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sarah_ls 's review for:
Perdido Street Station
by China Miéville
I'm disappointed that I didn't like this more. I've loved all of the other Mieville books that I've read, but part of what I loved about those is missing from this book. One thing I love is his - I'll go with linguistic complexity. He makes language his bitch ;) In this book, he did indeed show a mastery of the English language but it was very narrow. Words like juddered, chitinous, and vertiginous were used to the point of exhaustion. Seriously, vertiginous is my favorite word and I still got sick of it.
This book did show Mieville's excellent world building but it didn't work well for me because of the way the POV was done. You have this city on a macro level but it's told from the POV of a few individuals, but mostly one guy. Seriously - this vast and complex city is squished into the viewpoint of a dude who's trying to use crisis energy to make someone fly.
This book did have many cool elements but the way they were put together was off to me. I do wonder how much of my reaction was based on my love of his other books. This was only his second book and the others I've read were much farther down the line, which could make a difference. What I would like to do is read it in about a year and see if I have a different reaction.
This book did show Mieville's excellent world building but it didn't work well for me because of the way the POV was done. You have this city on a macro level but it's told from the POV of a few individuals, but mostly one guy. Seriously - this vast and complex city is squished into the viewpoint of a dude who's trying to use crisis energy to make someone fly.
This book did have many cool elements but the way they were put together was off to me. I do wonder how much of my reaction was based on my love of his other books. This was only his second book and the others I've read were much farther down the line, which could make a difference. What I would like to do is read it in about a year and see if I have a different reaction.