Rating: 
Summary: Difficult but rewarding
Review: Perdido Street Station and its sister novel (not a sequel) The Scar offer a finely grained and wildly imaginative glimpse of the world of Bas Lag, wherein humans coexist with a vast and bizarre array of "alien" species - insectoid Khepri, waterloving Voyadnoi, vegetable Cactii, flying garuda, dimension shifting spiders, grotequely manufactured Remade, to name a few. Both novels offer beautifully descriptive language that transports the reader into this bizarre and minutely detailed world. As in the LOTR saga, great swaths of history and context are glimpsed only in passing, a sometimes frustrating technique that does have the effect of adding depth to the reader's appreciation of New Crobuzon and the broader world that the author has created. Some details return later as plot points, other disappear, but overall one is left with the feeling that future books will benefit from the broad foundation created here. Strongly recommended with its sister book.
Rating: 
Summary: Truly exquisite!
Review: Perdido Street Station (PSS) is a beautifully crafted work of art.The story is masterfully told; the main characters and New Crobuzon itself seem as real as you or me. Mieville's richly descriptive vocabulary goes a long way toward conjuring realistic images of New Crobuzon and its inhabitants. Personally, I love the names. They roll off of the tongue melifluously. Grimnebulin. Pengefinchess. Rudgutter. Vodyonai. The plot, coupled with the science fiction (heavy on the fiction) and macabre aspects (Mr. Motley, the slake-moths, the Remade prostitutes... WOW!), makes Perdido Street Station a delightful read. Something else very interesting is the concept of choice-theft. Never thought about things from that angle.
Rating:
Summary: The best this year (2002)
Review: The two best books that I read this year are "Perdido Street Station" and "The Scar". You could not achieve a better combination of the fantastic, the laughable, the dark and the baroque than China Mieville's books. Buy them and enter a world that you cannot forget. I just hope there are many more excellent novels to come from this author.
Rating:
Summary: very well written.
Review: I prefer his other novel, but very imaginative and interesting. The characters are wonderfully developed. It does get a little slow in places when they almost get the Moths, but then just miss, I really like his mind though. He has a wonderful vocabulary as well. If you like dark, fantasy with a twist you'll like his work.
Rating:
Summary: Tantalizing and exhilarating.
Review: I am still in the state of shock. This is one of the best books I have ever read. It's like reading Charles Dickens, Allan Edgar Poe and Stephen King in one. It's like a Jules Verne voyage into unknown depth of imaginary world. This world which is a combination of Wells' "Time Machine", Lucas' "Star Wars", and Arthur Conan Doyle "Sherlock Holmes". The book tells the story of weird scientists, alien artists, oppressive political regimes, racism, xenophobia, utopia and love. It's part romance, part science fiction, and part horror. The plot is convulsive, the language rich, the story asphyxiating. The heroes are multi-dimensional. The problems are real, and the solutions flabbergasting. The place of the book smells with 'rotten' descriptions, the inhabitants of New Crobuzon (the City) dwell on trash, and the action takes all known covenants by surprise. It's thrilling and enchanting at the same time. China Mieville is fantastic writer of the new age, and we should hear about him for a long time to come. I am looking forward to read his other two books, and recommend them to all fans of unconventional fiction. China is the king of new fiction. Long live China.
Rating: 
Summary: Doesn't Compare
Review: I picked up this book because someone who had bought Vince Czyz's 'Adrift in a Vanishing City' recommended it, but I have to say I was disappointed. The prose in 'Perdido Street' was banal, even cliché, occasionally punctuated with some word that looked like it had been recently dug up out of a handy thesaurus. Mieville's idea of science is tenuous at best and his idea of an original plot is some horrible evil is released and now good, neurotic people (just to give them that realistic gritty patina) must come together and defy the clueless authority figures and save the day. The book is basically a loft in the Village decorated with everything and anything: "found" art, strange flea market discards (horses with clocks in the stomach, a smiling gnome backing up on an erotic toy, a gaudy tin with something French on it), and furniture that looks used but was just delivered by a Pottery Barn truck. It has the veneer of authentic, motley, Post-modern fashion but in reality it's the newly completed set for MTV's The Real World. It's some rich babe shopping
at the Salvation Army store because she wants to look street. Whoever is recommending 'Adrift in a Vanishing City' either did not read it or did not read 'Perdido Street', 'Perdido Street' just doesn't compare.
Rating:
Summary: Over Hyped Verbage
Review: This author has created a remarkable world, and has shown considerable skill and imagination in doing so. However, a creative imagination is not all that is required to create a readable novel. The twists and turns of plot are aided by random changes in the universe in which his characters live, and some of the pivotal characters in the book, notably some mystical multi-dimensional spider, are not properly explained. The reader is left with the feeling that the author would prefer to alter the universe that his characters inhabit rather than take the time to write (or re-write) an internally consistent plot. I found this book far too much hard work, and I also found myself skimming over large parts of quasi-philosophical verbage that seemed to relate only tangentially to the story line. China Mieville, it appears, is a political activist in the UK. His ability to promote his works, one suspects, may have been of more assistance to him in getting this tome published than his literary skills. It should have had some serious editing work done on it before it was unleashed on the public. The story could have been told in 400 pages and have lost none of the essentials. China should concentrate on trying to build a good story around the world he has created and abandon (not tone down) his extensional ramblings. There are the makings of a great story teller in this author. Some of his characters were exquisitely drawn and fleshed out by events over the course of the novel. There were elements of great subtly and craftsmanship in some of China's writings. If this author can concentrate on keeping his readers entertained rather than trying to impress us with the brilliance of his mind I suspect he could write a science fiction masterpiece. More Jeffery Archer and less Leon Trotsky.
Rating:
Summary: WoW
Review: I must say to start out , BUY THIS BOOK !!!!
I bought this on a hunch , new author , good reviews , and i thought it might be a good read . I was Wrong . I have not been this engrossed in a sci-fi book (i use this term lightly) since Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash . Once you step into China's beautifully rendered world you cannot peel your eyes away.
I will not give away the story , but this is one of the best books i have ever read . He makes references to religious figures (khephri , vodyadanoi ) and bends them to suit his will
as he shows extreme writing capability in his 2nd and best book so far (in my opinion) . In short this a book not to be missed
Buy it now i promise you will not regret it .
Rating:
Summary: A journey through hell
Review: Fantasy can to be said to examine human nature by way of myth and archetype, while science fiction does the same with technological possibilities; and horror explores human nature by route of our deepest fears. Perhaps what is most unique about "Perdido Street Station" is that it does all three, being at once of all those genres and at the same time refusing to be so neatly pigeonholed. For the fantastic elements blur into science, and the horror is present throughout. The palpable atmosphere of the bloated and decadent New Crobuzon is one of the book's major strengths; and it reflects an irony that soon becomes apparent in Mieville's writing. Using the most beautifully wrought language, he creates a vision of hell to curdle the imagination. One is tempted to look away, but is inevitably sucked in by the seductive melody of his prose--melody that is paradoxically used to create dissonance. The characters are introduced by degrees, so that they have time to sink into the reader's awareness before disaster strikes. This is a rare accomplishment, given that Mieville chose to make his main characters so potentially incomprehensible to us. Isaac is in love with a woman whose head is an insect--an idea that could have backfired terribly had Lin been any less vivid a personality than she was. As it is, that concept in itself is difficult to accept, as it defies reproductive logic that a race of women with insectile heads should exist; nevertheless, Lin is someone the reader comes to care about, and Isaac is a colorful and wholly original spin on the mad scientist stereotype. It is difficult to tell if Isaac is in fact the main character, or if it is Yagharek's story after all. Through Yagharek's eyes the world is different than it is through Isaac's; more personal since his story is told in the first person; and the lyrical quality of his narrative, together with his desperate quest, binds the story in the form of a sad, twisted parody of an epic. In the end the story circles back to Yagharek, transcending political concerns to explore the universal problem of identity. Those who are very sensitive to horrific imagery and even horrific concepts might do well to avoid this book. While Mieville writes without emotion, the events that occur do the work for him. The catastrophe that eventually overwhelms New Crobuzon provides no means of escape, not even death. The surreal quality of this book and the way in which it pierces to the deepest and most instinctive of human fears--the utter loss of identity--makes it less of a story than a lush, fantastic nightmare. And like a nightmare, very likely to stay with you long after you've awakened.
Rating: 
Summary: A fascinating nightmare
Review: New Crobuzon would have delighted the william S. Burroughs of Cities of the Red Night. Hallucinogenic bugs, implacable militia agents, unspeakable experiments on the human form...and a city where everything is possible and nothing is permitted. Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar is cheerful in comparison to this wretched town in a wretched planet where unnamable horrors made by a "Justice" reminiscent of Dr. Mengele acts out ghastly retributions on the very body structure of the condemned personae.
On the other hand China Mieville's fascinating writing intrigues us whit a description of a world uncannily unlike (and far worse) than our own. A most original masterpiece.
However...well,one can't but notice some aspects that makes one wonder. How can a monster like "Motley" manage to live? His description remembers me of some Lovecraftian creature, like Yog-Sothoth or Shub-Niggurath. Yet this monster behaves like the Joker in the Batman movie..and, excuse me, China Mieville, but the idea of an insect body on a human one is entirely unplausible. More to the point, any sensible person would have destroyed a grub who feeds on drugs and doubles its size overnight! I can't believe a moth who feeds on ethereal substance,yet needs a solid milk to grow.I resent the way poor Lin is treated,by the way. I can but think China Mieville is nothing but a mysogynist and a sexophobe of the worst kind, and a sadist to boot.
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