other Stories [signed]

SUMMARY: Step into a London ravaged by unearthly creatures at once utterly alien and chillingly familiar. In China Mieville's award-winning novella 'The Tain', we learn the reason for the invaders' terrible revenge. One survivor must trek through the ruins of the city with a desperate plan to stand against their assault. In addition to 'The Tain', this superb collection contains thirteen short stories, of visionary cityscapes and urban paranoia, ghosts, monsters and impossible diseases. Several of the stories are published here for the first time: these include one set in New Crobuzon, the location of the award-winning series of novels that began with '' Perdido Street Station''; and one in comic-strip form, illustrated by top graphic artist Liam Sharp. This collection displays the sheer imaginative scope of China Mieville's work. What William Gibson did for science fiction, China Mieville has done for fantasy, shattering old paradigms with fiercely imaginative works of startling, often shocking, intensity. Now from this brilliant young writer comes a groundbreaking collection of stories, many of them previously unavailable in the United States, and including four never-before-published tales--one set in Mieville's signature fantasy world of New Crobuzon. Among the fourteen superb fictions are"Jack"--Following the events of his acclaimed novel Perdido Street Station, this tale of twisted attachment and horrific revenge traces the rise and fall of the Remade Robin Hood known as Jack Half-a-Prayer. "Familiar"--Spurned by its creator, a sorceress's familiar embarks on a strange and unsettling odyssey of self-discovery in a coming-of-age story like no other.From the Trade Paperback edition. "Step into a London ravaged by enemies at once utterly alien and chillingly familiar. In China Mieville's novella 'The Tain', we learn the reason for the invaders' terrible revenge. One survivor must trek through the ruins of the city with a desperate plan to stand against their assault." "In addition to 'The Tain', this collection contains thirteen short stories of visionary cityscapes and urban paranoia, ghosts, monsters and impossible diseases. Several of the stories are published here for the first time: these include one set in New Crobuzon, the location of the award-winning sequence of novels that began with Perdido Street Station; and one in comic-strip form, illustrated by top graphic artist Liam Sharp."--BOOK JACKET