Perdido Street Station

[Null_Zone]

I think that might be a little harsh NZ but you are probably right that the book needed a little firmer editing (I gather his later books are a bit tighter). I just didn't find a problem with that myself, which is a little surprising as that is normally something I do have a problem with!

It probably is a bit harsh, I just felt some of the ideas would be better explored in other books allowing some of the others to be fleshed out in greater detail.

 

[digs]

The book's definitely a travelogue. I liked the plot, but I think it's basically there as a vehicle for Mieville to explore his crazy imagination. And I don't mean that as criticism - I loved going along for the ride.

 

[Ursa major]

That's definitely a major aspect of the book, digs. And like you, I'm glad it is.

 

[Vertigo]

I think it is interesting that technically you could probably argue that there are many things wrong with the book, and yet many people like myself, that would normally be irritated by such things, didn't find a problem with them. Though clearly others did . I just found the style of writing and description so enjoyable that I didn't mind the somtimes meandering nature of the story. As Digs said I just enjoyed going along for the ride! I even enjoyed the drawn out description of the laying of the cable towards the end, that I know irritated others. I found it gave a great sense of the calm before the storm.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Sometimes, a travelogue is enough. You could argue that LOTR is a travelogue; still great though. And PSS is just amazing...

 

[J-WO]

Theres that bit with the Vodyanoi lady swimming out of New Crobuzon- absolutely zero plot advancement for nearly three pages but a fantastic insight into the city's unseen, aquatic side.

 

[GOLLUM]

Theres that bit with the Vodyanoi lady swimming out of New Crobuzon- absolutely zero plot advancement for nearly three pages but a fantastic insight into the city's unseen, aquatic side.

I'm a bit of a description junky when it's well done, so PSS is a treat for my senses...

Description can also help build plot as well as advance it in unseen ways that only comes to fruition later in a story. It can also add further credibility to a plot, that is provide a story with more substance.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Hear hear. I got a bit of flak for the travelogue style of Muezzinland, but most of that was relevant, as the instances were folk tales made real by the "cyberspace" of the novel. I still maintain that even no-plot-advancement is fine, as long as it's short, because it paints pictures inside the reader's mind and it's so important to do that...

 

[Vertigo]

I think you can have both, it's a bit like music really. You can have some pieces (eg Mozart, Beethoven etc) the have a really strong melodies that you can hum/whistle along to, and then other peices (eg. Haydn, Glass etc) that are all atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Mozart doesn't do atmosphere it's just that he has very strong melodies (plots) whereas others are stronger on atmosphere (description). Both approaches work and both give the listener/reader different things.

 

[itstito]

Perdido Street Station, the more I think about it now, was disappointing. And I'm not just talking about his tendency to repeat words like pugnacious, ostentatious etc. or the pages upon pages of 'worldbuilding'. While Isaac started out interestingly enough, all of it soon disintegrated into predictability. The latter half of the book was almost painful to read through at times, because you could tell how the ideas being flung across at breakneck speed rarely served a purpose apart from sounding clever. Lin never got anywhere. Motley....what happened to Motley?! He had so much potential as a villain. And as for the slake moths, I didn't find the mind-sucking concept terribly original. Nevertheless, these are personal gripes. A vast number of people have praised this book to no end, and I was one of them too once. But when all is said and done, Perdido Street Station felt too strained. Like the author was trying too hard to sound different, and to show off his vocabulary. Its a pity, because Mieville has some truly brilliant ideas. His writing inevitably puts me off, as it did in The City and the City, and Kraken. I find myself coming back again and again to his novels because of the ideas primarily, and its always heartening to see someone trying to be original. But the man writes too much, and is way too pretentious at times.

 

[galhaere]

And I'm not just talking about his tendency to repeat words like pugnacious, ostentatious etc. or the pages upon pages of 'worldbuilding'.

That made me chuckle. It's good to see that I am not the only one noticing that . I loved the scar (it was my first china book) so looked very much forward to reading his major first one. But I had trouble getting through all those overly used 'big' words and couldnt finish it.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The thing with China is to let the words wash over you like a wave.

The only bit I didn't care for was the nicked-from-manga-and-anime rubbish pile near the end of the book.

 

[Magnus85]

Perdido Street Station, the more I think about it now, was disappointing. And I'm not just talking about his tendency to repeat words like pugnacious, ostentatious etc. or the pages upon pages of 'worldbuilding'. While Isaac started out interestingly enough, all of it soon disintegrated into predictability. The latter half of the book was almost painful to read through at times, because you could tell how the ideas being flung across at breakneck speed rarely served a purpose apart from sounding clever. Lin never got anywhere. Motley....what happened to Motley?! He had so much potential as a villain. And as for the slake moths, I didn't find the mind-sucking concept terribly original. Nevertheless, these are personal gripes. A vast number of people have praised this book to no end, and I was one of them too once. But when all is said and done, Perdido Street Station felt too strained. Like the author was trying too hard to sound different, and to show off his vocabulary. Its a pity, because Mieville has some truly brilliant ideas. His writing inevitably puts me off, as it did in The City and the City, and Kraken. I find myself coming back again and again to his novels because of the ideas primarily, and its always heartening to see someone trying to be original. But the man writes too much, and is way too pretentious at times.

Having read China's The City..., Kraken and Embassytown, I had high hopes for PSS. But I feel pretty much the same as you, especially when it came to conjouring up ideas and concepts and characters, but never really using them in any coherent way. They all felt tacked on for cool effect, rather than to tap into the core of the story and its themes (which I'm quite at a loss with, too).

The only interesting character for me was Yagharek, and the book shone when China allowed Yagharek to voice his thoughts. The relationship between Isaac and Lin was nicely begun, and the ending would have been really strong if I'd actually cared about our protagonist and the khepri. But that emotional connection was severed with all the repetitious description and insanely slow plot.

Too bad, because I really like China's The City & The City and thought Embassytown was intriguing. Kraken suffered from the same symptoms as PSS, but was at least funny in some crazy way. So, I don't think I'll be picking up any of the Bas-Lag books for quite some time, I'm afraid.