Fantastic fictional cities - recommendations please

[TheNunsOfGavarone]

Some books I've enjoyed in the last few years have been Perdido Street Station and The Scar by China Mieville, War of the Flowers by Tad Williams and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

I want to lose myself in another strange and fantastical city so please let me know what you've enjoyed and would recommend.

Thanks

The Mortal Engines YA series - the cities run around and eat each other!

Have you read any of the Discworld novels?

A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones. It's aimed at teens but I love her!

yy to mortal engines!!! I also liked war of the flowers.

also really liked market chipping in Diane wynne Jones 'Howl's moving castle'

im also (as a Geordie) enjoying Newcastle in the scifi 'great north road'

plus - I know it is done to death but I love the places in Game of thrones. kings landing, the wall etc they are well described

Try some Guy Gavriel Kay maybe. Sailing to Sarantium, or The Lions of Al Rassan.

Here I go again recommending Robert Jordan's epic 'Wheel of Time' series!

It's huge (14 books, most of which are some 900 pages) and sprawling, but the attention to detail in the different cities and people living there/from there is amazing.

Also, although I love the Game of Thrones books, Wheel of Time is actually complete so no waiting for the next one. Always a bonus.

Or The Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb - fantasticly realised characters and settings.

How about many strange and fantastical cities?

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino.

Hi Everyone, thank you for the recommendations. I'm just surfacing from the job application from hell and as my treat for filling it in and sending it off on time I'm using up the £30 that's left on an Amazon gift voucher that I was given recently

Trying to decide which to order now.....

Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space has some good cities, Chasm City and the individual cities in orbit, it does have quite a bit of hanging around on a spaceship too so might not be your thing. The prequel to the series, The Prefect, is particularly good and has the action moving from city state to city state.

I didn't even know that Howl's Moving Castle was a book, I only know it as a great Studio Ghibli film. I've bought the book now!

Lots in Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith. General neighbourhoods have become Neighbourhoods. If you like colour and chillout go live in Colour. If you're a bit of a hedonist go live in Orange.Cities for technology fans, cat lovers and people who love the quiet. Great story very funny and one of my favorites.

I came on here to say the Mortal Engines series but Remus has beaten me to it! Just finished the last book this afternoon. How I sob ...

Howl's moving castle - book so much better than film. Which is not something you say about Studio Ghibli films normally.

Hello theNuns! Did you see me admiring your name on the other thread?

Sylvia Townsend-Warner The Kingdom of Elfin, which is set in a city kingdom of elves. Sounds twee as anything but it isn't.

Hello UptoapointLordCopper yes I did and thank you but I couldn't remember which thread it was!

Oh and yes NotYoMomma I enjoyed the descriptions of places in the first Game of Thrones book. I'm not sure I was quite keen enough to read the entire series....... but I loved that Tyrion wanted to piss from the top of the Wall - he is a fun character. Oh, and the sky cells were the stuff of nightmares

I came across a copy of Mortal Engines in a charity shop today and snapped it up - it is so engagingly written I was almost tempted to shelve my current read and plunge straight in but that's a habit I'm trying to lose. I would do a lot to have just a fraction of the imagination of some of these writers!

I ended up using up my Amazon voucher on Un Lun Dun by China Mieville, some non-fiction I've wanted to read for a while and some music.

Nuns it's on one of the threads about nothing very much.

I read Un Lun Dun as well and liked it, but was unconvinced by the voice of the main protagonist. The Mortal Engines series felt much more authentic, if that's the right word...

Just finished A Darkling Plain, the last in the Mortal Engines series. Stayed up until 2am to finish it as I couldn't wait to find out what happened. Tears pouring down my face at the end!

I glanced at this thread and thought I should try Mortal Engines after seeing the recs - have it on the kindle as DS1 has read it. Only half way through but it is really good, so I just came back to say thank you!

The abarat by Clive barker.

The City and The City by China Mieville.