when he sticks synonym after synonym I suspect thesaurus usage, but when he just plops a word in there without similar fellows, I am impressed.

I didn't like Un Lun Dun much at all. I think part of the problem was that I felt he was writing to a checklist of "what appeals to the young adult market? Well, this formula worked for other people, so it should work for me." Whereas IC feels a lot more like he's not trying to please anybody in particular -- just having fun.

I look forward to forming opinions on other Mieville books.