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

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

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

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

Shelves: audio-book, mieville

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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Jun 12, 2021 Kamakana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-five-star, aaa-favoritefiction, fantasy, aa-englandlit, xlong-over-400, aa-europelit, steampunk, multivolume-lit, literature, horror

if you like this review, i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

210612: the length of this book intimidated me. i have not read it for twenty years because of this. now, after reading The City & the City and Embassytown, i decided to try it. it is still very long, my copy is 710 pgs, but i loved it so much read it in basically two days...

other reviews can give you an idea of the breadth of themes, stylistic profusion, multiple genres, lineage of fantastic/horrific/steampunk imagery, the best ...more

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Dec 06, 2012 Kaśyap rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy-sf

Perdido street station is an amazing work of world-building. The story of this book takes place in the city of New Crobuzon, In which humans live along with an interesting collection of bizarre, sentient species. Among them are women with insect heads, sentient cacti, the “Remade” and a giant artistic spider.

New Crobuzon is a city full of alienated individuals, groups and species. It is a huge metropolis, a place of squalor with a brutal government and a strong criminal network. A polluted, crim ...more

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