ISBN: 0345459407
From the Publisher:
I picked up Perdido Street Station due to all the reviews it got on a forum board that I used to frequent. I had no idea what the story was about, except that it was by a relatively new UK author (who I assumed was female, but is decidedly not). The cover is beautiful, but I thought that it might be more of a dark, urban fantasy then what it truly was.
When you hear that Mr. Miéville writes "Weird Fantasy", take that as face value. I thought this book and the thoughts behind them are exceptionally weird. However, they are actually quite brilliant as well. It is quite obvious that Miéville has a penchant for science, and can make something that doesn't exist scientifically become quite believable and logic, to the point where you're kind of nodding along thinking "I see how that works".
I did appreciate Miéville's imagination, as there seemed to be no limit to it. In his cast of characters, we have humans, half human half insect (I thought of an ant) people, half human half cactus people, we have a society that seems to be of very very large parrots that are somewhat human, plus giant moths, a spider that takes on the essence of fate, and even demons... from hell. Oh! And a frog-type amphibian kind of creature. There's also a government sanctioned form of punishment that's called Remaking, where other species "parts" can be grafted on to a person (no matter what kind). Some of those parts could even be part "construct" or robotic. Very, very good imagination!
Miéville's characters are well formed, and not entirely likable... which seems to me to be more like real people. I was really weirded out by the "races" when I first started reading, but I think by the end I was thankful that I wasn't reading another book about elves and dwarves. I think that due to the "alien-ness" of his societies, I would almost push this book into the Science Fiction genre, but that can be determined by each reader. Or bookstore owner, or whatever. I know that in my local bookshop it was definitely labeled under "Fantasy".
This book is not for the faint of heart. It's interesting, it's gritty and has a lot of information. Weighing in at over 600 pages, it is by no means a quick read, either. It takes concentration to read it, as you have to pay attention to what is going on - there are no superfluous words in this story. It's definitely for adults, as well.
Pick up Perdido Street Station if you are looking for something out of the ordinary, and something with more substance than what some of the other Fantasy authors are churning out these days (this isn't a complaint from me - I prefer books that are a little lighter, but this was definitely a great change of pace).
From the Publisher:
Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to none—not even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory.
Isaac has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before fathomed. Though the Garuda's request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger.
While Isaac's experiments for the Garuda turn into an obsession, one of his lab specimens demands attention: a brilliantly colored caterpillar that feeds on nothing but a hallucinatory drug and grows larger—and more consuming—by the day. What finally emerges from the silken cocoon will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon—and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it invokes . . .
A magnificent fantasy rife with scientific splendor, magical intrigue, and wonderfully realized characters, told in a storytelling style in which Charles Dickens meets Neal Stephenson, Perdido Street Station offers an eerie, voluptuously crafted world that will plumb the depths of every reader's imagination.
I picked up Perdido Street Station due to all the reviews it got on a forum board that I used to frequent. I had no idea what the story was about, except that it was by a relatively new UK author (who I assumed was female, but is decidedly not). The cover is beautiful, but I thought that it might be more of a dark, urban fantasy then what it truly was.
When you hear that Mr. Miéville writes "Weird Fantasy", take that as face value. I thought this book and the thoughts behind them are exceptionally weird. However, they are actually quite brilliant as well. It is quite obvious that Miéville has a penchant for science, and can make something that doesn't exist scientifically become quite believable and logic, to the point where you're kind of nodding along thinking "I see how that works".
I did appreciate Miéville's imagination, as there seemed to be no limit to it. In his cast of characters, we have humans, half human half insect (I thought of an ant) people, half human half cactus people, we have a society that seems to be of very very large parrots that are somewhat human, plus giant moths, a spider that takes on the essence of fate, and even demons... from hell. Oh! And a frog-type amphibian kind of creature. There's also a government sanctioned form of punishment that's called Remaking, where other species "parts" can be grafted on to a person (no matter what kind). Some of those parts could even be part "construct" or robotic. Very, very good imagination!
Miéville's characters are well formed, and not entirely likable... which seems to me to be more like real people. I was really weirded out by the "races" when I first started reading, but I think by the end I was thankful that I wasn't reading another book about elves and dwarves. I think that due to the "alien-ness" of his societies, I would almost push this book into the Science Fiction genre, but that can be determined by each reader. Or bookstore owner, or whatever. I know that in my local bookshop it was definitely labeled under "Fantasy".
This book is not for the faint of heart. It's interesting, it's gritty and has a lot of information. Weighing in at over 600 pages, it is by no means a quick read, either. It takes concentration to read it, as you have to pay attention to what is going on - there are no superfluous words in this story. It's definitely for adults, as well.
Pick up Perdido Street Station if you are looking for something out of the ordinary, and something with more substance than what some of the other Fantasy authors are churning out these days (this isn't a complaint from me - I prefer books that are a little lighter, but this was definitely a great change of pace).
Labels: Fantasy
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