Perdido Street Station

[Dave]

I'd say I'm enjoying PSS, but not loving it. It's great fantasy, but far from a page turner. Maybe when I get to the end I'll have a different perspective on it.

I'm now about 500 pages in and will certainly finish it. It began to pick up for me once the dreamshit was fed to the grub and now I am wanting to know what's coming next. The concealed references to ancient weapons technologies, government conspiracies and other planes of existence have gripped me. I'll read the whole of this thread once I finish and then add my comments, but I see why people like it so much now. He does tend to use 5 pages where one paragraph might suffice though.

 

[GOLLUM]

I'm now about 500 pages in and will certainly finish it. It began to pick up for me once the dreamshit was fed to the grub and now I am wanting to know what's coming next. The concealed references to ancient weapons technologies, government conspiracies and other planes of existence have gripped me. I'll read the whole of this thread once I finish and then add my comments, but I see why people like it so much now. He does tend to use 5 pages where one paragraph might suffice though.

True but given the fact he is something of a master of his art I`m wiling to forgive him for this, besides I`m a description junkie...

 

[Ursa major]

I read PSS a few years ago, followed by The Scar and Iron Council. I liked all three, but had trouble empathising with the Scar's characters. The world of Bas Lag, especially New Crobuzon, is so richly invoked; thank heaven's I haven't started to smell it, though!

One thing: Mieville has created a world where, I'd guess, most of us would understand the various opposition groups, if not empathise with all of their members. I wonder, is this his how Mieville sees our world, e.g. London? Is this why he has his particular political stance?

Anyway, back to my re-reading of PSS!

 

[Coolhand]

True but given the fact he is something of a master of his art I`m wiling to forgive him for this, besides I`m a description junkie...

I scribbled a review of PSS a while back, and came to the conclusion that his descriptive powers are both the blessing and the bane of his books. Sometime they dragged me so deep into the world that I started looking nervously over my shoulder for slake moths and weavers, and sometimes they irritated me so much that I swore blind his editor must have been asleep on the job.

I mean, the cable laying sequence? What the zarking fardwarks was THAT about?

One thing: Mieville has created a world where, I'd guess, most of us would understand the various opposition groups, if not empathise with all of their members. I wonder, is this his how Mieville sees our world, e.g. London? Is this why he has his particular political stance?

I think Mieville very much does see Bas Lag through the lense of his own politics, but it's a very very subtle thing. If I didn't know he was a Marxist I doubt I'd have picked up on it, but then I've only read PSS and The Scar. I hear it's more pronounced in IC, which is in my To be Read pile.

 

[Locksmith]

I mean, the cable laying sequence? What the zarking fardwarks was THAT about?

I read that bit yesterday and was just about to post on the very topic. Why did it need to go on for sooooo long. I don't envy the job of an editor dealing with a book of the size and complexity of PSS. But then, who knows, maybe the cable laying sequence was 50 pages long before the editor got started!

 

[Coolhand]

I read that bit yesterday and was just about to post on the very topic. Why did it need to go on for sooooo long.

It comes at a very badly timed point in the book as well. Up till then, events had been rapidly gathering pace, The heroes make the big decision to leap headfirst into the final confrontation and...
...suddenly we're getting a whole chapter devoted to the sediment under the streets of New Crobuzon.

Huge spanner in the drama, tension gone, reader wondering why any author would assume he'd actually care about the dirt under the streets at this point.

I don't seem to remember anything quite so bad in The Scar. Maybe he's got it under a little more control now.

I don't envy the job of an editor dealing with a book of the size and complexity of PSS. But then, who knows, maybe the cable laying sequence was 50 pages long before the editor got started!

Hee hee. I'd love to see the editors notes on this book. I do wonder how much stuff got cut out.
Still a great read though.

 

[Locksmith]

Well, finished PSS yesterday evening.

As I said before I enjoyed it, but didn't love it and the ending didn't suddenly pull it all round for me. I could well be alone in this, but I think the main reason why I never quite engaged with it was that the whole story seemed a little contrived. I know that by definition fiction is made up (I'm not that naive), but the whole set up from Isaac meeting Yag, to the hatching of the cocoon just seemed, well, as if China knew where he wanted to be halfway through the book and worked back. As a result, the story didn't have a natural flow to it.

As a work of speculative fiction, I enjoyed the speculative elements of it, but I think the fiction side of it let it down for me.

 

[Coolhand]

Try The Scar.

The Scar's a bit better on the story-front and has the ultra-cool Uther Doul in it. A lot of the problems in PSS are fixed to a degree in the Scar.

 

[Ursa major]

I've just finished rereading PSS, five years since I first read it. The book seemed far easier to read this time. I suppose that in the meantime (and having read Scar and IC) I find it easier to visualise this odd world, and its even odder inhabitants, without having to do so much of it consciously.

I have to agree about the cable-laying; it does go on and on. I suppose CM, who (I feel) likes everything to be just so, felt he had to describe this in detail, if only to stop us wondering how, in a city bulging with secret police, the cable could be installed in such a short time. I just wish he'd achieved it in fewer words/pages.

I'm in two minds about Jack's appearance. It's very deus ex machina, but then there was no real need for the situation he resolved to come about in the first place; CM must have had some other purpose in having him appear; I just wish I knew what it was. (It can't have just been to get him and Yag to meet, can it?)

I don't feel up to the Scar and IC jst at the moment. In the meantime, perhaps I should try King Rat....

 

[ravenus]

Hey yeah, King Rat's a much lighter book, more like a superhero graphic novel story, and much fun. One side-effect is the characters are drawn more superficially than in PSS and Scar. But it's a good fun and gory read.

 

[Dave]

I've finished it! Woo Hoo!

I actually thought there were quite a number of passages like the "cable-laying" one, where there were pages of detailed descriptions with no action, followed by a chapter in which the plot advances more in a few pages than in the last 100.

I like the "page-turning" kind of book, the ones that I can't put down because I really must find out what happens next. The fact that this sat in a pile on the edge of my bed for so long is evidence that it didn't do it for me. So I take onboard what you say about 'The Scar', but I won't be reading it very soon.

I don't have much more to add. Obviously some great ideas in the book - the Kephri insect creatures, the Cacti creatures, the Remades, the city of New Crobuzon itself, the crisis engine, the construct, the Weaver.

The suggestion that all of this was a result of some ancient weapons technology that went wrong in the distant past was interesting.

I read that after creating such a world, Mieville should have written more than a "bug-hunt", but that wasn't a problem for me.

I think they were rescued from impossible situations a few too many times by the Weaver for my liking.

Thanks for the answers Brys and j.d.
That's an interesting explanation about why Yagharek did what he did.

Only he still wasn't human, he could never be fully human, he could not break his beak or remove his clawed feet. So, I would have thought he would have taken up Jack Half-a-Prayer's offer. He had more in common with the Remades.

 

[Giovanna Clairval]

This book is the only China Mieville book I read and although I found it 'dark' I did find it compelling. My problem was that I found my self having to back track a few pages because I lost the plot speculating, I kept wondering where the bug people and Gaurudas came from (was it genetic experiments?), what creature did the giant Ribcage come from (a living space ship?) what was the source of the magic? All those side issues which the characters took for granted.

Hi, Crouching Dragon!
I feel the same. Although I'm enjoying this read a lot, and I love setting and writing, and see why this book wouldn't be what it is without the wealth of descriptions, and completely admire China's mastering of language... I also think the plot is too diluted. I keep going back to it because I am intrigued, but, at the same time, I just read ten pages a day, a chapter at most. There are F books like ASoIaF by GRR Martin that are absolute un-putdownable (albeit much less well written), but this one is not.

As much as I admire Miéville, I feel there's a bit of something at this novel---oh gosh, I wouldn't mean to say something too strong, so don't take it literally--- but... but... a feeling of it being a little "wanted", "searched for", a sort of exercise in style, as if the author wished to be considered a cultivated, playing-with-our-minds literary high-flying bestard (don't throw stones at me, I do admire him, I do).
When I say "high-playing", I'm not saying that his style is complicated or avanguardish in any way. It's rather simple writing, probably to let the setting stand out. It's the whole exercice that seems a little contrived.

And, btw, it's the only book by CM I've read, and --as someone in this thread put it--- it's probably not the best place to start with.

Oh, Perdido Street Station is still a great book, and maybe I'll revise my critique once I've finished it.

 

[GOLLUM]

Long Live PSS, for me it's his best work to date.

 

[speedingslug]

I love this book, the details were fantastic, the introduction of the alien races, the steampunk existence of the Bas-Lag populous. The power that exists on their world is great, but the ending was not what I expected and looking back it was the best ending he could give, pure genius.

 

[Snorri]

Just finished this last night. It was my second CM book, first being 'King Rat'.

It was very vivid, good colorful images.

I had a real problem though around page 300 ppbk, when action really started to rise. It seemed like various threads of plot were stepped away from for far too long (Isaac & Lin) and new characters were introduced willy nilly. (The merc gang etc.) And while scoring high on a 'cool' chart, didn't do enough for me since we spent so long being introduced to 'Saac and co.

Isaac wasn't much of a protagonist, he needed (and inexplicably received) a lot from other people.

The ending was alright, I'm glad there was a re-visitation / closure on the yag & lin story arcs, just think they could have come sooner, or maybe we could have seen more of them placed throughout the story.

 

[Tyrael]

Perdido Street Station is one of the finest fantasy novels, along with American Gods, that I have read as of late. A fierce originality and dark power accompanies everything within the novel.

Although, as a few poster above me have observed, the book was written by Mievelle as an exercise deconstructing the fantasy genre it still manages to maintain a genuine feel. Loved it.

 

[GOLLUM]

Perdido Street Station is one of the finest fantasy novels, along with American Gods, that I have read as of late. A fierce originality and dark power accompanies everything within the novel.

Although, as a few poster above me have observed, the book was written by Mievelle as an exercise deconstructing the fantasy genre it still manages to maintain a genuine feel. Loved it.

In that case you should try The Scar (currently rereading) and Iron Council.

 

[ravenus]

I wouldn't read PSS as a genre-deconstructing academic exercise. The story and characters are all too well-etched and integrated for that. Yes, he deliberately avoided cliches and ponceness and brought an awesomely gritty and immersive feel.

The Scar's a great book too, a real monster of a story. Iron Council, I thought was pretty ho-hum in parts and not up to the mark of the predecessors, but it's still good and I personally love steam trains...very cinematic

 

[Waziwig]

Well, I read this one and I'm sold. Very cleverly done! Ive read up on him now, as I do on most other authors I like, and God, he's clever. It seems to happen a lot for me, (like R.Scott Bakker and Steven Erikson). Gonna have to look up The New Weird!

You can see his Lovecraft influence in the monsters, in the glee in which he describes the Slake Moths, and that throwaway comment by the Mayor about needing new eyes. Its a fantasy, with trains, rifles and robots, (like David Zindel's Neverness, but he puts in space travel as well), in which he builds the archetypal Hero's party so well that you don't notice until there working together.

Loved it!

 

[GOLLUM]

If you like him Waziwig, you'll also want to try Vandermeer, Steph Swainston, K.J. Bishop, M. John Harrison and Michael Swanwick to name but a few.....