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.

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Comments

Pretty thin review

[Nygard]

I'm sorry, but this review doesn't really cut it. I've just finished reading the book, and there's a lot more involved than this thin (and inaccurate) plot synopsis indicates.

Perdido Street Station presents an intricately detailed world. The world may shock and repulse you (as it did me). It will certainly make you scratch your head. You may even wonder what the author was smoking to come up with creatures like the khepri and the Construct Council.

I would not want to inhabit this author's dreams.

In some ways, New Crobuzon and it's inhabitants remind me of "The Difference Engine", rolled together with a bit of "Brazil" and "Dark City". It is worth a read and well deserving of the Hugo nomination it just received. Even if you say nothing else about it, you will have to admit that it is not run-of-the-mill SF.

Technobable does not SF make

[TrumpetPower!]

I haven't read the book, so I won't comment on its merits. pinkunicorn, however, does seem to be a bit mistraken about what makes good science fiction.

True science fiction--at least good SF--has nothing to do with technobable. Rather, science and technology are important characters in the story.

For example, Larry Niven takes the idea of a Star Trek style transporter, and examines what it would do to society. Perfect murders go unsolved, protests and riots spontaneously appear and disappear, pickpockets run rampant.

Timothy Zahn creates a super-soldier with implanted weapons and sends the soldiers home. They're feared and hated, develop terrible wasting diseases, and eventually flee to create their own society.

James Hogan explores virtual reality and the effects of total immersion in an unreal world. Alan Dean Foster creats a society of fanciful aliens with a specialized socialst structure and then throws humans into the mix. Frank Herbert creates a self-aware computer that becomes God--or is it the Devil?

There are related genres. Good space opera, like David Weber's works, is classic adventure storytelling set in a detailed and internally consistent technologically-advanced future.

Star Wars and friends is perhaps best classified as science fantasy. The story may be entertaining, but it makes no attempt at basing itself in reality. What psuedo-technology there is serves as colorful background. If Star Wars were truce science fiction, it would have spent more time on the Endor Holocaust than the (admitedly entertaining) final swordfight between Luke and Vader.

So don't expect me to get excited about a story just because it has intelligent cleaning robots and mechanical computers, especially if the plot isn't too complex. If I want intelligent cleaning robots, I'll read Doug Adams and get a great plot and good laughs. If I want mechanical computers, I'll read William Gibson and get a great plot, social commentary, and a fascinating exploration of human nature.

Why SF and fantasy are lumped together is beyond me. What Tolkein and Vernor Vinge have in common besides great creativity and command of the English language escapes my attention.

</rant>

b&