- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2016 July #1
Miéville's latest describes an alternative 1950s Paris transformed by the "S-blast," an explosion of occult power that has brought the dreams and art of surrealism to life as "manifs." Paris is cut off from the rest of the world by a still active Nazi Germany, which attempts to combat the manifs and Paris' surrealist underground with demonic allies. Thibaut, one of the last survivors of a surrealist resistance movement, attempts to solve the mystery of a new Nazi scheme involving the manifs while dealing with his own personal losses and traumas. Notes are included that cover the real-life source of the manifs, and Miéville readers may be reminded of the invasion of reflections that come to life in his novella, The Tain (2002), in a more benign, less apocalyptic manner. Inventive and engrossing, this novel shows why Miéville remains one of the best recent writers not only of weird fiction but of speculative fiction in general. Copyright 2014 Booklist Reviews.