Perdido Street Station

Rating:
Summary: absolutely fascinating
Review: I bought this some months ago and left it alone because I was waiting for the right moment to dive into its imposing 710 pages. And then I was reading another book and I kept thinking about this one. I was ready for something bizarre. So I jumped in. From the first ten pages I was pulled in by the deliciously rich strangeness of this novel. The protagonist is a renegade scientist named Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin who lives in the heart of New Crobuzon, a gritty, grimy, sprawling city in the world of Bas-Lag. New Crobuzon is home to several strange alien races and many Remade people. Isaac carries on a secret affair with Lin, a khepri artist. A khepri is a creature with the body of a woman and the head of a scarab. And from there the story only gets more weird and grotesque. But it's absolutely fascinating. Isaac is hired by a de-winged birdman to restore his power of flight. In the meantime, he feeds some strange caterpillar of unknown provenance hallucinogenic drugs - the only thing it will feed on - and the caterpillar grows massively. The creature that emerges unleashes a horror upon the city of New Crobuzon and halfway into this completely enthralling story it kicks into high gear. The story contains many aliens with strange practices and cults, a brutal militia, a corrupt government, a monstrous crime-lord, fearsome creatures, magic, artificial intelligence, mysterious demons... and it's all set within a stinking, sprawling city with Perdido Street Station as its nexus. The theme of transformation runs throughout this exciting story and I absolutely loved this much-praised book. I'm looking forward to reading Miéville's follow-up, The Scar, which, while not a sequel, is also set in the world of Bas-Lag.

Rating:
Summary: Year's Best Fantasy Novel
Review: This is fantasy/weird fiction the way it should be written; highly inventive, filled with wonder & terror, featuring a cast of believable characters who carry you along with them. This is far and away the best fantasy novel of the year and, in my humble opinion, among the five best of the the last ten years. Read it & discover for yourselves!

Rating:
Summary: A fine phantasmagoric fantasy
Review: What makes Perdido Street Station a refreshingly novel work of fantasy is its setting. The entire story takes place within one city, New Crobuzon, a brilliantly rendered industrial landscape smeared with pollution and overgrown with desperate citizens struggling to scrape out a living. Insect-headed khepri and the amphibious vodyanoi live alongside the Remade, whose bodies have been grafted with spare parts. Not very much magic exists here: the sense of fantasy arises mostly from the more exotic denizens and the thaumaturgic power supplies in this city suffused with dingy railroads, mechanical calculating engines, and brutal factories. Although the narrative follows a handful of well drawn characters, the city is clearly the star here.

Thankfully, this novel is more than just a fascinating setting. Mieville also tells a gripping story about an insidious menace unleashed upon the city, a desperate scientist on the fringe and his illicit khepri lover, and a shattered bird man's quest to regain flight. This tale begins slowly, but quickly gains steam. Be warned, though, that this story is not very pretty, and I don't mean just the garish violence and vulgarity (which seem entirely at home in this squalid metropolis). It doesn't end very neatly, but with a jagged tear that left me more disturbed than with a sense of resolution. Various threads of the plot arise suddenly and then disappear, uncertain to return. Even this casual disregard for tidy narrative structure seems deliberate, a structural reflection of the city's chaotic, brutal nature. Nevertheless, quite beautiful as a whole.