bookitchewie 's review for:

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

4.5

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Felt very conflicted about this book. While I can appreciate it as a work of fantasy, it was not an enjoyable read. The world-building was at once thorough and entirely lacking. We got a thorough sense of everyday life, but no feeling for why the world is the way it is. The writing itself is a little over-the-top and detailed, but it didn't detract too much for me and my tastes. The casual brutality of this world is amplified in the larger villain of the work, there is violence in the small-and large-scale. It gives a very bleak world-view, but creates a world of pathos and serves to highlight the bittersweet feeling.