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A review by mobysbooks
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
5.0
New Crobuzon is a city of contrast, a behemoth of diversity ranging from ordinary human citizens leading a bourgeois life to grotesque, otherworldly beings that haunt the city’s labyrinthine veins. The mansions of the aristocrats line up like bulwarks against the slums of the lice-infested in the shadow of gigantic bones of a long-dead beast, strutting out like landmarks above the endlessly decaying splendor of this city.
With New Crobuzon, China Miéville created the greatest urban setpiece I have yet encountered. A pulsating crucible that thrives with ponderous obscenity and breathtaking beauty. Fully fleshed out cultural quirks battle each other from district to district, a melting pot of humans interspersed with various fantastic sentient species. Some are puzzling, others are downright ridiculous and still others stir up fear.
The story he tells in this magnificent viper’s pit of a city is of the scientist Isaac, a former university lecturer who delves into thaumaturgy and the demimonde of organized crime when he gets a special commission by an outcast who has lost his way of life in the cruelest of ways.
Miéville takes everything you expect from fantasy literature and throws it out the window. This is not an ordinary book in a cool setting; he doesn't work with typical fantasy storytelling structures. He created something entirely unique that rebels against any attempt at categorization. It’s fantasy but also scifi, an urban steampunk-cyberpunk-techno-thriller compound that successfully breaks the boundaries of genres. Weird in all the good ways, something I will remember for a long time.
His prose is meticulous and visceral, sometimes poetic, he chooses archaic words that encapsulate the unique, the odd, the otherworldly atmosphere. He uses vulgar language that enhances the raw, bustling, ugly vividness of the city. His very unique style may not be for everybody - but it certainly works for me.
This is a thrilling rollercoaster of a book that never becomes predictable. I was thoroughly entertained and Miéville has a new fan in me.
With New Crobuzon, China Miéville created the greatest urban setpiece I have yet encountered. A pulsating crucible that thrives with ponderous obscenity and breathtaking beauty. Fully fleshed out cultural quirks battle each other from district to district, a melting pot of humans interspersed with various fantastic sentient species. Some are puzzling, others are downright ridiculous and still others stir up fear.
The story he tells in this magnificent viper’s pit of a city is of the scientist Isaac, a former university lecturer who delves into thaumaturgy and the demimonde of organized crime when he gets a special commission by an outcast who has lost his way of life in the cruelest of ways.
Miéville takes everything you expect from fantasy literature and throws it out the window. This is not an ordinary book in a cool setting; he doesn't work with typical fantasy storytelling structures. He created something entirely unique that rebels against any attempt at categorization. It’s fantasy but also scifi, an urban steampunk-cyberpunk-techno-thriller compound that successfully breaks the boundaries of genres. Weird in all the good ways, something I will remember for a long time.
His prose is meticulous and visceral, sometimes poetic, he chooses archaic words that encapsulate the unique, the odd, the otherworldly atmosphere. He uses vulgar language that enhances the raw, bustling, ugly vividness of the city. His very unique style may not be for everybody - but it certainly works for me.
This is a thrilling rollercoaster of a book that never becomes predictable. I was thoroughly entertained and Miéville has a new fan in me.