The Weeks that Were, Causing Pandemonium and Kitschiesness
Invisible Cities: Great Imagined Cities

Invisible Cities: Great Imaginary Cities

Monday, November 12, 2012

A-Tale-of-Time-CityThe Kitschies' Invisible Cities event takes place this Saturday at Foyles, and, in advance of the event, we started thinking about the great imaginary cities of fiction (not, say, the imagined cities - which we'll leave until tomorrow's blog post).

We (Bex, Anne and Jared) came up with a few of our own favourites:
  • Gotham 
  • Vice City (Grand Theft Auto)
  • City 17 (Half-Life)
  • Unthank (Alasdair Gray's Lanark)
  • Time City (Diana Wynne Jones's A Tale of Time City)
  • Arkham (H.P. Lovecraft)
  • Camorr (Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora)
  • New Crobuzon (China Miéville's Perdido Street Station)
  • Villiren (Mark Charan Newton's City of Ruin)

...and then turned it over to Twitter. Here's what the Internet had to say:

Guards-guardsThe most suggested city:

  • Terry Pratchett's Ankh Morpork (@GavReads, @effayem, @Repka, @ActuallyAisha, @LouMorgan)

A four-way tie for second (but one author clearly takes the cake):

  • Scott Lynch's Camorr (@Repka, @LorGraham, @pornokitsch)
  • China Miéville's New Crobuzon (@Repka, @MattGCraig, @tomhpollock)
  • China Miéville's Armada (@scriptopus, @tomhpollock, @jdiddyesquire)
  • China Miéville's Beszel / Ul Qoma (@SLGrey, @tomhpollock, @gmehn)

Two very worth bronzes:

  • M. John Harrison's Viriconium (@PaulGrahamRaven, @ActuallyAisha)
  • Kim Lakin-Smith's Renegade City (@dellakin_smith, @pornokitsch)

And a host of fantastic reading suggestions:

  • Daniel Abraham's Machi and Saraykehy (@Repka)
  • Clive Barker's Yzorddereex (@jsatellite)
  • Clive Barker's b'Kether Sabbat (@jsatellite)
  • Anything from Calvino (@tomhpollock)
  • Alan Campbell's City of Chains (@nine_below)
  • Samuel Delany's Bellona (@ActuallyAisha)
  • Transmetropolitan-vol-5-lonely-city-warren-ellis-paperback-cover-artWarren Ellis's City (@gmehn)
  • Raymond Feist's Krondor (@jdiddyesquire)
  • Jaine Fenn's Khesh (@scriptopus)
  • Paul di Filippo's Linear City (@thebrainofChris)
  • Frances Hardinge's Toll (@tomhpollock)
  • Robin Hobb's Bingtown (@pallenkel)
  • Douglas Hulick's Ildrecca (@jdiddysesquire) 
  • H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham (@AdamBakerAuthor)
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Macondo (@gmehn)
  • Scott Lynch's Tal Verrar (@Repka) 
  • Jan Morris' Hav (@ActuallyAisha)
  • Jack O'Connell's Quinsigamond (@MattGCraig)
  • George Orwell's Oceania (@gmehn) [Fine, but we wouldn't want to live there]
  • Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast (@AdamBakerAuthor)
  • Hannu Rajaniemi's Oubliette (@jdiddysesquire)
  • Brandon Sanderson's Luthadel (@jdiddysesquire),
  • Robert Zelazny's Amber (@gmehn)
  • David Zindell's Neverness (@PaulGrahamRaven)
  • Gollancz's Cities anthology has some good ones by Ryman, Miéville, Moorcock and di Filippo. - @thebrainofChris [Very true!]

Plus a few great comments:

  • All my favourites are more recent -I wonder if that's something to do with the pastoral romanticism of Tolkien becoming less of a thing. - @Repka
  • Oh gawd, shall I just send you the rationale from my dissertation? #Ikindawentmadonthattopic - @PaulGrahamRaven
  • I'd say New Salisbury but that won't mean anything for a couple of months - @Figures [enigmatic!]

Meanwhile, on The Kitschies' Facebook page - we're giving away a signed copy of Mark Charan Newton's City of Ruin. Skip on over there to take part in the fun...

Hope to see you on Saturday!

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