Oil rigs as sea turtles. The miracle of life, as witnessed by a father and his daughter. It is gorgeously written and profoundly disturbing, a vignette of a deeply-traumatized world. As discarded oil rigs begin to resurface, humanity reacts with violence, then a fannish glee; finally completing the cycle with a sort of malign complacency.
It is odd, brief and wonderful. In a brief space, it raises questions about our relationship with history and the environment, with both the constructed and natural worlds. Miéville, who has somehow mastered the twin arts of meaningful philosophical prose and also kickass monsters, marries the two in a story that forces us to consider how we react to wonder itself.
First published in The Guardian, April 2011. Collected in Three Moments of an Explosion, Macmillan, 2015. Find it online here
A Personal Anthology 