Perdido Street Station (Bas-Lag)

China Mieville is my new favorite. His creatures are intriguing and horrifying and the sweeping architecture paints a cacophonous intersection of life and culture. I can't recommend this highly enough. It has the world of fantasy with the storyline and themes of science fiction.

My favorite author is Stephen King, but King did not write my all-time favorite book. That distinction goes to Cllve Barker's Imajica. Why do I mention these things in a review of Perdido Street Station? It is because I think I have now found my second all-time favorite book.

Perdido Street Station deserves as wide an audience as possible. Although I recognized this as a steampunk fantasy almost as soon as I got into the story, I see it works on many levels. Here is a tale that examines individual relationships along side a complex world view. It is about art and love and possibilities interwoven with issues surrounding the politics of multiple sentient species.

I truly enjoyed reading every word of this book!

Perdido Street Station

Most science fiction creates a universe, a set of operating rules, turns it on and let's the story begin and then travel through to its end. With this story, you are being introduced to new species, new rules of magic and science, in almost every one of the chapters. Which makes the arc of the story completely unpredictable because he's got a whole new thing up his sleeve at every turn. You really have to turn off the part of your brain that keeps asking, how would all these radically different life forms evolve and co-exist? Steam punk weapons and artificial intelligence and magically remolding of people and sentient cactus and creatures that live in multiple dimensions and striking proletarians and drug dealer wars and...?

It was a very rich soup, with some beautiful poetic language, particularly in the passages by the bird man who lost his wings for the crime of choice theft.

This is the second China Mieville book I have read (Embassytown being the other) and I have become a big fan. Complex and interesting stories which draw you in and develop layer after layer - the mix of old fashioned and futuristic and human and non-human is intriguing and what is not explained can be fertile ground for the imagination as much as what is explained. The Weaver is one of my favourite characters of any book I have read for some time!

Mieville has created a different world in this book, and the relationship between a human and an insect is both weird and tender. But that's only one facet of this long and complex book. Different worlds are a specialty of this author, and it's always fun to see how he makes them different while still seeming familiar.

We've all encountered books that do everything but leap from our hands and demand: "Admit me to the canon, for I am a masterpiece." "Perdido Street Station" is like that. Of course most of the time our reply is likely to be "as if!" Not this time. China Mieville's daring book makes the cut.

It's a long intricate novel whose main character is really the city of New Crobuzon itself. It's located on a world, Bas Lag, not quite earth (its moon has two small moons of its own) in a universe not quite this one. Then, imagine a late Victorian London where Babbage had actually built his analytical engines before running out of funds, and imagine it with magic as an academic discipline. And then, too, imagine it plagued with horrific creatures out of Lovecraft, plus a population of what Mr. Mieville calls "Xenians." Among these are sentient creatures with insectile heads and human bodies (the khepri), and human-bird hybrids that can fly, the garuda.

Dickens, Steam Punk, Samuel Delany's "Dhalgren," Poe, and Cordwainer Smith's "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard: All come to mind. And the alien creatures may well remind you of the tales of Jack Vance or (for a newer comparison) Julie Czerneda. But it's probably unfair to keep making these comparisons. Mr. Mieville (not quite 30 when the book was first published) has his own unique vision. At times funny, at times horrific, at times political, at times philosophical, the book is as complicated as the physique of the villain Mr. Motley or the mind of the hero Isaac Grimnebulin. To say more would be to spoil the enjoyment.

Notes and asides: New Yorkers, natives and visitors, should ponder reading a chapter or two by the statue on the grounds of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at Amsterdam Avenue and 112th St., just south of the building itself.

One of my very favorite books. This was a reread and I had lent my copy to someone .
It's a heady mix of science fiction, fantasy and horror with a keen sense of history. Thought provoking and grotesque , the Sublime viewed from the gutter New Crobuzon is so richly realized a city that one aches to visit but would shudder to inhabit.

Stunningly original writing that combines a mix of fantasy, sci-fi and steam-punk. Although it starts slow, the narrative relentlessly draws you in until you cannot put the book down. Given the gripping, original plot line, character development & unique world China Mieville has created I cannot give this any less than 5 stars. It fits that rare combination of a well written book that is also an excellent read.

After some thought, I've come to the conclusion that, whilst Mieville's worlds are wonderfully imaginative and fully fleshed-out, his characters dense and unconventional, his writing gorgeous and elegant, and his themes complex and thought-provoking, he seems to run out of steam when it comes to thinking about what to make his characters DO - i.e., the plot. He sets up these incredible scenes, but the motivations driving the action of the novel seem flimsy, the eventual resolution unsatisfactory. Here, the protagonists spend a good 60% of the novel chasing 5 overgrown moths - terrible monsters, to be sure, but not really intellectually fulfilling.

Still, read Mieville for all the other good things! I would recommend some of his later works though - Embassytown is a particulat favourite of mine.

Mieville really is brilliantly imaginative, as many reviewers have noted... but heed those who also caution that the pacing is often glacial, the plot noodles around in circles looking for someplace to go, and the interiors of the characters are entirely forgettable.

Mieville reveals a rich fantasy world unlike any you have encountered before, filled with strange creatures and sinister threats. The city feels like a real, living place, such is the depth of detail. I loved the cosmology and magic that is treated like a science. The villains are despicable and you can't help but hate them, and the monstrous threat that grips the city is truly terrifying. I really enjoyed this book.

all the characters are way cool and definitely did not see what was coming next. i've read about 93% of the book and can't wait to finish. the town's descriptions are awesome and can't wait to learn more about the militia and motley

This book rekindled my interest in reading. The ideas are so vivid and strange; it is remarkably well written and the descriptions are poetic. The morality is pervasively grey with tough choices that have no "right" answers. Altogether involving. If you do not enjoy long descriptions, strange ideas and advanced vocabulary, however, this is not your book.

I bought this because I admired "The City and the City" for the skillful way that Mieville created a world and characters to inhabit that world that were equally interesting, where the premises of his science-fiction, while ambitious, did not overwhelm the people he put in that world or what they did there.

Not so with Perdido Street Station. The world here is complex and fantastic, to be sure, with many life forms wrestling for a little bit of life in a distopian near future, but the characters in that world and the story Mieville has them tell can not match his world-building. Characters with amazing abilities just happen to appear, and happen to cooperate, exactly when the story requires that they appear. The story telling is just not that good, and Mieville's relentlessly dark portrait of human (and other) nature feels like an assault by the end. I'd skip it.

The writing style was fantastic. The world was painted in fantastic detail. It would be a five-star review for certain, except I had a major issue understanding the main character's motivation to do what he did about 1/2 way into the book. It made little sense. His behavior at the end of the book was not nuanced either. A snap decision based on the here say of a tangential character. Baffled me.

I just read this book due to a recommendation. The insistent details were confusing and distracting. I had a hard time imagining what he was describing and the words were uncommon and hard to make sense of too. I think he could cut 300 pages out of the book and still have the story, minus all of the superfluous stuff that didn't add to the story. Once the story got going (about 300 pages in) it was enthralling and great, but then the ending let me down. I was expecting a cathartic ending, one that closed the story out nicely, but it just kind of ended abruptly. This was not my favorite book. It is interesting, intriguing, and disturbing, so I won't say it wasn't worth it, but make sure you are committed for the long haul. If I hadn't been reading it in a book club, I probably would have stopped reading about 150 pages in.

Perdido Street Station is my favorite sci-fi/fantasy/horror novel of all time. It incorporates all three the aforementioned genres in a breathtaking whole that makes me re-read this book once a year (I must have read it six times by now) and everytime I do I discover something new that I like about it. It has so many layers, and is written in such an intensely descriptive and surreal style, that I never get tired of the prose. So I guess it's safe to say that I am a Mieville Junkie and can't wait to see more of him (so far I've read everything he has written and anxiously await his return to Bas-Lag, the fictional setting for his New Crobuzon novels, of which Perdido is the first). I enjoy the arcane words and mind-boggling concepts Mieville toys with throughout the story, and he is particularly adept at making the reader visualize scenes and possible future storylines by referring to elements in his story that unlock the imagination of anyone reading it. In the book we encounter 3 main characters: Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, a scientist supporting Crisis Theory, Lin, an insect-like artist of the Khepri with a head like a huge scarab beetle, and Yagharek, the bird-man from the Cymek desert who employes Isaac. After the first 50 pages the story really picks up and plunges us into a city filled with grotesquely mutated mobsters, dream-slurping butterflies, monstrous rhyming spiders, Handlinger parasites spewing fire, the evil Fat Sun party running the city's government, daemons, bounty hunters, muscular cactus-men, insane quests, malevolent artificial intelligences, crisis engines, The Torque, the merciless New Crobuzon Militia and Remade criminals formed in punishment factories. The story is fast-paced and the dialogue (which incorporates city slang created by Mieville) is quirky and humorous, although the plot itself is laced with tragedy. My favorite element in the whole book is the city of New Crobuzon itself, built on the site where an ancient titanic beast fell, its ribs like skyscrapers towering over the city, with trains chugging and industry whining around it. Writing this review has made me want to read it all over again. In fact, that's what I'm going to do right now. Buy it and join me...

I rarely give anything 5 stars but Perdido Street Station deserves it for so many reasons. This book haunted me as it made me cheer, shutter, and anticipate every page. It's up there in my favorites of all time and its imagery hasn't left me since I read it over a year ago. Mievelle is that good!!

There are already over 200 reviews on the store so I will try to say some things about this book that haven't be said numerous times.

I always run into people who have read The Da Vinci Code and Harry Potter in the past 3 years and not much else. For those people this book might not be for you. It's not easy reading even though the plot keeps the pages turning once you get in the thick of it (the last 350 pages...)

The book has imagery that will blow your mind and Mievelle's style of prose and the fantastical elements of New Crobuzon is a marriage made in literary heaven. The characters are brought to life and you will be rooting for their success while their plight will make you morose. The ending is superb and will leave you with a morality conundrum for days. Finally this is one of those books that is able to convey deeper messages about life and society within the constructs of plot driven novel and that also helps elevate it to a certain status of importance.

Bottom Line: I found this book inspiring. Mievelle has established himself as a force to be reckoned with. This book is special because it's a character study, a morality play, a social commentary, a page-turner and to top it off, a good ol' fashioned bug hunt!

I stumbled across China Mieville from the store's personalized recommendation, specifically Kraken. I looked that up and one reviewer mentioned going with Perdido Street Station (PSS) first before moving on to his other works, and that is exactly what I did. I began reading PSS and at first, I didn't quite know what to make of it. This was my first experience with steam-punk or new weird genre and it was definitely that. I began reading it and I almost put this book down, but I didn't, and for that I'm thankful. I slogged my way through the introduction and the 20 pages or so not really enjoying it. I continued slogging my way through and eventually I realized I really enjoyed this book. I had multiple late nights of staying up until 2 am reading this wonderful, weird, imaginative novel.

Normally I try to compare the author being reviewed to other authors, but I'm unsure that's possible in this instance as Mr. Mieville is about as unique an author as one can get. The only thing I make note of is that Mr. Mieville has the penchant to describe everything down to the minutest detail. I eventually came to the point where I would start skimming these portions to get back to the meat of the matter.

All-in-all I would highly recommend this book, and I will be reading some more of Mr. Mieville's novels in the future.

Great story. I found the book to have a refreshing approach to sci-fi/fantasy. I really cared about the characters and the narrative was engaging. Mr. Meiville is a great author with a unique and interesting writing style. This book has my highest recommendation.

Mieville's writing is, if nothing else, always beautiful. Perdido Street Station is no exception. As when I read The City and The City, I did find that it dragged a bit here and there, but the beauty of the writing and tone never faltered, so I didn't mind the slower parts all that much.

Lots of descriptions and use of big words to paint and intricate background and detail about what is happening. Trouble is, very little has happened and very little of what has happened do I care about. Boring. You can go 20 pages without any dialog. I got board and gave up 10% through.

The writing is strong, though often excessive. Much editing remained undone.

The characters are nearly compelling, but despite all the explication of their thoughts and feelings, I never felt close to any of them, which suprised me as the book drew to a close. I expected to be more engaged.

I almost liked this book a lot, but it was so unremittingly dark, grim actually, that I was mostly relieved when it was over.

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.

First part of book was pretty slow and some parts spent too long on irrelevant areas. Second half picked up the pace and was a good read. Characters were good and their background stories well put together.

Compelling writing with a beautiful vocabulary and a compelling story. I haven't been affected by a book in this way in a very long time. HIGHLY recommended. This is one of those books that you miss when you finish reading it.

The world in this book is well crafted, elaborate, believable, and interesting. The city, and the characters who inhabit it, are so well-imagined and described that I don't mind the long and elaborate prose. It might seem overly wordy to some, and there were some lulls here and there, but the payoff is an immaculately crafted world that I loved experiencing. I enjoy writing that makes me think, and this book definitely does. I found it really helpful to read it on an e-reader because of the large and often obscure vocabulary used. I was looking up words on every other page, but it didn't hinder the experience - it made me appreciate the sophisticated writing.

The book starts out well, but lost my interest at several points throughout before enthralling me again. It took a little bit of determination to finish it, but it was overall a good story.

This definitely gives off a steampunk vibe. It takes the culture of Victorian England, magnifies the darkness inside mankind and transplants that into a fantasy world of its own.

Not my first jaunt through steam punk scifi and I must like it as I find myself returning. But this book is entirely too long. To remark that the author is verbose, in the extreme, would be understating the truth. For much of the book every nuance of the invented locality and geography is visited. I, more than once, envisioned Mr. Mieville drawing maps, listing every detail, suggesting that this place will be revisited in other books. Aside from his verbosity the author also abandons direction, dropping protagonists and resurrecting them toward the ending. There's an in the air fight scene that has me confused still as to who was doing what to whom, and how. And toward the ending when all seemed lost for our heros a lesser character, introduced ever so briefly in the beginning, is reintroduced in order to save the day. I must also report that the ending wasn't much to my liking but suggests Mr. Mieville has considered a sequel. So, why 3 stars you might wonder. I was intrigued by the authors inventiveness, and I truly do enjoy the setting of the genre which Mr. Mieville describes adequately.

Perdido Station stand outs from the crowd of Science Fiction genre. Mieville has created a fascinating and unique world. The characters are unforgettable, and so it is the plot of the novel. It toyed with my imagination in a way few authors have been able to. It left me wanting more.

Mieville is an indisputable king of world-building. He is capable of making readers understand the environments and races he creates on a personal level, as well as on an incredibly real visual level. Buckle up, because this book grabs you by the throat and takes you for a ride.