Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1) in On Paths Unknown

Jun 11, 2011 mark monday rated it it was ok

Shelves: i-gave-up, fantasy-modern

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 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 ...more

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Mar 25, 2008 Brad rated it it was amazing

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

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

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Jun 02, 2009 Cecily rated it it was amazing

Shelves: scifi-future-speculative-fict

I've read three other Mievilles before this, and they were 2*, 4*, and 5*.

I'm so pleased this was another 5*. What a wonderful, rich, steampunky, fantastical phantasmagoria this is.

PLOT

It opens with one of several short, first-person impressions: a newcomer arriving by boat at night. He’s wealthy but anguished, and the boatman fears him.

The story then opens in New Crobuzon: an ancient city (some houses nearly 1000 years old) inhabited by many exotic sentient species. We meet Lin, a khepri (inse ...more

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Jan 29, 2017 David Katzman rated it did not like it

Looks like I'm very hot and cold with Miéville. I loved Kraken. Was so-so on Embassytown. And I hated Perdido Street Station. I did not enjoy this so I'm just going to write a laundry list of THINGS I DID NOT ENJOY ABOUT PERDIDO STREET STATION:

• The main character was overall a complete asshole.
• I hated the main character's voice, this sort of macho too-casual style of talking to everyone like you'd call them "sport" or "champ."
• The voice of two of the characters (the giant spider and the cond ...more

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Mar 27, 2019 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: weird, urban-fantasy, read-in-2019

China Miéville's Perdido Street Station is one of my favourite books of all time. One of my students caught me reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods while waiting for the bus nearly two decades ago, and told me that I needed to read Perdido Street Station right away. I did, and I was dazzled. Every couple of years I find myself being called back to the humid, effluvium of New Crobuzon, and it always smells like a homecoming.

This time I decided to listen to Perdido Street Station (my second time w China Miéville's Perdido Street Station is one of my favourite books of all time. One of my students caught me reading Neil Gaiman's American Gods while waiting for the bus nearly two decades ago, and told me that I needed to read Perdido Street Station right away. I did, and I was dazzled. Every couple of years I find myself being called back to the humid, effluvium of New Crobuzon, and it always smells like a homecoming.

This time I decided to listen to Perdido Street Station (my second time with the audiobook), rather than reading it, choosing the sensation of sound to add to Miéville's evocation of scent and sight over the feeling of pages at my fingertips (he is such a sensual writer).

I mostly like what Miéville's narrator, John Lee, does with his narration, but only mostly. There are some nits for me to pick (although these nits didn't do enough to reduce my overall enjoyment of the story, hence my five star rating remains unaltered), but they're nits I wouldn't pick in Lee's reading of Miéville's The City and the City in which his narration is impeccable.

Those nits are two.

The first nit is his vocalization of characters, which is annoyingly uneven. His Lemuel Pigeon, for example, is one of the best character voices I have ever heard in an audiobook, and it elevates a character I already love to a loftier status, yet his voices for the Construct Council (New Crobuzon's Garbage Dump A.I.) and Yagharek (the Geruda) are so similar that they pull me out of the illusion Lee is busy creating. It's not the worst thing ever, it doesn't destroy the story, but it annoys me from time to time, and it makes me long for Lee's Tyador Borlu driving through the streets of Bezel.

The second nit has to do with something that may have been out of Lee's control -- his volume in the yellie bits. There are times, many times, when the characters of Perdido Street Station have to yell. They're being attacked by mind sucking, inter-dimensional beasties for Jabber's sake! But Lee is constantly doing that whisper yell. You know the one we all use when we are telling a story somewhere and we don't want our yellie bits to be overheard? Every time shit went down in New Crobuzon that was how Lee's characters yelled. It would have been fine over a glass of wine in a nice restaurant, but in a story that is just gaining wicked steam, the last thing I want to hear is the narrator reduce the energy with a whisper yell. It's entirely possible that the sound tech needed Lee to whisper yell to maintain his/her levels, but it doesn't make it any less of a nit to be picked.

So there you go ... my two warnings if you choose to listen to John Lee's narration of China Miéville's Perdido Street Station. One of the best books ever. ...more

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Mar 25, 2009 Mosca rated it really liked it · 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 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.
...more

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May 06, 2024 Jonfaith rated it it was amazing

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.

Classic Jon-- upon rereading this a few years ago I erased my previous review by mistake. This is epic and The Scar is even better (think Dog Years over The Tin Drum)

So yeah, this is essential. ...more

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May 11, 2015 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mieville, audio-book

I took the time to listen to John Lee's audio performance of Perdido, and it didn't disappoint. My love for the book remains intact. There is something magnificent about a book whose prose strives to evoke the cracks and fetidness of a city while lying dormant on the page, then doubles down its evocation when the words are given breath. It sounds as good as it reads, which makes the listening truly worthwhile. ...more

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Oct 14, 2009 Arun Divakar rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This is my first taste of urban, gothic fantasy and I very well enjoyed it . Set in the fictional landscape of New Crobuzon which very much resembles a warped version of London, the tale is long but very much a thrill ride. New Crobuzon would be the face of a future city ugly,menacing,rotten,stinking but filled with all sorts of populace and ruled by an oppressive government. The interesting part in the tale is how the thread of the story moves from one theme to another.

An eccentric but brillian ...more

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Feb 02, 2010 Nate D rated it liked it

Shelves: fantasy, read-in-2010, britain

China Mieville's New Crobuzon is industrial revolution London at its most corrupt and pathological, all its social issues splayed into a menagerie of the grotesque and fantastic by Mieville's very formidable imagination. He's also notably distinct from typical fantastic writers for being too cynical for obvious morality and clean resolutions, and for populating his story largely with artists and academics, far from central adventure story casting. Even so, he lets the (albeit gripping) story sli ...more

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Jan 02, 2009 Kate Sherrod rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio-re-reads

The audio book re-read bumped this up to five stars. I've always liked it and I've read it several times but John Lee + Mieville's prose = pure thaumaturgy. ...more

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