Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

China Mieville's fantastic new novel (marketed for younger readers but perfect for all ages) follows two young girls, Zanna and Deeba, as they discover strange goings on beneath London. Zanna is seeing strange signs and omens, all pointing to her being the chosen one who will save the city. Not the city of London; but unLondon, an abcity that exists on a plane beneath the Metrolpolis. The girls stumble across a portal that drops them in the middle of a world that bears some similarity to theirs. The citizens are a tad different. There's Obaday Fing, a tailor who makes clothes from books and keeps his pins and needles in his head. Skool, a mute lumbering being in an old fashioned diving suit. There are ghosts, half-ghosts, utterlings (spoken words brought to life) attack umbrellas and more.

Mieville turns the quest story concept on its head, instead giving us a heroine who takes a very practical approach to solving the problems of unLondon. It is an instant classic, at once frightening, fantastical, and hilarious. There are lessons of social responsibility and environmental friendliness, but much like the movie Godzilla, these lessons are delivered through monsters and the eternal struggle against the evils of men, bureaucrats, and apathy.