Light Draws Breath
graphic-novel · First published 2026
Author guide
China Miéville Books in Order
China Miéville is an English writer and scholar whose work spans weird fiction, fantasy, science fiction, literary criticism, political writing, short fiction, drama, and graphic narrative. His fiction is noted for elaborate settings, political concerns, and experimentation across genre boundaries.
weird fictionfantasyscience fictionliterary fictionshort fictionessayspolitical writinggraphic narrative
Catalog record updated .
China Miéville's Newest Book
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Perdido Street Station
The first Bas-Lag novel and a representative introduction to Miéville's world-building and political fantasy.
The City & The City
A standalone, comparatively concise entry point showcasing his speculative and literary experimentation.
Looking for Jake and Other Stories
A strong introduction to his short fiction and range of styles.
Read in order
Books by series
novel-series · complete
Bas-Lag
A loosely connected trilogy of novels set in the fantastical world of Bas-Lag.
- 1 Perdido Street Station
Book 1 · novel · 2000
Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory…
- 2 The Scar
Book 2 · novel · 2002
A colossal fantasy of incredible diversity and spellbinding imagination. A human cargo bound for servitude in exile . . . A pirate city hauled across the oceans . . . A hidden miracle about be revealed . . . These are the ingredients of…
- 3 Iron Council
Book 3 · novel · 2004
Following Perdido Street Station and The Scar, acclaimed author China Mieville returns with his hugely anticipated Del Rey hardcover debut. With a fresh and fantastical band of characters, he carries us back to the decadent squalor of New…
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (18)
- King Rat
novel · 1998
A London man is enrolled by the King of Rats to assassinate the Pied Piper of Hamelin who dethroned him. The man is Saul, whose rat mother joined humanity, making him immune to the piper's call. In his rat persona Saul eats garbage and…
- The Tain
novella · 2002
- Between Equal Rights: A Marxist Theory of International Law
nonfiction-book · 2005
Mieville critically examines existing theories of international law and offers a compelling alternative Marxist view.
- Un Lun Dun
novel · 2007
The iron wheel began to spin, slowly at first, then faster and faster. The room grew darker. As the light lessened, so did the sound. Deeba and Zanna stared at each other in wonder. The noise of the cars and vans and motorbikes outside…
- The City & The City
novel · 2009
When the body of a murdered woman is found in the extraordinary, decaying city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks like a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he probes, the evidence…
- Kraken
novel · 2010
Kraken is a fantasy novel by British author China Miéville. It is published in the UK by Macmillan, and in the US by Del Rey Books. The book bears the subtitle "An Anatomy" on the title page. It was the winner for the 2011 Locus Award for…
- London's Overthrow
nonfiction-book · 2011
A potent polemic describing the capital in a time of austerity at the beginning of the21st century. China Miv̌ille cuts through the hyperbole of our politicians to present a view from ordinary London - of the inequality, oppression and…
- Embassytown
novel · 2011
Winner of the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, China Miéville's astonishing Embassytown is an intelligent and immersive exploration of language in an alien world. Embassytown: a city of contradictions on the outskirts of the…
- Railsea
novel · 2012
"On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the giant mole bursting from the earth, the harpoonists targeting their prey, the battle resulting in one's death & the other's…
- This Census-Taker
novella · 2016
Dans une ville étrange, à l'écart du monde, vit un homme violent, avec sa femme et son fils... Comme suspendue dans les airs, la ville est à cheval entre deux montagnes, coupée par un gouffre, réunie par un pont. Un pont dont les…
- The Last Days of New Paris
novella · 2016
"A thriller of war that never was--of survival in an impossible city--of surreal cataclysm. In The Last Days of New Paris, China Mieville entwines true historical events and people with his daring, uniquely imaginative brand of fiction,…
- October: The Story of the Russian Revolution
nonfiction-book · 2017
"Acclaimed fantasy author China Mieville plunges us into the year the world was turned upside down The renowned fantasy and science fiction writer China Mieville has long been inspired by the ideals of the Russian Revolution and here, on…
- Dial H
graphic-novel · 2017
- The Tragedy of the Worker: Towards the Proletarocene
nonfiction-book · 2021
- A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto
nonfiction-book · 2022
China Miéville's brilliant reading of the modern world's most controversial and enduring political document: the Communist Manifesto. In 1848 a strange political tract was published by two emigres from Germany. Marx and Engels's…
- The Book of Elsewhere
novel · 2024
She said, We needed a tool. So I asked the gods. There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death…
- The Rouse
novel · 2026
From the bestselling, award-winning master of uncanny fiction comes a defining work, twenty years in the making—a deeply moving, decade- and continent-spanning epic of personal grief, global tumult, and grim conspiracy. Maur’s life has…
- Light Draws Breath
graphic-novel · 2026
Short fiction (2)
- Looking for Jake and Other Stories
short-story-collection · 2005
Step into a London ravaged by unearthly creatures at once utterly alien and chillingly familiar. In China Miéville's award-winning novella 'The Tain', we learn the reason for the invaders' terrible revenge. One survivor must trek through…
- Three Moments of an Explosion: Stories
short-story-collection · 2015
The multi-award-winning China Miéville has been called 'the equal of David Mitchell or Zadie Smith' (Scotland on Sunday), whose 'inventiveness and precision is awesome' (Independent), and who writes with 'an imagination of immense power'…
Essays and speeches (1)
- Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction
essay-collection · 2009
Plays (1)
- Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to the River Kingdoms
roleplaying-sourcebook · 2010
Other (1)
- The Apology Chapbook
chapbook · 2013
Frequently asked questions about China Miéville
Who is China Miéville?
China Miéville is an author of fiction and nonfiction whose work spans novels, short stories, essays, political writing, criticism, and comics.
Sources: penguinrandomhouse.com (opens in a new tab)theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)
Where was China Miéville born, and what did he study?
He was born in Norwich in 1972 and grew up largely in London. He studied anthropology at Cambridge and later earned postgraduate qualifications in international law and philosophy of law at the London School of Economics.
What kind of fiction is China Miéville known for?
Miéville is strongly associated with the New Weird, a mode that blends fantasy, science fiction, horror, and pulp with experimental, politically aware settings. His work is also known for elaborate world-building and genre-mixing.
Sources: theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)penguinrandomhouse.com (opens in a new tab)
What influences shaped China Miéville’s writing?
He has cited writers including M. John Harrison, Michael Moorcock, Mervyn Peake, Philip K. Dick, Jorge Luis Borges, H. G. Wells, and H. P. Lovecraft, along with the Surrealists. Comics and the Dungeons & Dragons games he played as a child also influenced his imagination.
Sources: penguinrandomhouse.com (opens in a new tab)theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)
What awards has China Miéville won, and what is his literary legacy?
He has won major speculative-fiction honors including the Hugo, World Fantasy, and Arthur C. Clarke Awards; The City & The City won the 2010 Hugo for Best Novel in a tie. His work helped establish the New Weird as a significant contemporary literary movement, and he won the Arthur C. Clarke Award three times.
Sources: penguinrandomhouse.com (opens in a new tab)thehugoawards.org (opens in a new tab)theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)