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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Perdido Street Station's best accomplishment is its portrait of an industrial city, imagined as a vast, almost biological conglomeration of slums, factories, dumps, ghettos, military strongholds and rail lines. The sights, sounds and scents of the city are the very first thing the reader is thrust up against, and throughout the book, detailed descriptions of various regions and buildings of the city take centre stage. The city itself is in many ways the main character of the book. It also deserves some commendation for being probably the only thing called "steampunk" that's actually slightly punk. The city is absolutely drenched in grime and crime, from its gangster underworld to its rapacious ruling class. It's a dark, almost hellish view of the concept of city.
Perdido does have weird stuff - cactus people, remaking, people with bugs for heads, insane spider gods, and more, but it mostly felt like embellishments on the solid base of the vision of the city. In fact, a couple times I was disappointed by the weirdness levels on offer. The khepri, the insect-headed women, felt like a copout. Isaac is supposed to be going outside the realm of propriety by having a relationship with one, but khepri are described as being completely human from the neck down. Wouldn't it be much weirder to have him fuck a bug woman that actually looks like a bug? And why the hell would bug people need breasts anyway? Mieville at least did something interesting with the khepri with, but many times I felt he could've gone a lot weirder than he did. I suppose there has to be a trade-off between mainstream success and true weirdness.
The actual plot takes an odd course, but I'd hesitate to call it weird. The book opens with the internal thoughts of the mutilated bird-man Yagharek as he enters New Crobuzon, and the story is kicked off when he commissions the fat black genius scientist Isaac der Grimnebulin to make him fly again. At the same time, Isaac's khepri girlfriend Lin receives a commission from a gangster to make a special sculpture. The first third or so of the book has these two threads proceed more or less in parallel, as Lin becomes absorbed in both her art and New Crobuzon's underworld, and as Isaac investigates various avenues into the science of flight. Some of my favourite scenes, like the fair, or the garuda slum come from this first section. Unfortunately, this eventually results, by a series of mishaps, in the release of horrifying monsters into the city, with Isaac and friends pledging to stop them. Now, lots of interesting elements of the book are woven into the plot because of the monster fighting element, but it's a complete swerve of direction that seriously peeved me. The monsters themselves are very imaginative, and creepy as well. But at first it seemed like it was going to be a sub-plot, but no, it is the plot, and it goes on and on and on. Lin's perspective also gets completely sidelined at this point, and the story loses the symmetry of artist and scientist that it had at the beginning. After all the monster fighting is wrapped up, the book then ends out of nowhere with
Yagharek is a strange element. Mostly silent in the bulk of the text, he closes out each section with his elaborate internal thoughts. He doesn't betray much indication of traits that would have led to his crime, except maybe his extreme insistence that Isaac complete his research at all costs. His perspective bookends the story, and he both causes and closes off the story with his actions, though the action that closes the story occurs long before the one that starts it. Yagharek's observations of New Crobuzon as an outsider use diction more similar to the narration than any other character. Can we say he is the heart of the book, then? But by the end, Isaac, the protagonist, has repudiated Yagharek, and I don't think many readers are going to come to his defence. It's doubly odd, then, that in an extremely dark ending for the other characters, Yagharek maintains a twisted ray of hope. The entire plot was caused by Yagharek's hope that he might undo his punishment and fly again, and the ending rescinds that hope. Even at the extremities of hopelessness, he finds the means to keep living. It's dissonantly uplifting for such a determinedly dark book.
Finally, the map is absolute garbage. The entire city is rendered as grey chunks divided by street lines, with some neighbourhood names and rail lines superimposed. The only actual visual landmark is the forest in the southwest corner. Nothing about the organization of the city or its nature is legible from the map, and the sheer number of neighbourhoods that barely come up in the story makes it useless as a navigational aid for the text. I gave up on looking at it at all very quickly.
Random thoughts:
-Lin is killed by her artistic instinct to look
-Yagharek's transformation is foreshadowed very early on - the garuda children who have completely taken on the mentality of New Crobuzon, and the remade thief made to look like a garuda.
-There's an implied explanation for why each of the races live in New Crobuzon - the humans and vodyanoi are seemingly native and live more or less mutualistically. The cactacae are a freed slave population, and the khepri are the descendants of refugees. The exception, the garuda slum in Spatters, has no explanation. Unlike the other races, the garuda slum is outside of the city proper. However, they don't seem to hold to the same ideals of individuality as the Cymek garuda - we see that some of the youths wanted to take Isaac up on his offer, but are beaten down by the boss man ruling the slum. Why does this group of garuda live near Crobuzon, and why have they abandoned their original culture, yet not attempted to fully integrate into the city? Does this imply that Yagharek's ultimate transformation will be unsuccessful?
-In his final monologue, Yagaharek equates flight with blindness to the injustices of New Crobuzon. The two main antagonistic forces of the story, the moths and the militia, both use flight to stalk their victims.
Perdido does have weird stuff - cactus people, remaking, people with bugs for heads, insane spider gods, and more, but it mostly felt like embellishments on the solid base of the vision of the city. In fact, a couple times I was disappointed by the weirdness levels on offer. The khepri, the insect-headed women, felt like a copout. Isaac is supposed to be going outside the realm of propriety by having a relationship with one, but khepri are described as being completely human from the neck down. Wouldn't it be much weirder to have him fuck a bug woman that actually looks like a bug? And why the hell would bug people need breasts anyway? Mieville at least did something interesting with the khepri with
Spoiler
Lin's upbringing in a cult that glorifies the mindless khepri malesThe actual plot takes an odd course, but I'd hesitate to call it weird. The book opens with the internal thoughts of the mutilated bird-man Yagharek as he enters New Crobuzon, and the story is kicked off when he commissions the fat black genius scientist Isaac der Grimnebulin to make him fly again. At the same time, Isaac's khepri girlfriend Lin receives a commission from a gangster to make a special sculpture. The first third or so of the book has these two threads proceed more or less in parallel, as Lin becomes absorbed in both her art and New Crobuzon's underworld, and as Isaac investigates various avenues into the science of flight. Some of my favourite scenes, like the fair, or the garuda slum come from this first section. Unfortunately, this eventually results, by a series of mishaps, in the release of horrifying monsters into the city, with Isaac and friends pledging to stop them. Now, lots of interesting elements of the book are woven into the plot because of the monster fighting element, but it's a complete swerve of direction that seriously peeved me. The monsters themselves are very imaginative, and creepy as well. But at first it seemed like it was going to be a sub-plot, but no, it is the plot, and it goes on and on and on. Lin's perspective also gets completely sidelined at this point, and the story loses the symmetry of artist and scientist that it had at the beginning. After all the monster fighting is wrapped up, the book then ends out of nowhere with
Spoiler
Isaac refusing to help Yagharek fly after meeting the garuda woman that Yagharek raped.Yagharek is a strange element. Mostly silent in the bulk of the text, he closes out each section with his elaborate internal thoughts. He doesn't betray much indication of traits that would have led to his crime, except maybe his extreme insistence that Isaac complete his research at all costs. His perspective bookends the story, and he both causes and closes off the story with his actions, though the action that closes the story occurs long before the one that starts it. Yagharek's observations of New Crobuzon as an outsider use diction more similar to the narration than any other character. Can we say he is the heart of the book, then? But by the end, Isaac, the protagonist, has repudiated Yagharek, and I don't think many readers are going to come to his defence. It's doubly odd, then, that in an extremely dark ending for the other characters
Spoiler
Isaac and Derkhan are on the run from just about everyone in the city, Lin is reduced to an infantile state reminiscent of the Insect Aspect her mother worshippedSpoiler
But rather than succumb to despair and the suicide it seems to be leading to, Yagharek resolves to voluntarily complete his involuntary transformation by plucking himself and living as a human in New Crobuzon.Finally, the map is absolute garbage. The entire city is rendered as grey chunks divided by street lines, with some neighbourhood names and rail lines superimposed. The only actual visual landmark is the forest in the southwest corner. Nothing about the organization of the city or its nature is legible from the map, and the sheer number of neighbourhoods that barely come up in the story makes it useless as a navigational aid for the text. I gave up on looking at it at all very quickly.
Random thoughts:
Spoiler
-Lin is killed by her artistic instinct to look
-Yagharek's transformation is foreshadowed very early on - the garuda children who have completely taken on the mentality of New Crobuzon, and the remade thief made to look like a garuda.
-There's an implied explanation for why each of the races live in New Crobuzon - the humans and vodyanoi are seemingly native and live more or less mutualistically. The cactacae are a freed slave population, and the khepri are the descendants of refugees. The exception, the garuda slum in Spatters, has no explanation. Unlike the other races, the garuda slum is outside of the city proper. However, they don't seem to hold to the same ideals of individuality as the Cymek garuda - we see that some of the youths wanted to take Isaac up on his offer, but are beaten down by the boss man ruling the slum. Why does this group of garuda live near Crobuzon, and why have they abandoned their original culture, yet not attempted to fully integrate into the city? Does this imply that Yagharek's ultimate transformation will be unsuccessful?
-In his final monologue, Yagaharek equates flight with blindness to the injustices of New Crobuzon. The two main antagonistic forces of the story, the moths and the militia, both use flight to stalk their victims.
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Read this a long time ago. I remember it being beautifully written but also really disturbing in parts.
dark
tense
slow-paced
Quite slow in the beginning, takes time to build out the world. Then very fast, the last half is utterly breathless. The worldbuilding is incomparable and I love Mieville's ability to paint the city. Clinches it with some thoughtful, complex character developments.
However one character befalls a truly brutal fate just so another character can have a basic conscience, and it doesn't sit well.
However one character befalls a truly brutal fate just so another character can have a basic conscience, and it doesn't sit well.
Just on the fantastic worldbuilding and sheer meatiness of New Crobuzon, this book is 5 stars. If you are good for a book that takes its sweet time to set up and linger in the lives of its characters and cultures, this book is going to BANG for you. It’s jam-packed with cool fantasy ideas and beautiful visuals. I wish the (very cool!) female characters got as much time and attention as the men, and I find it kind of odd that the author examines and picks apart almost everything about modern society in New Crobuzon except gender norms (every race has only men and woman, and all the women have breasts. Yes. Even the cactus people). But overall this juice of this huge doorstopper is definitely worth the squeeze.
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Drug use, Gore, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes