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From the Bookshelf of Beyond Reality…

Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1)

China Miéville

Start date: November 1, 2014

Finish date: November 30, 2014

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What Members Thought

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

14 likes · Like · see review

Jun 29, 2010 Barb rated it it was amazing

This book was amazing. There were so many different characters (and different species!) but it was written well so I wasn't constantly struggling to keep straight who was who. I was amazed at the plot elements & characters added late in the book. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jun 27, 2011 Kiri rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy

Finally finished! A really complex and sometimes tough read. I can see why other people could love Mieville, but I find him a little too dark, and with just a little too much attention to detail.

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Jun 17, 2009 Stephanie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, fantasy

This is one of those novels that makes me jealous as a writer. It is everything I hope to be able to do. Fat chance, since I'm not very computer/tech savvy! But, wow, I loved this book from start to finish. Can't wait to read his other books! ...more

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Apr 01, 2009 Ron rated it it was amazing

Apr 02, 2009 DivaDiane SM rated it really liked it

Shelves: diane-s-meager-effort, fantasy, sffbc-book-shelf, weird-fiction

1 like · Like

Apr 09, 2009 Retta F added it

Apr 22, 2009 Libby marked it as to-read

Apr 22, 2009 Amanda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: best-of-the-best, steampunk, british-author, to-re-read, world-fantasy-award-nominee, hugo-nominee, british-sci-fi-award-nominee, locus-nominee, nebula-nominee, british-fantasy-award

Apr 27, 2009 Peta rated it it was amazing

May 15, 2009 Gabriela rated it liked it

May 21, 2009 Mawgojzeta rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi-and-dystopian

Jul 02, 2009 Ken rated it it was amazing

Sep 16, 2009 Bill rated it it was amazing

Oct 16, 2009 weateallthepies rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

Oct 20, 2009 Shellie (Layers of Thought) marked it as to-read

Shelves: award-winners, spec-fic-science-fiction, spec-fic-fant-fairytales-fable-myth, spec-fic-sf-steam-cyber-punk

Dec 05, 2009 Angela Randall marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: 20th-century, i-own, 1990-1999, we-own, fiction, dystopian, dark, fantasy, first-book-in-great-series, sf-fantasy-award-winner-2000-2009

Jan 31, 2010 Mike marked it as to-read

Shelves: ebook, owned

Jun 11, 2010 Atlas marked it as to-read

Jul 08, 2010 Byron 'Giggsy' Paul rated it it was amazing

Shelves: new-weird, urban-fantasy, slipstream, punk

Dec 21, 2010 Katherine marked it as to-read

Jan 21, 2012 Jo rated it liked it

Mar 27, 2012 Tipper marked it as to-read

Nov 07, 2012 Stephen rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, sci-fi, owned

Mar 30, 2013 Kevin Xu rated it really liked it

4 likes · Like

Jun 11, 2013 Cody rated it it was amazing

Sep 01, 2013 Nellyna marked it as to-read

Shelves: scifi-and-fantasy-2014-challenge

Aug 13, 2014 Jonathon Laudinsky marked it as to-read

Oct 06, 2014 Navi marked it as to-read

Shelves: first-of-series, 500-pages-plus

Jan 14, 2015 Karigan marked it as to-read

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