Rating: 
Summary: not knowing what to say
Review: this is the very first sience fiction book i ever read, and i think i chose the best one i could ever choose.i got inspired by the cover illustration by edward miller, it's fantastic. if anyone could give me a email with his website i'd be a verry happy man
Rating: 
Summary: Not to my taste but a remarkable book
Review: This book is one of the more talked about science fiction books to come out in years. The strong point of the book is not so much the plot but the atmosphere and the creation of yet another universe. The book is set in a city-state called Crobuzon. The city is one, which is populated by many different creatures, but the ones running the show are men. Garudas fly above streets populated by insect like creatures called kephri, humanoid cactuses amble about. The most grotesque inhabitants of the city are the re-made. Human criminals who have been surgically altered, as a form of punishment, into mixtures of human and mechanical parts, or simply into the sorts of creatures who inhabit horror movies. The world is set in a time when technological development seems to be set in the steam age, but biological science is streets ahead of what we now know. Surgeons can create all sorts of creatures but the weapons used on the streets are flintlock pistols and the main means of transport is the horse and cart and steam trains. The feel of the novel is unusual. It is more like a computer game such as Fallout rather than a conventional book. There is a sense of decay and one of the things the author likes to do is to map an urban landscape of decay and steep divisions like 17th century London. The main plot of the book concerns the threat posed to the city by some supernatural creatures who have the potential to destroy all sentient life forms. In some ways the climax of the book is like a block buster film where there are a series of confrontations with the creatures climaxing in the final chapter. A lot of fantasy novels create worlds that are sanitised extrapolations of medieval romances. This book is far from sanitised and it is hard to think of any modern piece of fiction that is so filled with writing which is based on purely visual imagery rather than on scene setting and plot development. A book which was very much not to my taste but one can recognise it for something of a tour de force and a remarkable development in the area.
Rating: 
Summary: Having a hard time getting into this, may not finish
Review: While I can see that the author is a skilled writer and much of this is very imaginative, I am having a hard time substaining interest. The book's 710 page length is probably a warning sign. After 100 pages, the reader had better be caught--well, I'm still not caught! May slug on for a while longer. Again, while the writer is very skillful, if ever a book cried out for a good editing, this one does. It's simply too long and does drag. Squalor and decay get tiresome. A pity so few editors really edit books any longer; it often shows as with Perdido Street Station.
Rating:
Summary: Great sci-fi/fantasy novel
Review: Mieville's Perido Street Station is amazing. The novel's world and its inhabitants are unique and masterfully crafted. But the imagination of the author in creating this world by no means limits the depth with which he portrays his characters or develops the plot. Other reviewers have given overviews of the plot. To me the most exciting things about this book were:
1. the great characters--from bug people you can associate with to machines you understand
2. amazing story--despite the many philosophycal issues covered in the book, it is one of the most engulfing novels I have recenly read. A great page turner that does not leave you feeling "cheap" for spending time reading it.
3. the very palpable atmosphere of this world I can't wait for more books from one of my favorite authors, not only of sci-fi, but of fiction in general.
Rating: 
Summary: Great, but grossly hyped
Review: I decided to read this book by the recommendation of a few people on the George R.R. Martin forum, and unfortunately, this book was quite disappointing. Mieville is a very talented writer, skilled at detailing his squalid and derelict city of New Crobuzon; however, the book was really a waste of time. Several characters were seemingly introduced for little reason, such as Mayor Rudgutter or Lucky Gazid, and the story was scarcely interesting. Grimnebulin constantly cursed, ... . I admit to a preference for fantasy series' rather than strange science fiction that seems rather forced. I would recommend A Song of Ice and Fire, Dune, or Ender's Game instead.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting, but needlessly "stylized."
Review: Mieville writes a good book, there really isn't any question about that. However, the way in which he insists on writing this book interferes with the story of the book. I'll give you an example: "The thing drew on the stored energy it had drawn from the dream___t, and powered its transformation. It self-organized. Its mutating form bubbled and welled up into strange dimensional rifts, oozing like oily sludge over the brim of the world into other planes, and back again. It folded in on itself, shaping itself out of the protean sludge of its own base matter. It was unstable. It was alive, and then there was a time between forms when it was neither alive nor dead, but saturated with power. And then it was alive again. But different. Spirals of biochymical slop snapped into sudden shapes. Nerves that had unwound and dissolved and reknitted in strange constellations. The thing flexed in inchoate agony and a rudimentary, but growing, hunger." Almost every chapter opens this way. You'll be reading a lot of "slop", "ichor", "blood", "rust", "filth", "sewer", et cetera in this book. After the first third or so of the book, you become accustomed to it, and begin to read the story and get interested in the characters. Mieville, however, continues to 'set the stage' of the book to the very last pages. At no point does he ease off the "filth" in what you're reading. Perhaps his approach is that to do so would be unthorough. Well, Mr. Mieville, I got the point. I understand. I could have used a little less ichor and rotting flesh. All this being said, the story is a good one. It much resembles _The Difference Engine_ by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. "Steam punk" they are calling it. I'd recommend it to people who have a distinct "fantasy" kink, but not to hard SF readers. Additionally, the "goth" folks out there will probably eat this up and ask for more. .... Interesting, exciting, but one star taken off for the needles use of "chymical" (and other obsolete spellings) continually. You'll probably want a dictionary around too.
Rating:
Summary: A book for the ages...trully amazing!!
Review: You run out of superlatives to suitably describe how great this book is. China's limitless imagination spews forth a convincing urban landscape with believable complex characters of different kinds into a moving story that captivates and teaches. From futuristic yet relevant city to the terrifying mothes, it is hard to believe that a person can create such a wide variety of experiences and mesh them perfectly to a coherent story. Believe me when I tell you this...you will not be disappointed when reading this book but actually yearn for more when all is said and done.
Rating: 
Summary: At first I thought it was difficult to read...
Review: and after reading three chapters, I realised it was poorly written.
It's a shame, because the world and the story is actually pretty compelling and you want to know what's next, but it is VERY ANOYING to read fifty pages of adjetives and redundant (extremly redundant)and repetitive description. It's got some very interesting scenes, but you can get more content from an avreage short story.
Bottom line: this is an extremly overrated book.
Rating:
Summary: If this is the future of horrorpunk, I want no part of it...
Review: This book is a mess, and when one reads it, you can almost hear the self-conscious rattling of the author and the genre he's trying to "expand" but just fails on almost all levels. Here is a world where all sorts of fantastic technology exist, yet things like a telephone or radio are unheard of. The language and metaphors are cumbersome, and author uses every chance he gets to use "flesh" like that makes things more terrifying. Also, I would add that this is more of a Fantasy novel than anything else. If you want something well-written without 1-dimensional characters, try Dan Simmon's "Hyperion" series.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: This is an amazing book I picked up because Mieville is going to be a keynote speaker at this year's WISCON (Women in Science Fiction Convention) in Madison. I have yet to be disappointed by their choices of keynotes and this is no exception. I did not expect to get swept in so quickly into this complex world of beings and their relationships to one another. This is a book I crave to read and find hard to put down. The characters are intricate, intriguiging and fantastic stuff just keeps happening, consciousness is found at the city dump, joined beings take on multi-dimensional beings and city officials consult with the ambassador to hell. Fantastic, compelling and TOTALLY worth picking up and reading. You won't be disappointed.
| 
