Perdido Street Station

[rune]

I've just finished this book and in shell shock

I'm ever so pleased I didnt read this book of China Mieville's first, I think the cramming of information he's put into it would have put me off his work.

The story around Issac and Lin and the closest associates Yag and Derkhan is interesting and to be honest it was their stories that kept me going. I can't fault the vividness of the story, once again blown away by the visual world. But for me there was just too much information

What did everyone else think?

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

This thread contains my initial review of PSS, as well as a cross-section of members' views: http://www.chronicles-network.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1415

I think you're not alone in finding the level of detail overwhelming at times.

 

[rune]

I've added a comment for the review thread, hopefully get some more comments apart from how dishy Mieville looks

 

[Jay]

IMHO Perdido Street Station is one of the 3-4 best books to be released in fantasy in the last 15 years. The briilliance of this work is simply beyond 99% of what authors can even hope to achieve. For my full thougths I reviewed it <A href="http://www.fantasybookspot.com/?q=node/view/131" target=_blank>HERE. Feedback is of course appreciated.

Perdido Street Station is simply a modern masterpeice of speculative fiction. The Weaver is simply one of the msot imaginative creations ever.

 

[Estelthea]

Just started reading this, something I've wanted to have a look at for a long time and I happened to be in a bookshop with money. So far I like it (having a few problems imagining Lin with a bug for a head but I guess that makes it easy to see why the khepri are looked down on) but then someone who dedicates their book to Mervyn Peake can't be a bad person!

 

[Jay]

but then someone who dedicates their book to Mervyn Peake can't be a bad person!

Hell yes. I completely agree. Peake is a god and he is still underated in my mind.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

like it (having a few problems imagining Lin with a bug for a head but I guess that makes it easy to see why the khepri are looked down on)

Yes.

I'd like to make this clear - Mieville is playing with our minds here, and it's a challenge. In a world with sentient half-human races, these races are analogues to the different races within humanity, for all purposes, and if we can't imagine intimate relations between them, it shows a failure of imagination that's rather akin to real-world racism. I hope you enjoy the book.

 

[rune]

I rather enjoyed the relationship between Issac and Lin. And thought there relationship dynamics held the best storyline.

 

[Estelthea]

It's not so much the relationship that I don't really see, that all makes sense, more like I can't imagine what she would look like and how she would be put together. Maybe once I've read a bit more and learnt about the way she lives. I did like the detail about her letting Issac touch her wings and I want to know more about her culture but that was what struck me in the first couple of chapters and my belief in the world faltered a little (I was really getting into the prologue description of the city too).

Anyway I'm going to a talk by him in a few weeks (which is why I finally picked up one of his books) so I'd be interested in seeing what he has to say.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

That should be fun!


Female kephri are fairly easy to visualise, if rather improbable - picture a female human with a scarab beetle for a head. Ooer.

 

[Estelthea]

It's the improbable bit the gets me and I can't help asking 'why?' like a little child. I can see the themes he wanted to include and why he would create half human characters, I just wonder what attracted him to beetles?

Although it's no more weird than a centaur or mermaid really I've never really gone for those kind of creatures, I tend to prefer - and find it easier to accocite with - characters who are either humanoid or things far removed from the usual two arms two legs model, If she was all bug then somehow that would make more sense in my head!

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

I understand your qualms, although I will say I find it puzzling the number of fantasy readers - people obviously primed for the improbable - who throw their hands up and find Mieville's creatures just too weird. I'd think that's what we'd want! I believe he had images of Egyptian scarab bettle symbols in mind and simply tacked them on to a human body for fun, btw.

 

[rune]

It's one of the reasons I like this author's books because he creates unusual creatures. I like the traditional creatures too mind, some more than others.

But trying to get your imagination around the creatures Mieville creates is a treat

 

[Estelthea]

I've read a bit more and I'm really getting into the story. It was a bit odd at first because I was not expecting the creatures and I don't often encounter creatures like these in stories. I think I'll stop worrying about their physical charcteristics because their thoughts and actions are so interesting!

 

[rune]

I think that's what makes Mieville's books so fascinating. The fact he can bring unusual creatures to life and make them feel real.

 

[Estelthea]

Still reading Perdido Street Station and I now have a lovely signed set of all his other books (and a big crush!) after meeting him in person and listening to him talk about various things. Personally I really enjoy his very descriptive style and the way he uses language and, even though I'm not yet half way through the story, I'd say he was my favourite living author - bugs and all!

I'll come up with a little review later of the talk, when I can remember what they were talking about.

 

[rune]

Still reading Perdido Street Station and I now have a lovely signed set of all his other books (and a big crush!) after meeting him in person and listening to him talk about various things. Personally I really enjoy his very descriptive style and the way he uses language and, even though I'm not yet half way through the story, I'd say he was my favourite living author - bugs and all!

I'll come up with a little review later of the talk, when I can remember what they were talking about.

I'm envious I would like to meet my favourite authors I can imagine Mieville is an interesting guy to meet. I've often wondered though, is China Mieville his real name?

 

[Estelthea]

I just happen to live in the right place and work for the right people, we have literary festivals every year and some large book shops where writers like to stop by to do book signings.

He's a very interesting guy, he looks a bit scary but comes over as very charming and friendly and he really knows his stuff - he even coped well with the odd crazy question from the audience! Which must be hard to do. I don't know abotut he name but I was talking with my sister about him and looking through the dedication lists in his books and none of the people really sound real

 

[rune]

There are never any book signing events were I live. Probably because it takes to long to get to my town once you leave the motorway
We dont even have a decent bookshop in my town, I tend to order on line.

It's nice to hear though that he was pleasant. Not all authors are approachable, which is a shame really as I'm sure a lot of fans would love to ask questions about their works.

Did he give away any ideas of what he'll be writing next?

 

[Estelthea]

He was talking about SF generally (accompanied by brian Aldiss and Rob Grant) rather than his own books. He has apparantly written an introduction for a H G Wells story because they are reissuing some of his books with comments from modern writers. Now I can't remember the title exactly, I've not read much Wells other than The Time Machine and I'm at work and can't look it up in my lovely SF encyclopedia, but it was something like The First Men on the Moon. He read an extract and as well as being very nice to look at he also has a lovely reading voice! Has he read his books on CD/tape, if not he should do?

He also talked about Frankenstein and had a little debate with Brian Aldiss about wheather it was about social issues (the monster turns bad because he was rejected) or scientific ones (the monster is unnatural and therefore bad). It was quite nice to have a bit of an argument going and I generally agreed with what CM said - thankfully I took a module in SF at university and some of the same things came up so I nodded and smiled in all the right places!