Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1) in Beyond Reality

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”.

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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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Apr 13, 2009 Random rated it did not like it · review of another edition

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 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. ...more

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Sep 14, 2010 Bill rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

A most imaginative cross-genre speculative fiction novel full of descriptive wonders and fascinating alien races all taking place in a dystopic city with governors symbolic of our own. Miéville certainly has a way with words and introduces me to many new British words and slang—words like 'skewwiff' and 'cray cray'. I made good use of my mobile's dictionary, wikipedia, google and slang sites... I love new words and this book was full of them—wish my memory retained them. His made up words are in ...more

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Sep 27, 2008 JuliAnna rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy-horror

Perdido Street Station has a number of interesting pieces, but it never really comes together. The writer tries a little too hard to be literary, with only occasional small successes. There isn't much of a plot for the first half of the novel. Some serious editing might have helped. I wish I liked even half as much as I was hoping to. Unfortunately, I just came away thinking it was highly overrated. ...more

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Jan 04, 2009 Mark rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Couldn't finish it. Some good ideas and style, but found the narrative dragged and became too predictable, a bit like an episode of Doctor Who!

Stopped at page 570 ...more

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