Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1)

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Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon #1)

by China Miéville (Goodreads Author)

3.95 of 5 stars 3.95 · rating details · 22,209 ratings · 2,126 reviews

New Crobuzon is a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. Isaac, a brilliant scientist, is asked by a bird-man Garuda to restore his power of flight. But one lab specimen threatens the whole city. A vividly colored caterpillar eating a hallucinatory drug grows in order to consume all.

Paperback, 623 pages

Published July 29th 2003 by Del Rey (first published 2000)

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Dec 02, 2012 Nataliya rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: hugo-nebula, 2012-reads, excellent-reads, mieville-is-awesome, first-in-a-series, location-is-the-true-protagonist

To paraphrase Pratchett, "There's a saying that all roads lead to ~~Ankh-Morpork~~ New Crobuzon. And it's wrong. All roads lead away from ~~Ankh-Morpork~~ New Crobuzon, but sometimes people walk along them the wrong way."

(A stunning image of New Crobuzon from http://www.curufea.com)

A word of warning: if you read only for the story and plot, this book is not for you. Yes, there is an interesting storyline with mystery and danger and love and betrayal - but it is neither the strength nor the focus of Perd...more To paraphrase Pratchett, "There's a saying that all roads lead to ~~Ankh-Morpork~~ New Crobuzon. And it's wrong. All roads lead away from ~~Ankh-Morpork~~ New Crobuzon, but sometimes people walk along them the wrong way."

(A stunning image of New Crobuzon from http://www.curufea.com)

A word of warning: if you read only for the story and plot, this book is not for you. Yes, there is an interesting storyline with mystery and danger and love and betrayal - but it is neither the strength nor the focus of Perdido Street Station. What the book is really about is the city of New Crobuzon itself, and Mieville's amazing boundless imagination knows no limits when it comes to creating a living breathing creature of this surreal, phantasmagorical place.

"I turn away from him and step into the vastness of New Crobuzon, this towering edifice of architecture and history, this complexitude of money and slum, this profane steam-powered god."

New Crobuzon is "the sunless city of mundane betrayal and danger", a sprawling metropolis in the Industrial Revolution era-like setting. It is the melting pot of Mieville's world, with many races ~~happily living~~ grudgingly coexisting within it. Ruthless militia patrols the streets while crime bosses prosper and the courts sentence the criminals to the horrendous Remaking.

The macabre city is diseased, gangrenous, festering, filthy, covered in grime and stench, with all the vices of a huge metropolis - violence, crime, drugs, corruption, poverty, and politics.

Dominated by the eponymous bulk of Perdido Street Station, with the enormous ribcage of a long-dead ancient giant jutting out in the middle of it, built on the banks of rivers from which you'd better not take a drink, it appears to be made of the stuff of nightmares. That is, until the events set in motion by the unwitting characters of this story unleash the true sickeningly-awful meaning of nightmares onto "this old city that snores and farts and rumbles and scratches and swells and grows warty and pugnacious with age." The ultimate existential horror - the loss of the integrity of one's mind, the fear of helplessness.

"The nightmares were splitting the membrane of sleep. They were spilling into the everyday, haunting the sunlit realm, drying conversations in the throat and stealing friends away."

Mieville takes the strange and innately repulsive concepts and unflinchingly uses them to carve out the setting and the characters of his story. His amazing imagination and brilliant descriptive skills make this loud, boisterous, filthy, and terrifying place so incredibly vivid that it seemed to me that I actually spent some time there, lived and breathed it, actually felt it - which, in turn, makes me want (a) an immediate shower, (b) a full-body CT scan, and (c) immediate treatments for parasites and contagious diseases that any visitor to it would undoubtedly get.
*******************************************
I was warned about the linguistic complexity of this story. It is true - Mieville's prose can be dense and complicated and at times deliciously pompously pretentious, studded with adverbs and adjectives. Usually I would contemptuously and exasperatedly shrug my shoulders and walk away from that.

However, Mieville does something amazing with his fascinating language and melodic flow of narration (especially Yagharek's interludes), making me love it in a perversely masochistic way while reaching for the dictionary. What did you expect - after all, in this book, there is a mention of Palgolak, god of knowledge. With a library. (How cool is that???)

China Mieville, making sophisticated words cool since 1972. I bet he was born clutching a dictionary.

(Dear Mr. Mieville, thank you for 'prestigitation', 'salubrious', 'avaricious', 'penury', 'susurrus', and of course, 'palimpsest'. These words will forever stay with me. Bring on the SATs!)

********************************
As for the characters... Well, they are definitely flawed, careless, and not too likeable (yes, Isaac, I'm looking at you!), and therefore feel quite real despite their intended alienness. Lin, oh Lin, you poor thing... Construct Council - I wonder if we shall meet again, you terrifying artificial machine-god intelligence. But the tormented and mysterious choice-stealing Yagharek was my favorite throughout - and my heart was aching for him in the last few pages - the unexpected but in retrospect inevitable way to end this amazing gut-punches-delivering book.

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EDIT AFTER THE REREAD - WITH SPOILERS (November 2012):

The more I think about it, the more I find Yagharek to be the heart of this book. The earthbound garuda, punished for a crime that for different reasons is despicable both for his tribe and for us, readers - and Isaac, too. Yagharek, who in his desperate quest to fly again (and ashamed of himself for even trying) makes a journey not just from Cymek to New Crobuzon but also a mental one, from a quiet subdued creature obsessed only with its own plight to a fighter, a hero, a friend - and, ultimately, someone new.

(view spoiler)
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4.5 solid stars. Why not 5 stars then, since I am clearly in love with this book? Because I am awful, that's why. I hate insects, and all the insect-filled storyline made me feel like bugs were crawling under my skin. Brrrrrr.... Which, I suspect, may have been the intended effect. Also, intentionally or not, it feels that a few storylines were dealt with too quickly and incompletely. But overall, a great book that I loved very much and highly recommend.

"I turn and walk into my home, the city, a man."

============

By the way, my review of the second Bas-Lag book, "The Scar", is over this way.
And my review of "Iron Council", the third book set in Bas-Lag universe, is over here.(less)

124 likes · like · see review

Jun 01, 2011 Ceridwen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Ceridwen by: like, everyone

Shelves: aliens, cthulhu, fantasy, it-s-alive, sci-fi, steampunk, tolkien-uber-alles

Despite having declared Mr. Miéville my literary boyfriend some time ago, I have to come out and admit I've only read one (1) book by him. I've read his foray into YA, Un Lun Dun, which thumbs the touchstones of his writing: urban spaces, a bunch of weird ass shit, and literary genres ground through the pulper of his baroque writing. But, being YA, the profanity and sheer globbing fuckallery of his writing was dampened a bit. No so, here. And dag, yo, that's some stuff.

Man, I don't even know wha...more

71 likes · like · see review

Jul 05, 2012 Traveller rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: steampunk, urban-fantasy, four-and-a-half-stars

Four-and-a-half-Stars

This Steampunk meets New Weird meets Cyberpunk meets Fantasy novel has so many themes, that I'm not even going to try to give it full credit with some sort of synopsis. I'm rather just going to talk about various aspects of the book as I go along with my review.

The way I felt when I finished the novel, I wanted to give it 7 stars. For a few reasons, I'm having second thoughts.

Let me start off the bat with some aspects that niggled me.

Firstly, certain aspects of the world-bu...more

70 likes · like · see review

Jan 05, 2012 Brad rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Brad by: Ethan

Shelves: faves, speculative, mieville50, the-best, to-read-again, weird, steampunk, personal-mythology, meta-review

WARNING: This review probably contains some (but not many) spoilers, so you may not want to read this if you haven’t read Perdido Street Station yet. This review also contains plenty of vulgarity. Please don't read this if you do not want to see the "f" and other words. Thanks.

Me reading my review: I decided to read this on SoundCloud, since BirdBrian has turned me into a recorded voice madman. You can listen right here if you'd like.

I fucking hate moths.

Seriously. I hate them. They freak me ou...more

83 likes · like · see review

Jun 13, 2011 mark monday rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: i-gave-up, fantastickal

my dear Perdido Street Station,

perhaps it is fated not to be. or perhaps i need to grow a bit more, until i am able to understand and appreciate your unique charms. but for now, i am just not ready. please don't take this personally - i promise that i shall try you out again sometime, perhaps soon. too many people love you, and they love you too, too much for me to give up on you altogether.

i will admit that my first impression was off-putting - the way you talked and gestured and sought attent...more my dear Perdido Street Station,

perhaps it is fated not to be. or perhaps i need to grow a bit more, until i am able to understand and appreciate your unique charms. but for now, i am just not ready. please don't take this personally - i promise that i shall try you out again sometime, perhaps soon. too many people love you, and they love you too, too much for me to give up on you altogether.

i will admit that my first impression was off-putting - the way you talked and gestured and sought attention only created annoyance. but still, i was determined to soldier on, knowing of the wonders that many others have enjoyed in your embrace. i thought that there must be something there, some quality underneath all of the affectation and all of the almost-desperate attempts to dazzle and to provoke. i felt confident that beneath all of the ruffles and ribbons and silky trifles and shiny buttons that there would be something interesting and of value, buried down deep. but as i undressed you, instead of a warm beating heart, i found only more rococo haberdashery. there was no there there!

but you know, once i felt the same way about samuel delany, about ronald firbank - and lo & behold: i now admire them both, i respond rather quickly to their bold instigations, their often sharp tongues, their secretly dreamy temperaments. it just took time. and i'm sure yours will come as well. but not now! i simply haven't the energy or patience to get to know you. and i am certain, in the end, my affection must mean little to you, Perdido... you are too beloved by all to be wounded too deeply by this minor affront. please do forgive my rash bout of grappling and its abrupt finish, this lectio interruptus. i take full responsibility.

this i do promise: to be continued! we will once again tumble into each other's arms, hoping for some kind of delight or satisfaction. this evening was... simply not meant to be. the housekeeper will take care of the sheets and mess; please do me a kind favor and take your leave through the servants' entrance.

'til the time of our sweet reunion,
yours,

mark monday

(view spoiler)(less)

62 likes · like · see review

Sep 03, 2011 Keely rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction, contemporary-fiction, novel, reviewed, horror, urban-fantasy, uk-and-ireland, favorites

My friends call me Senex ('The Old Man') because of my taste in fantasy, or they would, if I had any. It's often been noted that I'll give at least four stars to any fantasy from the Italian Renaissance, and yet rarely give more than two for anything written since the nineteen-sixties. Some have accused me of a staunch prejudice in period, but lo! it is not so.

I really love the fantasy genre, but the corollary of this is that I hate most fantasy books, because of how they mistreat that which I l...more

73 likes · like · see review

view all 36 comments

Han Asra Well, I've just read your other fantasy review and your mention of "magic being unfathomable magical". What your opinion on thaumaturgy and other "mag...more
Feb 22, 2013 12:43am

Keely Well, when I talk about magic being 'unfathomable', that doesn't necessarily mean that human beings can't interact with it, or that the magic isn't go...more
Feb 22, 2013 11:03am

Nov 22, 2012 Ian Graye rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: mieville, read-2012, reviews, reviews-5-stars

I Love You, I Love You, I Love You

For the fortnight it took me to read this novel, I was in another world and I was in love.

Perhaps, now, I’ll retreat from that world and substitute another or others (or perhaps even return to my own world), but I will remain in love.

Is this a fantasy love or is it real? I think it’s real.

After all, is there any love that is not partly a product of your own mind?

How can a writer make this happen? How can a reader experience this? How can a person experience it i...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Jenn(ifer) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: dark, gr-group-coreads, read-in-2012, awesomely-weird

I'm not feeling overly inspired to review this book. I was. At first. At around the 300 page mark, still riveted by the world that Miéville created, I started feverishly composing what would have been... what could have been...

I researched Miéville's background and was prepared to tell you all about his growing up in a lower-class household with just his mum and his sister, but that he was super smart and won scholarships to all the best schools. I was going to tell you about his love for role-...more

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Jun 17, 2011 Joel rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club, wssfbc, sci-fi-fantasy, 2011, 52-in-2011, vote-getters, 30-day-book-challenge, signed-copy, chinatown, bas-lag

Lots of people like to accuse China Miéville of writing with a thesaurus open next to his laptop. How else to explain the frequent appearance of "ossified," "salubrious," "susurrus" and "inveigled" within the 623 pages of Perdido Street Station? Ok, so you can maybe argue that if you write a 250,000 word book, probably less than six of those words should be "palimpsest," but really, I just think he's a smart guy who carefully controls his prose.

So the language in The City & The City is strip...more Lots of people like to accuse China Miéville of writing with a thesaurus open next to his laptop. How else to explain the frequent appearance of "ossified," "salubrious," "susurrus" and "inveigled" within the 623 pages of Perdido Street Station? Ok, so you can maybe argue that if you write a 250,000 word book, probably less than six of those words should be "palimpsest," but really, I just think he's a smart guy who carefully controls his prose.

So the language in The City & The City is stripped down and spare, because he is riffing on detective novel tropes. Kraken is littered with pop culture references as he turns modern urban fantasy upside down. And Perdido Street Station is dripping with ~~ichor~~ grotesquely ornate nouveau-Victorian prose because that's the kind of book this is; dude clearly read a lot of H.P. Lovecraft (speaking of which, if you think this is hard to read, just try a few paragraphs of that). If you don't want to read something over-the-top, generally safe to say: don't read something by China Miéville. As Roger Ebert likes to say, this one goes so far over the top, it circumnavigates the top and doubles back on itself.

Shit (I don't mean to swear, but if you are going to read this one, you better be ready for some shit, and some shitting, and things that have recently shat [I swear, the only book with more shat than this book is [book:this book|6426609]]), how else would you have him describe New Crobuzon? A wasted, diseased, dark nightmare metropolis, where an entire neighborhood huddles in the shadows of the skinless ribcage of some ancient felled beast, where a gruff race of living cactus-people inhabits a massive, filthy greenhouse, where the polluted waters run thick with eyeless corpses and surgically altered criminals and wingless bird-men wander the streets? "Oh these words are too big! What is going on?" Ok, here you go: "The dirty city was brown. The brown water ran brownly past the dirty brown banks. A brown-skinned man in a dirty brown trenchcoat walked brownly through the dirty, brown light."

I'm not saying you are dumb if you don't like this. I am saying I like this. The world of Bas-Lag is like no place I've been before, so I don't want to hear it described with a bunch of words I hear all the time. You don't even have to know what they all mean. Think about the word "susurrus." How does that make you feel? I could have said "a whispering sound," but things don't make whispering sounds in New Crobuzon, they make susurrus ones. Trust me, this is some salubriously ossified vocabulary.

Should I talk about, you know, the plot? I don't think so. I didn't know anything about this going in except that it was set in a big, gross city and probably it was going to be hard to read (it wasn't). In broad strokes, though: it's nuts, which you know to expect if you have read one of this guy's books before. If you haven't had any good ideas lately, possibly it is because China Miéville has been slinking into your bedroom, wraith-like, to feast on your dreams (conceptual spoiler alert!). Seriously, I have read four of his books now, and three of them are densely packed with enough cool concepts to fill at least twice that many normal books. There is a reason this dude coined a new genre.

For all the muchness on display, for all of this book's wandering threads and "oh, this would be cool" pit stops, it's immensely readable and, you know, quite thoughtful. I mean, for a book with a sadistic, eight-legged, scissor-happy deus ex machinarachnid who talks in poetry and all caps. If you can find another book that manages to cram a genuinely well-developed sociological argument for Maxrism into the basic plot of Aliens on mushrooms, well... let me know. I'll read that too.

Facebook 30 Day Book Challenge Day 11: Book from your favorite author.(less)

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Nov 25, 2012 Nandakishore Varma rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Perdido Street Station is a masterpiece of world creation. China Mieville has created a fantastic twisted universe, as rich as Indian curry, and as weirdly fascinating as a freak show at a village fair. The city of New Crobuzon continues to fascinate long after one finishes one's journey through it.

New Crobuzon is a city in an unspecified alternate steampunk universe, positioned at the confluence of the rivers Tar and Canker. It is populated a medley of races, human and non-human: and the non-hu...more Perdido Street Station is a masterpiece of world creation. China Mieville has created a fantastic twisted universe, as rich as Indian curry, and as weirdly fascinating as a freak show at a village fair. The city of New Crobuzon continues to fascinate long after one finishes one's journey through it.

New Crobuzon is a city in an unspecified alternate steampunk universe, positioned at the confluence of the rivers Tar and Canker. It is populated a medley of races, human and non-human: and the non-human ones remind one of a painting by Hieronymous Bosch. There are the khepri, with female human bodies and a head which is made of an entire scarab: the head can couple with male scarabs and produce offspring, while the bodies can couple with human males for pleasure. There are the cactus people who are literally walking cactii; there are the wyrmen who are rather like flying gargoyles; there are the vodyanoi, frog-like creatures who can sculpt water; and the garudas, flying man-birds very much like the Indian mythical being with the same name. Also, there are the Remade, whose bodies have been surgically altered in most horrible fashions as punishment. There is also a Mafia don with a body composed of many conjoined ones and a spider god of sorts who travel across different dimensions on the world-web...

New Crobuzon is a republic of a sort, but ruled by corrupt politicians: the city gives one the impression of a cross between Victorian London and an America ruled by extreme right-wing Republicans (Mieville, a communist, seems to be making a statement here that any society dedicated to the service of Mammon will ultimately come to this). Crime is rampant: social inequalities are glaring: criminalisation of politics is the order of the day. The description of the dark underbelly is so stark and merciless that some sections (especially the one about the Remade whores) almost had me retching in disgust.

This universe has a sort of weird science which is a mixture of steampunk and magic. One day, a garuda named Yagharek whose wings have been removed as a punishment comes to the renegade scientist Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin. His request: make him fly again. Isaac cannot resist a challenge. His single-minded efforts conjure up a pair of wings for Yagharek sets in motion a chain of events which result in the discovery of crisis energy, the unleashing of a quintet of Slake Moths (horrific creatures who devour the mind and excrete it as nightmares) over the city, and the awakening of sentience in robotic slaves. In true disaster-movie tradition, events peak to a climax at the base of Perdido Street Station: the meeting point of various train lines, the seat of various government offices, and the tallest building in the city.

The pictorial effect of the novel is awesome. One can easily imagine the movie in 3D. The canvas is so huge and the details so intricate that it literally takes one's breath away. The author has taken a lot of pains to craft New Crobuzon, detail by painstaking detail-history, geography, politics and mythology. One may very well say that the city is the protagonist of this story...

...And IMO, that is its major failing. Mieville has spent too much time in developing his world that his story pales in comparison. His protagonists are not very likeable (especially Isaac); the story moves in rather predictable fashion; and towards the end, the novel drags a bit. At each and every point, we can see the author adding one more loving touch to his creation, expanding a detail here and there, many a time at the story's cost. This is what dragged the book down from five to four stars for me.

But as an unparalleled creation of fantasy, New Crobuzon stands alone: all you SF and fantasy fans out there, what are you waiting for? Go visit it!(less)

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Sep 03, 2011 Aerin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, well-that-was-awesome, horror, urban-bizarre

It's hard not to fall in love with this book. It has that thing - that spark, that soul, that beating heart - that lifts it above its imperfections into the realm of dogeared, much-discussed, passed-around cult novels. I can see why this is the one that put China Miéville on the map.

It begins with Yagharek, a garuda, and New Crobuzon, a city. Garuda are one of the many sentient species in the world of Bas-Lag, creatures halfway between human and eagle, but Yagharek is a cripple and an exile. His...more It's hard not to fall in love with this book. It has that thing - that spark, that soul, that beating heart - that lifts it above its imperfections into the realm of dogeared, much-discussed, passed-around cult novels. I can see why this is the one that put China Miéville on the map.

It begins with Yagharek, a garuda, and New Crobuzon, a city. Garuda are one of the many sentient species in the world of Bas-Lag, creatures halfway between human and eagle, but Yagharek is a cripple and an exile. His wings have been sawn off for the crime of choice-theft: the only crime among the garuda.

Yagharek comes to New Crobuzon, which could be described as "a vibrant, revolting slum" or maybe "a cosmopolitan festering cesspit", looking for the scientist Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, who Yagharek believes can find a way to make him fly again. Isaac is an eccentric, and something of an outcast, unable to hold down a job in academia and secretly dating a khepri - a beetle-headed woman named Lin - which makes him a pervert in the eyes of everyone but the most liberal-minded beatniks. But he's also well-known as a genius, and Yagharek has plenty of gold to sway his interest.

So Isaac gets to work studying various mechanisms of flight, both scientific and magical - er - "thaumaturgical". Meanwhile Lin, an artist working in the medium of hardened khepri spit, begins a strange commission for a gruesome and dangerous drug lord. Like a boulder beginning to roll downhill, the plot builds momentum slowly, but once it gets moving its rapid and unstoppable.

Pretty soon, the characters have gotten into a mess of world-ending proportions. As part of his research, Isaac collected all manner of flying beasts, and one of the creatures that ended up in his lab was a peculiar caterpillar of provenance unknown. Isaac was fascinated by the strange, growing thing, curious to see what would emerge from its chrysalis. But what comes out is a (view spoiler). And before long, it's freed its captive brothers in another part of the city, and the five begin a feeding rampage that no sentient creature can hope to stop. But in the world of Bas-Lag there are other forms of consciousness, and other beings even more terrifying than the monsters. But they would just as soon kill our heroes as help them...

So you've got your urban fantasy, your Lovecraftian horror, your gritty steampunk, your thought-provoking science fiction, your political allegory, your plucky band of heroes on a quest. There's really something for everybody in here, and it's all mixed together into something dark and terrifying and fascinating and utterly new. The book isn't perfect - there are too many plot cul-de-sacs and elements that don't quite gel with the whole. It's too long and the ending unsatisfactory. But it's a ride worth taking. It reaches out and pulls you in. It has that thing. That indefinable addictive quality that in one form or another, made us all fall in love with fiction in the first place, that we're all looking to find again whenever we crack open a new novel.

I can't promise it will be there for everyone - after all it's an elusive thing, and a subjective one. But if you like the fantasy/sci-fi/horror spectrum at all, Perdido Street Station is worth your time.(less)

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Jul 30, 2007 Ken-ichi rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: escape, fantasy

I feel like I've been reading this book forever. It's long, largely unstructured, and I never became particularly invested in any of the characters, so it just dragged on. The best thing I could say about it is that it's diverting. One of the quotes on the back describes it as "phantasmagoric," which seems accurate. All sorts of crazy random things, soul-devouring moth creatures, interdimensional homicidal spiders, creative reconstructive surgery as state punishment. That's all amusing to a degr...more

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Oct 23, 2009 Ryan rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of steampunk

Recommended to Ryan by: io9.com

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, read-at-work

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A story about a rogue scientist trying to harness unbelievable powers to help a de-winged birdman fly again. This should have been awesome. It wasn't. Plot lines get mashed together, or abandoned all together. It ends as a vastly different story than it started. I wanted to like this book, I really did. But now the more I think about it, the more disappointed I am.

The story is so off the wall you'll never know what's coming next. Sometimes story elements are introduced and won't make any sense...more A story about a rogue scientist trying to harness unbelievable powers to help a de-winged birdman fly again. This should have been awesome. It wasn't. Plot lines get mashed together, or abandoned all together. It ends as a vastly different story than it started. I wanted to like this book, I really did. But now the more I think about it, the more disappointed I am.

The story is so off the wall you'll never know what's coming next. Sometimes story elements are introduced and won't make any sense until 20 pages later. This is acceptable, but the story has A LOT of superfluous elements. Things are discussed and never spoken of again. Two prominent concepts on the back cover synopsis of this edition, weather patterns that destroy reality and the ambassador of Hell, come up only once and have NO bearing on the story. Several brief passages lead you to suspect that the mayor is a serial killer that steals people's eyes for his own use. But, of course, it's never spoken of again. Some of this is really interesting stuff, but just gives way to the more mundane monster hunt the book degrades into.

The writing started to get to me after a while. It's so overly descriptive that you can easily miss things. It's downright annoying if you have to re-read sentences frequently to dig through the dressed up language. It gets to the point that the interesting imagery looses its charm, and that's a shame.

I do know this though, I did not care for the ending. I'm not one that believes the ending always has to be happy, but this one was sooooo depressing. It just turns out terribly for all the characters you've been rooting for... for no good reason. The Garuda's new found determination feels so forced. Like the author just couldn't come up with a fitting end. The truth about Yag's crime was so... dumb. It's like the author wanted to make you like the character, and then pull the proverbial rug out from under you for kicks. Lin gets tortured half to death and ends up massively brain damaged... WTF? Motley doesn't get his comeuppance, neither does the mayor.

Apparently, The Scar picks up the author's narrative about the world of Bas-Lag. Perhaps I'll read it at some point. If you really like steampunk/neoindustrial stuff you may want to read this for the imagery alone.(less)

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Jun 30, 2011 Catie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, read-in-2011

When we’ve turned this world into a dried up husk and have to resort to shutting ourselves in to life sustaining pods and “living” within some sort of virtual environment, I vote we nominate this guy to imagine and design our virtual realities. Sure, we’ll probably end up with some weird shit, like fire breathing iguana flowers and pulsating organic clouds that rain mucus and blood (he won’t be able to help himself) but we’ll get the most detailed, complete, panoramic world, and I can guarantee...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Mosca rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It is clear that China Miéville is an exceptionally inventive writer. The steam-punk/fantasy world of the city-state New Crobuzon is an extraordinary creation. The world is populated with many sentient species and ethnicities—each with different needs and agendas—all enduring the dominance of a corrupt and incompetent human police state that oppresses and exploits most of even the human population. The varieties of creatures, monsters, and technologies are fascinating. The plot twists and charac...more It is clear that China Miéville is an exceptionally inventive writer. The steam-punk/fantasy world of the city-state New Crobuzon is an extraordinary creation. The world is populated with many sentient species and ethnicities—each with different needs and agendas—all enduring the dominance of a corrupt and incompetent human police state that oppresses and exploits most of even the human population. The varieties of creatures, monsters, and technologies are fascinating. The plot twists and character descriptions rival Dickens. And for these reasons alone this book is worth your time.

New Crobuzon is a dark dystopian city that is cruel, grimy, polluted, crime-ridden, loaded with slums, deteriorating, and seems a blight upon its world. It is labyrinthian and architecturally grotesque, and occasionally appalling and awe inspiring.

Into this dark environment Miéville introduces unique and memorable protagonists who become wrapped up in a plot that promises depth and complexity but devolves into a hunt for monsters. And for a while this hunt deteriorates into a horror novel. Admittedly, this plot is occasionally elevated by a crafty and enjoyable pseudo-science that seems to recall the best pulp novels and comic books, but with better pseudo-science and cooler steam-punk gadgets.

But it is amazing to me that Miéville can so well develop the emotional workings of his major protagonists, but not give the appearance that he cares much for them. The dark, demeaning, and exhausting trials these characters are put through seems to assume a very bleak ontology. This was one of Miéville’s favorite words—it means “the nature of existence”.

(view spoiler)

Four stars for talent and invention. One star left off because I feel so crummy after reading this. Maybe a month from now I will feel different.
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Dec 19, 2012 Emma rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: weird, fantasy

Overall, four stars for the wonderfully weird Perdido Street Station.

I say 'overall’ because the book was a bit of a mixed bag.

three star bits

I didn’t recognise a large percentage of the words in the text. This made me feel edgy and insecure. My reading was repeatedly halted as I reached for the dictionary to look up beauties such as prestidigitation, curmudgeon, bathetic, palimpsest and opprobrious. The book also prompted a huffy sulk. My husband (who is far too smart for his own good) pointe...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Aubrey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 4-star, reviewed, ever-on

Miéville strikes me as the type of author who has weird and fantastical dreams that all too easily dip into nightmares and back again, undergoing a number of cycles in a single night. Dreams that he can't help writing down to share with the rest of us. If this isn't the case, it makes the force of his imagination all the more impressive.
Streetways, devils, computing devices, insects, all merge and mutate and flesh themselves together in a riotous dance that both encircles and entraps the city of...more Miéville strikes me as the type of author who has weird and fantastical dreams that all too easily dip into nightmares and back again, undergoing a number of cycles in a single night. Dreams that he can't help writing down to share with the rest of us. If this isn't the case, it makes the force of his imagination all the more impressive.
Streetways, devils, computing devices, insects, all merge and mutate and flesh themselves together in a riotous dance that both encircles and entraps the city of New Crobuzon. The author is not afraid to get his hands dirty, and every slice of psychedelic meanderings is caked in filthy adjectives and suffused with an innate perverseness. And you find yourself moving faster and faster through the pages, details winking out at you as a powerful descriptive or grotesque picture pulls your attention for a brief moment before you're off again. At least, that's how it was for me.
I didn't enjoy all of the ride. Oftentimes the sights, the sounds, the cardinal directions would all blur together into a mass that I knew was a phenomenal work of imagination, but ultimately the same imagination. But the particular pieces that grabbed hold of my imagination and refused to let go were simply, in a word, extraordinary.
As I progressed through the novel, what first noticeably drew my attention were the unusual rainbow larva, one of them carried away in a whirlwind of black market activity to the lair of an exceedingly eccentric, if not mad, scientist. They grew even more interesting when they finally hatched, and to those who are wary of spoilers, I apologize, but some of my favorite aspects are tied up in major plot points, and I can't resist discussing them. (view spoiler)
Oh, you disagree? Ah well. More for me. But at any rate, I also loved the fact that Miéville was much more concerned with the world and the story than any sorts of literature conventions. He did have his plot and his grammar and characterization and whatnot. But a conclusive ending? Ha.
I'm looking forward to the sequel. Should be another phantasmagorically wonderful ride.(less)

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Jun 27, 2009 Jacob rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: i-own, read-before-goodreads, sci-fi-fantasy-etc, mieville

June 2009

It’s been a while since I last read this one, and I still haven’t properly reviewed it. Chalk it up to forgetfulness on my part, but also some reluctance: although Perdido Street Station may not be my favorite of the Bas-lag books, it still holds a special place in my heart, and for some reason I can’t quite find the right words to capture it.

See, PSS and I had this little flirtation go on for years before I worked up the stones to read it. We kept meeting at parties, exchanging furtiv...more June 2009

It’s been a while since I last read this one, and I still haven’t properly reviewed it. Chalk it up to forgetfulness on my part, but also some reluctance: although Perdido Street Station may not be my favorite of the Bas-lag books, it still holds a special place in my heart, and for some reason I can’t quite find the right words to capture it.

See, PSS and I had this little flirtation go on for years before I worked up the stones to read it. We kept meeting at parties, exchanging furtive glances across the room, standing next to each other at the urinals, and nothing. Sod-all nothing. But enough imagery. True story: sometime during winter 2000/01, on my first-ever visit to a Barnes & Noble (a young farmboy remembers these things), I briefly looked at the cover of PSS, thought it pretty, read part ofa blurb, lost interest, and moved on. Seemed weird. Mind you, I was a wee eighth grader more into the ordinary, safe fantasies of Robert Jordan and Brian Jacques, so strange cities and xenians weren’t quite my cup of tea. Yet. Then, years later, spring 2005, after seeing an ad for The Etched City in Realms of Fantasy magazine, I checked it out, saw the blurb comparing it to Miéville, recognized the name, and decided on a whim to try out this book I’d been avoiding for years. So I read it. And I completely forgot about The Etched City.

And I’m not sure how else to say it. Thing is, after spending six years in junior high and high school reading mostly-forgettable drivel in sci-fi and fantasy, here was--hell, here was something new! No more of this Brave Young Farmboy, Good Versus Evil crap I’d read over and over before; Miéville had made a world and a city, peopled it with fantastic people and beings, and let ‘em rip. Granted, looking back at things, the story may not be great and flawless: the sudden U-turn from the wings-for-the-birdman story into the night of the slakemoths horror tale feels a bit jarring, but younger me didn’t notice or mind too much. I was just happy to be reading something different, something new and alien. Alien places, alien peoples, alien vocabulary (and you know you’ve been reading too much Miéville when you start reading the word unclear as unc-le-ar, and wonder what it means)--well, let’s face it: I should have read it years ago.
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Sep 25, 2007 Brendan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Simply extraordinary.

Let's get this out of the way: yes, Mieville likes to get his vocab on. But I don't think it's out of pretension or apprehension (I've seen both suggested in reviews on this site). Mieville's using the language to draw you in to a world that is like ours, but slightly different— a dark, morbid, fantastical dystopia that's something like the dirty lovechild of Edward Gorey, Jules Verne and Charles Dickens. It's a dirty, lowdown, steam-age-with-magic setting that is immediatel...more

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Jul 11, 2011 Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

My first Goodreads review.

Story: 3/5

1: Being Vague, rambling plot with no little believable storyline
5: Ripping yarn. Clever, thought provoking

The story is based in a sordid police state world. Where medical advancements have bizarrely evolved yet weaponry remains in the 1700's. It is a dark and dirty setting that reminded me of Neverwhere. Unfortunately Mieville needs you to completely picture this world in your head, to a degree that is utterly frustrating at first. A description of an event...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Robert Delikat rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: People who dig weird.

Recommended to Robert by: Traveller

Shelves: fantasy, dystopia

Wow, did I ever have a time with this one. It was a love-hate-love relationship. At first the book drew me in with the language. I am almost always about writing over plot so I was immediately drawn in by the words and their construction long before the plot even began to quicken. Some has been written about how Miéville repeats certain words and, while I noticed that (for me it was pugnacious and detritus), it was not too distracting. Actually, given that the landscape was usually strewn with d...more Wow, did I ever have a time with this one. It was a love-hate-love relationship. At first the book drew me in with the language. I am almost always about writing over plot so I was immediately drawn in by the words and their construction long before the plot even began to quicken. Some has been written about how Miéville repeats certain words and, while I noticed that (for me it was pugnacious and detritus), it was not too distracting. Actually, given that the landscape was usually strewn with detritus and and its inhabitants pugnacious, these were probably the best choices of words. That being said, the words were wonderful. I spent some time with my dictionary.

For me, the physical, steampunk world and the environment of Perdido Street Station were vividly drawn and easily recognizable, its technological content not so much. Atmospherically, it is vaguely 19th century, Victorian but that only a trope; this is a world definitely not that of our own. This is a world of many sorts of alien life that sometimes includes the humans themselves, humans who copulate with sentient, insect-like creatures. While we may not be at all sure about the time, the place is very well constructed.

Actually, let’s just cut to the chase; at the core, this is a story about the love and mating habits of a human (at least I think he’s human) and a vegetarian insect (my imagination had her looking kind of like a cross between a praying mantis and Angelina Jolie) who is an artist and spits a lot. Oh, and also it’s about giant, psychedelic, mesmerizing moths that literally have shit for brains and that suck the dreams out of everyone in sight and turn them into zombies. I am not making this up. This is what this wildly acclaimed book is about. The sex and the insect wasn’t too bad but when we got to the moths and zombies, I started to wonder WTF was I reading.

Okay, Robert, calm down... Remember Angelina? The artist? I mean, the insect? Well her real name is Lin and she [sic] really isn’t an insect, she’s khepri, uhhh, she only looks like an insect. I guess that makes it better. And the shit for brains stuff? It really isn’t shit. It’s only called that. It’s really the moths’ milk. I guess that makes it all better now. Are you confused yet? I would not be surprised. And we haven’t even gotten to The Weaver, the multi-dimensional spider who speaks in torrents of free-verse poetry. The Orkin Man would’a had a field-day here.

It sounds like there’s a lot going on in this book and there is. There just might be too much going on, especially toward the end. While there was no lack of narrative stamina this reader weakened, weakened to the point of nearly giving up. Weakened not out of fatigue but out of a loss of interest. The narrative toward the end seemed to drone on and on. I actually had to get a fix from my fellow reviewers. I plugged into Goodreads, read some of my friends’ positive critiques of PSS, regained my strength and resolve to continue and continue I did to finish the book. I am not sorry that I did. But even in the ending, I was a bit disappointed.

The narrative of the book is all over the map. We have all kinds of contrivances, some biological, some technological. They come and they go almost as suddenly. However, there was one particular subplot that seemed to be somewhat central but for me, very poorly developed. A garuda, a winged creature by the name of Yagharek comes to our main protagonist, Isaac, for help in restoring his (its?) wings, wings which were lost as a result of a sentence passed on to him (it?) for having committed a particular crime. We do not find out what the crime was till the end of the book but it is how our hero, Isaac, responds to finding out what the crime is that seemed so unsatisfying. Something so central to the book here did not seem to me to be sufficiently fleshed out. It was at that point that I realized there were so many other instances of just that incompleteness in the book. Miéville throws everything but the kitchen sink into this novel but never fully or even moderately develops any of it.

While I found the author’s use of the English language often quite wonderful and beautiful, I found nothing terribly unique in construction nor could I identify any particular stylistic invention with perhaps one exception. The way the spider character, The Weaver, spoke was brilliant. The other characters: Meh. The author’s command of the language, the construction of sentences, how they were phrased were competent. I just expected more about that which he wrote. This was not a short book and to have spent so much time on drivel seemed a waste.

If I had to characterize the depth of scope for PSS, it would have to be superficial. Perhaps these characters just had no great depths to plumb, but damn it, I wanted to know more about Isaac and the garuda. How could the author be so incredibly detailed about the landscapes of this world but tell us so little about the psyches of its inhabitants? While I realize this work has received many awards, for me, in constructing it, I do not feel this author worked on it as hard as he could have. I certainly see the tremendous talent of Miéville but I do not believe for a moment he spent that much time particularly on the ending of this book.

In spite of all of the criticism I have wreaked on the book, I’m still giving it 4 stars. If I could, I’d give it 3.5 and give John Lee’s reading of the book 5 stars. As always, Mr. Lee’s narration was absolutely brilliant.
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May 25, 2012 Kedar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, read-in-2012, favourite-books

While reading Perdido Street Station (PSS), I came across this benign little conversation from Great Expectations:
"Moths, and all sorts of ugly creatures," replied Estella, with a glance towards him, "hover about a lighted candle. Can the candle help it?"
"No," I returned; "but cannot the Estella help it?"
"Well!" said she, laughing, after a moment, "perhaps. Yes. Anything you like."

So, is this candle the beacon?
---
PSS is a journey. An arduous, olfactory, insectan, long-winded journey through an o...more

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Mar 24, 2007 Conrad rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: owned, science-fiction

Others seem to have found PSS's world to have been fleshed out well; I thought it was implausible. No one knows what lies beyond certain parts of the world... and someone still found it necessary to invent trains. There's at least one huge city... but how there's enough food to go around is anyone's guess.

Mieville never writes five words when eighty will do, and his editor must have been asleep at the switch: I'd love to see an adjective count of this book. There are some genre-bending tricks a...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Chance Maree rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, science-fiction, steam-punk

Perdido Street Station is the first of Miéville's novels set in Bas-Lag -- a strangely familiar, almost Victorian era-world, but with outrageous evolutions that China somehow manages to make 'normal'. I loved the imaginative creations, humane themes, and fully dimensional characters who will remain in my consciousness for years to come, I'm sure. The story is both thought-provoking and excitingly adventurous. Just when the reader settles in, a new element or character blazes forward to rock us b...more

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Jul 13, 2007 Eric rated it 2 of 5 stars

The "New Weird" subgenre of fantasy/science fiction, embodied by this author and book, wound up being too weird for me. Full points to this guy for originality. There is nothing rehashed in here and it took real creativity to come up with this world. But it's a gross world and the tone is so heavy and dark. The author was able to make me want to shower just by way of his gritty, visceral descriptions of this dirty world. Even the names he gives people and places fill up the mouth like so many gr...more

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May 17, 2007 Sarah Keliher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read2007, sf-fantasy-general

Not as good as everyone told me it would be. There were parts I really enjoyed, and I liked what he was going for tone-wise, with his decadent and overblown prose. Also, I do appreciate a little Marxist theory in my fantasy. Still, I never quite believed in the world or the characters, and by the end I just didn't care.

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Jun 07, 2013 Mia rated it 3 of 5 stars

I heard much about the genius that is China Mieville and was so convinced his books would knock me over with their brilliance that I downloaded all the ebooks then available. I chose to read Perdido Street Station first.

I actually read this book a few months back but couldn't bring myself to rate/review it because I was still contemplating what I thought about it. Needless to say (though I'm about to), I wanted so much to love this book, to be floored by it. Sadly, I did not and was not. My diff...more I heard much about the genius that is China Mieville and was so convinced his books would knock me over with their brilliance that I downloaded all the ebooks then available. I chose to read Perdido Street Station first.

I actually read this book a few months back but couldn't bring myself to rate/review it because I was still contemplating what I thought about it. Needless to say (though I'm about to), I wanted so much to love this book, to be floored by it. Sadly, I did not and was not. My difficulty with rendering an opinion about it lies in my theory regarding why I was underwhelmed.

At the outset, I will say this: the man knows how to provide a setting. There was certainly brilliance in how Mieville described New Crobuzon. He was so masterful at making it come alive that I had a clear picture of the city in my mind, hear its bustling sounds and almost smell the place. He has a way of lighting up all of your senses. He certainly made me more than ready to plunge into the world of New Crobuzon.

Unfortunately, the rest of it left me cold. I couldn't get myself to care about the characters or their dilemmas. I was always aware that I was reading a book and never got transported or sucked into the narrative. The closest I came to a more-than-passing-interest in any character is for the garuda, but even that eventually fell flat because it just didn't progress for me.

Every time I've tried to analyze the failure of this book to transport me into such a vividly described, almost palpable place, I could never pinpoint the reason. I acknowledge the intelligence of this book and its writer. Herein lies my apprehension: I cannot shake the notion that perhaps I couldn't grasp this book because I'm just not intelligent enough. And that just makes me sad.

I intend to read another China Mieville book someday. Not very soon because if I'm still not enamored by it, it may confirm my fear that it is due to the failure of my intellect and I'm not quite ready to admit the full extent of my idiocy yet.(less)

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Apr 01, 2010 Cindy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, fantasy, biopunk, steampunk

This book has Killer Robot Chimpanzees. (I'm not sure how I forgot to mention them the first time around.) If that's not enough for you, read on...

I have to say I really liked this book. Once I got into the story (not an easy thing to do) I really disappeared into the world of Bas-Lag every time I picked up the book. The world was complex, dank, dreary, alive, mystical and fascinating. I don't think I've ever read a book that sat comfortably balanced on that delicate precipice between fantasy an...more

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Apr 26, 2009 Random rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: no one

Shelves: fantasy

Meiville has managed to create a fascinating city (I can't say world since anything outside is only vaguely referenced). His language may seem pretentious to some but I think I have to disagree. I get the impression that he is trying to continue the mood not only using what the words mean, but with the words themselves.

His characters, however, suck. I just can't seem to get myself to care about them one way or another. They seem very flat and unimaginative. Descriptions are neat, externally they...more Meiville has managed to create a fascinating city (I can't say world since anything outside is only vaguely referenced). His language may seem pretentious to some but I think I have to disagree. I get the impression that he is trying to continue the mood not only using what the words mean, but with the words themselves.

His characters, however, suck. I just can't seem to get myself to care about them one way or another. They seem very flat and unimaginative. Descriptions are neat, externally they are well developed. However, they all seem to be lacking actual character, some quality that actually makes me care about what might happen to them. I was never even able to get myself to even dislike the bad guys. By the end of the book there was only one scene (between 2) that caused me to care anything and sadly one of them was a minor and short lived character.

The author spent so much time trying to convey how the city and everyone in it were so corrupt that there's a scene near the end where you have two separate groups attacking the "hero" *snort* group while they are in the process of getting rid of the horrible creatures that everyone has been trying to get rid of. It's like "Oh no, they're trying to help us! SHOOT THEM, they're defying our power/domination/authority! We're all so incredibly stupid that we can even think to our own self interest!"

Oh, I do have to mention. In all of this, near the end of the book a character who we've only heard mentioned very briefly and just once, shows up (don't ask me how he knew what was going on) and actually showed some enlightened self interest and assisted the hero group. We never find out why he did it or even how he knew what was going on.

As for the story itself, I think the book could have been well improved with some serious editing. The first half was long, descriptive and tedious. The second half was trite and unimaginative. Oh, did I mention tedious?

I forced myself to finish this book since so many people seem to rave about it. I can't honestly say I hate it. The imagery was well done, if a bit over done. However I can't say I liked it either.

If we could, I'd give it 1.5 stars. I think 1 is a little low, but I wanted to separate it from other books in which I feel more neutral.

I don't recommend this book. There are too many better ones out there. If you do choose to read it, borrow or get it from the library. I wish I had.(less)

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Jan 19, 2010 Shanon rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: dark-fantasy, abandoned, 2010

I get it! You're inventive, creative and have developed amazingly odd worlds - but could we get on with the story!

I felt like there were so many times when China Mieville's descriptions (though wonderfully descriptive) did nothing for the story. I am about a third through the story and still do not feel connected to any character besides possibly Linda (Linda right?? The bug woman). There have been many times when I don't even know what's going on. I wonder what the word count for adjectives wo...more

10 likes · like · see review

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Steampunk, New We...: Perdido Street Station by China Mieville	20	60	May 16, 2013 10:10am
Modern SF: Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon 1), China Miéville	10	34	Jan 07, 2013 01:25am
Miévillians: * PSS SECTION 1: Chapters 1- 3	140	49	Nov 26, 2012 03:01pm
Miévillians: SECTION 6 : Chapters 15-17 (End of Part 2)	15	17	Nov 16, 2012 05:48am
Miévillians: SECTION 4: Chapters 10-12	31	16	Nov 15, 2012 01:33pm
Miévillians: New Crobuzon: Images, sources, allusions and references	8	22	Nov 15, 2012 12:17am

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About China Miéville

A British "fantastic fiction" writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" (after early 20th century pulp and horror writers such as H. P. Lovecraft), and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird who consciously attempt to move fantasy away from commercial, genre clichés of Tolkien epigons. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist W...more

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“Art is something you choose to make... it's a bringing together of... of everything around you into something that makes you more human, more khepri, whatever. More of a person.” — 24 people liked it

“Old stories would tell how Weavers would kill each other over aesthetic disagreements, such as whether it was prettier to destroy an army of a thousand men or to leave it be, or whether a particular dandelion should or should not be plucked. For a Weaver, to think was to think aesthetically. To act--to Weave--was to bring about more pleasing patterns. They did not eat physical food: they seemed to subsist on the appreciation of beauty.” — 22 people liked it

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