# Perdido Street Station by China Mieville



## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Mar 1, 2004)

*Perdido Street Station
*by China Mieville
*Publisher:* Del Rey; (February 27, 2001) 

I enjoyed China Mieville's Perdido Street Station a lot, so perhaps I had better begin with its weak points.

First off, it is an extremely dark, grim book. There are scenes here of terrible violence, gruesome horror and there is no real happy ending or fair reward in the traditional sense, even though the 'hero' does basically triumph. Actually this is not a minus so much as to indicate that this may not be a book to suit everyone's tastes; which is fair enough. 

The more serious flaw is also the flipside of a strength - Mieville writes like a man drunk with words and there are times when his ornate prose weighs down a story that is straining at its reins, kicking at the dirt and crying out for a breakneck dash. The narrative flow falters now and then, especially once the halfway mark is passed and the game is well afoot. But it never really falls apart. 

If, like me, you like dense, evocative prose, you'll be willing to forgive Mieville most of his excesses, particularly in view of the power of his twisted, boundless imagination. More than reminding me of any other writer, Mieville's vision brought to mind the nightmarish canvasses of Salvador Dali or Hieronymus Bosch. 


One vision in particular that kept occuring to me (even though it does not directly reflect anything in the story) was William Blake's Ghost of Flea. 

Which in a way is very befitting of the setting. The world in PSS is poised uneasily between the remains of a mediaeval past and the onrushing smokestacks and steam engines of an industrial age, much lik Blake's England was. 

Arcane arts and grimy technology rub shoulders in the filthy, twisting streets of New Crobuzon, as do a bewildering variety of strange races, from the froglike vodyanoi and the scarab-headed kephri to the Remade, criminals who have been organically and mechanically re-engineered into gruesome new forms. 

There are two figures who capture the way the whole work is poised at the cusp between what we usually call SF and fantasy - the Weaver, a whimsical spider-like godlike creature, and the Construct Council, a vast Articificial Intelligence. Fittingly, it is only a collaboration between the two that saves the day in the end. Equally typically, given the dark nature of the book, the third element of that combination is a pathetic, unwilling human sacrifice.

The central characters of PSS - the burly rogue scientist, Isaac dan der Grimnebulin, his kephri lover Lin, the activist/journalist Derkhan Blueday and the garuda or bird-man Yagharek, are all well-defined and believable. I agonised and exulted in sympathy with them and was sorry to leave their company in the end.

But the central character of PSS may well be the ghastly, fantastic city of New Crobuzon itself. I'm rather fond of imaginary cities, and I know I will be walking though these chaotic, winding streets in many dreams and nightmares to come...

A few last points. 

Genre? Mieville calls himself a writer of 'weird tales'. 

If we had a rating system would I give it full points? No, I would give it a half point less than the full score, but still reccomend it very highly.

Lastly, get the UK edition if you can - the US edition has a seriously dissapointing cover that does NO justice to the book.


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## Foxbat (Mar 1, 2004)

I've never heard of this writer or this book but you give it high praise indeed. Any book compared to Bosch deserves a look. It certainly seems a bit different


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## Brian G Turner (Mar 2, 2004)

I've been waiting for an appraisal of China Meiville (and gender identification!) for _ages_! So thanks for that, *knivesout*. 

I've long been under the suspicion that China Meiville will have far more in common with Neil Gaiman than traditional fantasy writers - would you say that's a fair assessment?


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Mar 2, 2004)

I said:
			
		

> I've long been under the suspicion that China Meiville will have far more in common with Neil Gaiman than traditional fantasy writers - would you say that's a fair assessment?


Exactly.  

I found a lot of fantasy readers do not really find Mieville to their taste - he may appeal more to horror and sf fans.


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## Hypes (May 3, 2004)

If you get the Pan pocket edition of Mièville's _King Rat_ (which is also a great book, though not in the same vein as PSS and The Scar), there's a picture of China himself on the inside backcover.

Then again, you could always do a Google Image Search.

Perhaps it's just me, but I always considered Mièville Sci-Fi Steampunk, not fantasy. True, he does have a twisted incarnation of fantasy magic, but it strikes me as more science fiction than anything.


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## Myla Starchild (May 3, 2004)

Good review knivesout, you address the book's good and bad points well.

Foxbat, get down to the bookshop immediately!

Hypes, I've been looking all over for _King Rat_ but can't find it anywhere.  My copy of _The Scar_ has the same picture though.


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## Hypes (May 3, 2004)

Did you try Amazon.com / Amazon.co.uk?


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (May 4, 2004)

Someone wanted a pic of Mieville? In any case, here's one:


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## Brian G Turner (May 4, 2004)

That portrait pic makes him look like a cross between David Beckham and Chow Yun Fat.


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## Hypes (May 4, 2004)

If you've read _King Rat_ you'll certainly be able to connect his writing with his looks.



> That portrait pic makes him look like a cross between David Beckham and Chow Yun Fat.


 Isn't he dreamy?


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## Brian G Turner (May 4, 2004)

Sorry, my bread isn't buttered that way.


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## Hypes (May 5, 2004)

_::swoons_

I'm sure he butters bread like a champ, _too_!


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (May 5, 2004)

You certainly do seem fond of him.  

Have you read his recent chapbook, The Tain, by the way? I'm waiting to get a hold of the anthology Cities (Ed: Peter Crowther) which includes it, but it would be interesting to hear from someone who has read the story. 

Interestingly, John Clute's review of Perdido Street Station actually has a long sequence where he shows how the book is SF, fantasy, steampunk, horror and so on, in turn. I guess Mieville's own classification, 'weird tales' is simpler to resort to! 

Seriously, I don't see why SF and fantasy need to have such distinct lines drawn between them, and one of the things I like most about Mievile is that he seems to go ahead and tell his story, and describe his world, without worrying too much about about what the punters will classify it as.


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## Hypes (May 5, 2004)

Well said - leave it to the bibliothecarians to figure it out. I 

Actually, no, I haven't read it. I didn't even know about it, in fact. I'll be sure to look into it, though.


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## erickad71 (May 7, 2004)

Haven't read any of those books - but, wow, love the pic!


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## Hypes (May 7, 2004)

erickad71 said:
			
		

> Haven't read any of those books - but, wow, love the pic!


He's mine!

But do read his books.


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (May 7, 2004)

Alas, Hypes, Mieville is already taken - his partner is Emma Bircham, a political writer and activist.


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## Hypes (May 7, 2004)

I shall go have a cry in the corner now.

I'll wear my tin foil hat, too.


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## ravenus (Jun 19, 2004)

I finished *Perdido Street Station* a few days back and I agree with whatever knivesout has said about it (great review, btw). It can sometimes be very trying with it's tendency towards verbose description when you want the story to rush forth but the effort i well rewarded with a very vivid and spectacular experience.

With this book, China Mieville strikes me as a more cynical modern-day Dickens.


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Jun 19, 2004)

Could you elaborate on the Dickensian aspect, ravenus? I imagine you are referring to his ability to vividly depict an entire city (London, in Dickens' case) and all its varied denizens, but I could be wrong.


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## ravenus (Jun 19, 2004)

knivesout said:
			
		

> Could you elaborate on the Dickensian aspect, ravenus? I imagine you are referring to his ability to vividly depict an entire city (London, in Dickens' case) and all its varied denizens, but I could be wrong.


Exactly, you can add 'in VERY vivid detail'


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## rune (Nov 5, 2004)

Though I found the Weaver and the Machine Construct interesting, I couldnt relate to them as well as Issac and Lin.  They at least seemed more personable.


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## Hypes (Nov 6, 2004)

Well, the Weaver is an entity that transcends even Time, and the Machine Construct is well, a machine.

That ought to be taken into account.


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## jenna (Dec 8, 2004)

Hypes said:
			
		

> If you've read _King Rat_ you'll certainly be able to connect his writing with his looks.
> 
> Isn't he dreamy?



i met him a couple of years back, and i can tell you he's MUCH more dreamy in person!!


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## sadako1 (Feb 21, 2007)

I've just finished reading this book and I leave it feeling conflicted. I was recommended it by a man in a book shop after a brief chat about Michael Marshall (Smith) and Jeff Noon, both writers that I enjoy greatly. Perhaps I was expecting something different to this.

At times it seemed hugely implausible (Kephri etc, but isn't that what 'suspension of disbelief is all about' I hear you say... you'd be right ) and _overly_ descriptive. There are great swathes of prose that I skipped past near the end that I feel were unnecessary (_*spoiler(?):*_ when they're laying the cable I don't feel that he needed to explain _EVERY_ inch put down!). In that respect it reminded me very much of Neil Stephenson towards the end of his Baroque Cycle (which I just couldn't bring myself to finish! A first as I _always_ finish a book! I was just too bored, what can I say? I've got a good attention span, but not that good!).

On the other hand, I can also say that I couldn't put it down! The characters were well developed and I felt considerable empathy towards them - when Lin disappeared from the plot I actually became increasingly worried for her. The plot intriguing without being too convoluted (or conversely, too simple - I hate it when everything's signposted _a la da Vinci Code_). Nothing was completely resolved. Yes, the bad things go away, but the world stays evil and corrupt... I like that. There's too much Hollywood BS with happy endings. It's also good to read something that can't be 
pigeonholed easily. I read on night shift at work and when people asked me what it was about I genuinely couldn't tell them, certainly not in a way that they'd be able to relate to (it added mystery to my already mysterious persona )

I enjoyed it... I think, so why am I so reluctant to read the rest?


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## Rane Longfox (Feb 22, 2007)

I really didn't enjoy the ending to PSS, but the rest of it was great - The Scar is a better book though, you should try it


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## Lucien21 (Feb 22, 2007)

I found it far too boring to finish.

He spends waaaaaay to long describing every detail of the city that it gets in the way of any storyline. 

The Scar is a better book. It has pirates in it and you can't go wrong with pirates (Cutthroat Island is the exception to that rule).


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## Winter Lord (Mar 8, 2007)

Some call it the genre it is in _The New Weird_.


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## jackokent (Mar 8, 2007)

sadako1 said:


> and _overly_ descriptive. There are great swathes of prose that I skipped past near the end that I feel were unnecessary (_*spoiler(?):*_ when they're laying the cable I don't feel that he needed to explain _EVERY_ inch put down!).


 
I completely agree.  This was my main problem with the book.  I thought the imagination was amazing and I loved it all ... except the excessive techy descritptions.  

I'd certianly recommend it to anyone though.


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## Coolhand (Apr 2, 2007)

SPOILERS

Well, I finished PSS about a week ago and have spent the past seven days pondering what I read. Here’s my own feeble attempt to grapple with the scope and size of what is on display in this book….

Short Version: 
A towering achievement of genius slightly hoisted on its own petard.

Long Version: 
The problem with writing a review is that you don’t simply want to echo what everyone else has already said. So let’s just get the standard PSS comments out of the way with shall we? 

Yes, China occasionally writes like a man coughing up a thesaurus. Yes part of this book does seem to be an odd linguistic quest on the part of the author to try and come up with a million different ways to say that the river Gross Tar is full of poo. And yes whichever editor decided to allow him an entire chapter to describe the laying of a cable needs to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror. Oh and it’s bloody bleak and harsh, maybe too harsh for some tastes. Ain’t no happy-ever-after through THIS looking glass.

Whew. Done. 

Right, now what’s left is the fact that this is a seriously impressive book. Nothing of any great importance happens for the first 350 pages or so, and usually that means I’d be tossing it over my shoulder with a sarcastic sniff because I hate books like that. But not this time, for just watching these characters go about their bizarre everyday lives in this acid-trip version of 19th century London (which is basically what the city of New Crobuzon is) is pretty entertaining in itself. And when things finally DO start to happen, because of the slow build-up it really does feel like things are spinning terrifyingly out of control. And when things get out of control in New Crobuzon, boy is it fascinating and gruesome to watch.

You can tell Mieville likes monsters because they are by far and away the coolest things on display here. Especially the Slake Moths. The Slake Moths rock. I hope they never make a movie of this book because they will never do justice to the nightmarish, half-described terrifying Slake Moths. I shall spoil no more. But they scare me. Ooh, ooh, and The Weaver freaks me out as well. It’s a giant poetic Spider that likes to play tick-tac-toe and on one occasion shears the left ear from everyone in the room because it things the ears look pretty. Fre-ee-ky stuff. In fact, there are many more monsters but I won’t spoil any more surprises.

If I have any real complaints, it’s that Jack Half a Prayer’s appearance at the end of the book is a bit too Deus Ex Machina for my tastes, and that I cannot believes that someone actually sent the Slake Moth Caterpillars to New Crobuzon via the postal system. I mean, that’s like sending weapons-grade plutonium via Royal Mail with a 2nd class stamp.

But the main thing that struck me was how much PSS reminded me of Lord of The Rings. See Lord Of the Rings was really a book about Middle Earth, in which some hobbits and elves just happened to be having a really bad war. The landscape was the real star, as anyone who had to wade through all those bloody descriptions of hills and trees can tell you… 

Likewise PSS is really a book about New Crobuzon, in which some bizarre and fascinating creatures just happen to be having a really bad day. The City is the star here, and the simultaneous joy and curse of this work is that Mieville knows every inch of it, street by festering street, and wants to share those details with you. 

And that creates a work of jaw-dropping genius; with the occasional frustration born of the very thing that makes it so.


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## Mark Robson (Apr 2, 2007)

Nice review, Coolhand.  I'm tempted to try PSS now.  

One minor point (because I'm a perfectionist and like to show off what little knowledge I do have of certain words and phrases) - one cannot by 'hoisted *on* a petard'.  A petard was a type of hand grenade notorious for going off prematurely.  Hence one could be 'hoist by one's own petard', but not on it.

Just thought you might like to know.


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## Coolhand (Apr 3, 2007)

Ah, so THAT'S where the phrase comes from. Wow. I learn something new every day. In this case, the wisdom to never try juggling live petards...


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