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pandabearsfly 's review for:
Perdido Street Station
by China Miéville
Well, that was unlike anything I've ever read.
I first encountered this book while looking for fantasy that stepped away from tropes of knights, dragons, wizards. etc. I was just so sick of Euro-centric stories and wanted to explore other possibilities. I'm not sure if I'd recommend Perdido to anyone I know, just 'cause it's so out there, but Mieville's imagination is extraordinary. While reviewing other fantasy books, I've occasionally remarked, "Man, I wish I thought of that." Well, in this book, there were hundreds of things I would've never dreamed up, yet I wish I had: the different races, garuda ethics, the sprawling geography of New Crobuzon, remaking (as gross as it sometimes is), etc. In fact, I find it incredibly brave of Mieville to draw from world mythologies and feature races with non-human heads, like Slavic vodyanoi, Hindu garuda, Egyptian khepri, etc. That choice is far less straightforward than using elves, gnomes, or whatnot, which look a little different but behave more or less the same way. The khepri can't even verbalize, and they have a totally different way of seeing the world (because of their insect eyes). That paves the way for Mieville to express some fascinating anthropological ideas.
I feel like the book really picked up pace 300 pages in (which sounds slow, I know) because it's not a plot-driven book. It's really a feat of world-building. There were lots of passages that I found overly descriptive, especially since Mieville is a crazy vocabularian. (I have never encountered "salubrious" that many times in my life.) There are passages which seem to revel in their grossness. Yet there is the overarching sense that Mieville loves his creation, New Crobuzon, and there are some gorgeous stretches of prose.
Yet another remarkable thing about this story is how it can't be boiled down to a handful of meanings (like many other fantasy books with their dichotomies between good and bad. Maybe I sound like I hate fantasy, but I don't. I loved it so much as a kid that I became so disheartened when I grew out of most YA. I've long been hungry for something to re-ignite that old sense of wonder.) The characters in Perdido are complex, and they can't always figure each other out. I detected several critiques of capitalism and a refusal to condone pure escapism. But beyond that, there's tons to discover. I wanted a non-Euro-centric story about flight, and I got so much more than that.
I first encountered this book while looking for fantasy that stepped away from tropes of knights, dragons, wizards. etc. I was just so sick of Euro-centric stories and wanted to explore other possibilities. I'm not sure if I'd recommend Perdido to anyone I know, just 'cause it's so out there, but Mieville's imagination is extraordinary. While reviewing other fantasy books, I've occasionally remarked, "Man, I wish I thought of that." Well, in this book, there were hundreds of things I would've never dreamed up, yet I wish I had: the different races, garuda ethics, the sprawling geography of New Crobuzon, remaking (as gross as it sometimes is), etc. In fact, I find it incredibly brave of Mieville to draw from world mythologies and feature races with non-human heads, like Slavic vodyanoi, Hindu garuda, Egyptian khepri, etc. That choice is far less straightforward than using elves, gnomes, or whatnot, which look a little different but behave more or less the same way. The khepri can't even verbalize, and they have a totally different way of seeing the world (because of their insect eyes). That paves the way for Mieville to express some fascinating anthropological ideas.
I feel like the book really picked up pace 300 pages in (which sounds slow, I know) because it's not a plot-driven book. It's really a feat of world-building. There were lots of passages that I found overly descriptive, especially since Mieville is a crazy vocabularian. (I have never encountered "salubrious" that many times in my life.) There are passages which seem to revel in their grossness. Yet there is the overarching sense that Mieville loves his creation, New Crobuzon, and there are some gorgeous stretches of prose.
Yet another remarkable thing about this story is how it can't be boiled down to a handful of meanings (like many other fantasy books with their dichotomies between good and bad. Maybe I sound like I hate fantasy, but I don't. I loved it so much as a kid that I became so disheartened when I grew out of most YA. I've long been hungry for something to re-ignite that old sense of wonder.) The characters in Perdido are complex, and they can't always figure each other out.