A review by emisbooks
Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

i would never pick this book for myself, but it was bought for me as a gift, so i gave it a go.

well written, but too much description of setting + worldbuilding, even though its the first novel of a series. felt too long at points. i think this book could be cut in half if there weren't so many descriptive scenes. the writing is also unnecessarily gross at times.

the only character i truly cared for was lin. i felt indifferent to the protagonist isaac the entire way through.

the world is very interesting - a steampunk, victorian-esque, magical realist world with various species living amongst humans.

i wouldn't recommend this book if you don't care for science or engineering as its a core theme of the story, isaac being a scientist. i personally don't which has probably affected my rating.

(i honestly considered dnf'ing this book at multiple points, but i wanted to keep going just to say i conquered an 800+ page book, i guess)

tldr: good but not amazing. only cared for 1 character. too long. read if you like science/engineering. good worldbuilding. 

the fact that lin wasn't in the story for most of part five is probably the reason i stopped caring about the story. when she came back my interest in the story was reignited.


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