Ryan's review
Perdido Street Station
by China Miéville
Oh my goodness. I'm kind of glad I stopped reading when I did.
I felt very similarly about the ending. To feature Lin as a prominent character for a third of a book, then drop her for almost the remaining two-thirds, only to "rescue" and then brain-damage her in one fell-swoop... was very disappointing to me. It detracted from the story as a whole. Better to have let her die off screen than give her this senseless last-minute half-rescue.
Ryan's review
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Ryan's review
rating:
bookshelves:
scifi
recommended for: fans of steampunk
** spoiler alert **
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 patters 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 aga...more
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 patters 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 aga...more
Oh my goodness. I'm kind of glad I stopped reading when I did.
I felt very similarly about the ending. To feature Lin as a prominent character for a third of a book, then drop her for almost the remaining two-thirds, only to "rescue" and then brain-damage her in one fell-swoop... was very disappointing to me. It detracted from the story as a whole. Better to have let her die off screen than give her this senseless last-minute half-rescue.