Perdido Street Station

pinkunicorn writes: "Perdido Street Station (2000) is new British writer China Miéville's second novel (the first was King Rat (1998), his latest is The Scar (2002), a sequel to Perdido Street Station). Perdido Street Station is the coolest fantasy novel I've read for a good while, if a fantasy novel is what it is. The protagonist of the book, Isaac Grimnebulin, is a scientist and there are a number of high-tech things in the book, but there's also magic (though it's called thaumaturgy)." Read on for the rest of pinkunicorn's review. Perdido Street Station author China Mieville pages 867 publisher Pan rating 8 reviewer pinkunicorn ISBN 0345443020 summary Fantasy with science and an attitude

The action takes place entirely in a city, New Crobuzon, and it's a large city.

There are loads of things here that are taken from outside the standard fantasy mould. Lots of the inhabitants of New Crobuzon are not human. This isn't revolutionary in itself, but they are far from the normal Tolkien-influenced critters. There are khepri, a weird species that doesn't even look the same for both sexes. The males are rather small and look like beetles while the females are as large as humans and look like a mixture of humans (lower half) and beetles (upper half). They can't talk, but communicate with scents and sign language. There are garuda, which are a kind of bird men. There are walking cacti. There are vodyanoi who live in water and can shape it to sculptures.

One day, Isaac Grimnebulin get a visit from Yagharek, a garuda who has had his wings taken off for some offense that he doesn't want to talk about. He wants Isaac to help him fly again. Isaac takes on the job in a very thorough way and starts investigating various other animals that can fly to find out how it's best done.

This is different from most fantasy. Normally, magic is the only science there is (and often that isn't treated like a science either). In New Crobuzon this isn't the case at all. There is magic, but it isn't the only thing. There are also photography (of sorts), printing presses for underground newspapers, intelligent cleaning robots, air ships and mechanical computers, all together. As if all this wasn't enough to make you think of science fiction, towards the end there's even an example of prime Star Trek technobabble, but in a fantasy mode.

In spite of its bulk, Perdido Street Station is a pretty fast read. The plot as such isn't too complex, but it drives the story forward nicely. What I think really stands out are the descriptions: China Miéville is very good at conjuring moods and environments and getting the reader to realize exactly how something looks, even in an entirely alien environment. China Miéville claims Mervyn Peake as one of his favorite authors, and the similarities to Gormenghast in feel are sometimes striking.

Perdido Street Station feels quite a bit like cyberpunk in a fantasy setting. Most of the common signs are there: a somewhat run-down city environment, technology development in a guerilla manner, drugs, computers, body modification (through surgery and magic instead of gene technology, but still) and quite a bit of attitude. I'm looking forward to see if this book will leave as much of a footprint in the fantasy genre as Neuromancer did in the science fiction genre.

You can purchase Perdido Street Station at bn.com. You can read your own book reviews in this space by submitting your reviews after reading the book review guidelines.

Comments

Ugh...

[colmore]

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We'll publish anything!

This review reads like a 6th grade book report. I'm sorry, but it seems like /. is rapidly loosing whatever standards it once had.

Dear /.

[jabber01]

Please, tell me how and why did this get posted? Is it a joke? Nepotism of some sort? Has the site been hacked by 6th graders again? This is the worst, most poorly written, least valuable or interesting story EVER to make the front page. Ever.

There are, reportedly, a quarter million readers of Slashdot. Please explain, why are you subjecting them all to this story? Are you trying to destroy the reputation you have built over the last several years? Have you lost that last shred of respect you once had for your visitors? Are you implying that perhaps, a 'for pay' version of the site would be better able to provide quality content, while the unwashed, freeloading masses are left with stories like this one?

Why? Why did you do this to us? What was the thought process? Whose decision was it? Please, out of respect for sentience, please explain.

Whine whine whine

[jabber01]

Yes, but you see, if I filter by author, I will exclude myself from the possibility of reading other stories posted by Timothy. This isn't as great a loss as it might seem, but the point is, the stuff that gets posted should be interesting, or, as in the case of Jon Katz, written with some semblance of literacy.

I like most of the book reviews that get posted, so I don't want to limit that. On occasion, Timothy might funnel forth something interesting, so I don't want to shut that door either.

The purpose of the editorial staff is to pick and choose through the submitted articles, and to post the stuff that seems interesting and 'of quality'.
This is neither IMO, and so, I just want an explanation. I can typically see something of value in the sposted stories. Even the ones that do not interest me, I can imagine being of interest to others. But this review is so badly written that it actually turned me off to the book.

It was bad enough for me to stick my neck out to multiple 'flamebait' and 'troll' ratings, even though I am completely sincere in my question.

I just want to know what it was about this story that appealed to Timothy enough to put it on the page. Is he a big fan of the author? The story-line? Is he friends with the person who submitted the review? Is he filling a quota?

This story is BAD. Very bad. It's poorly written, it's uninteresting, it is, IMO, a waste of space. I genuinely want to see Timothy's reasoning, to try and understand. And I'm willing to burn precious Karma to do it.. So, Timothy, if you're reading this, go as far as a bitchslap if you must, but do explain to me why you posted this story. I sincerely want to know.

And notice, I'm not making fun of you, I'm not being insulting (not intentionally, and not maliciously, unlike many others who mock you regularly). I am being a bit snide, but this is my way of trying to be a little humorous, not mean.

I'm truly curious as to why this story exists.