PERDIDO STREET STATION
New Crobuzon, Vol. 1BY CHINA MIÉVILLE | PUBLICATION: APRIL 1, 2000
MACMILLAN | GENRE: SCIENCE FICTION
RATING: ★★★★
"Complex but unforgettable."
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The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the centre of its own bewildering world. Humans and mutants linger in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the rivers are sluggish with unnatural effluent, and factories and foundries pound into the night. For more than a thousand years, the parliament and its brutal militia have ruled over a vast array of workers and artists, spies, magicians, junkies and whores. Now a stranger has come, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand, and inadvertently something unthinkable is released. Soon the city is gripped by an alien terror – and the fate of millions depends on a clutch of outcasts on the run from lawmakers and crime-lords alike.
The urban nightscape becomes a hunting ground as battles rage in the shadows of bizarre buildings. And a reckoning is due at the city's heart, in the vast edifice of Perdido Street Station. It is too late to escape.
The urban nightscape becomes a hunting ground as battles rage in the shadows of bizarre buildings. And a reckoning is due at the city's heart, in the vast edifice of Perdido Street Station. It is too late to escape.
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The other two China Miéville books I’d read before this were Un Lun Dun and The City & the City. Apparently, two was enough to make me a fan — enough that I agreed to buddy read this mammoth of a novel last February.
PERDIDO STREET STATION is yet another testament to Miéville’s brilliance. His worldbuilding is cerebral and overwhelming in the best way. The squalid city of New Crobuzon blends classical steampunk aesthetics with unsettlingly advanced technology. The sheer range of inventions and sentient beings is astonishing; some creations stretch so far beyond the familiar that they feel almost impossible to imagine. Violence and corruption permeate everything, making the novel a perfect vessel for Miéville’s political and social commentary.
The story begins with Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, an impoverished scientist waiting for his next breakthrough to be recognized. He is approached in secret by Yagharek, a garuda who has been punished for a shameful crime—his wings amputated by his own people. Yagharek asks Isaac to restore his ability to fly by any means necessary, offering gold in return. Isaac accepts, abandoning his other work to immerse himself in the mechanics of avian flight.
From there, the plot expands—wildly. Tangents multiply, new threads emerge, and the original premise drifts into the background. This is a dense, circuitous narrative, one that occasionally wanders into corners that seem irrelevant… until they suddenly aren’t. Miéville rewards patience.
Every intention, interaction, motivation, every colour,
every body, every action and reaction, every piece of physical reality
and the thoughts that it engendered… every possible thing ever
is woven into that limitless, sprawling web.
It is without beginning or end.
It is complex to a degree that humbles the mind.
It is a work of such beauty that my soul wept.
Miéville’s books linger. They pose questions that demand reflection long after the final page. From the beginning, through every twist and detour, I held onto the hope of seeing Yagharek fly again… but that hope was denied. Miéville confronts the reader with a moral dilemma rooted in Yagharek’s past crime, and I can’t recall how many silent f*** yous I hurled at Isaac after his decision. I was not pleased, and it took time to make peace with the ending.
But disagreement with an author doesn’t diminish their greatness.
PERDIDO STREET STATION is a complex, often shocking, frequently gruesome novel — but it is undeniably fascinating. Its uniqueness is handled with exceptional skill.
PERDIDO STREET STATION is yet another testament to Miéville’s brilliance. His worldbuilding is cerebral and overwhelming in the best way. The squalid city of New Crobuzon blends classical steampunk aesthetics with unsettlingly advanced technology. The sheer range of inventions and sentient beings is astonishing; some creations stretch so far beyond the familiar that they feel almost impossible to imagine. Violence and corruption permeate everything, making the novel a perfect vessel for Miéville’s political and social commentary.
The story begins with Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, an impoverished scientist waiting for his next breakthrough to be recognized. He is approached in secret by Yagharek, a garuda who has been punished for a shameful crime—his wings amputated by his own people. Yagharek asks Isaac to restore his ability to fly by any means necessary, offering gold in return. Isaac accepts, abandoning his other work to immerse himself in the mechanics of avian flight.
From there, the plot expands—wildly. Tangents multiply, new threads emerge, and the original premise drifts into the background. This is a dense, circuitous narrative, one that occasionally wanders into corners that seem irrelevant… until they suddenly aren’t. Miéville rewards patience.
every body, every action and reaction, every piece of physical reality
and the thoughts that it engendered… every possible thing ever
is woven into that limitless, sprawling web.
It is without beginning or end.
It is complex to a degree that humbles the mind.
It is a work of such beauty that my soul wept.
Miéville’s books linger. They pose questions that demand reflection long after the final page. From the beginning, through every twist and detour, I held onto the hope of seeing Yagharek fly again… but that hope was denied. Miéville confronts the reader with a moral dilemma rooted in Yagharek’s past crime, and I can’t recall how many silent f*** yous I hurled at Isaac after his decision. I was not pleased, and it took time to make peace with the ending.
But disagreement with an author doesn’t diminish their greatness.
PERDIDO STREET STATION is a complex, often shocking, frequently gruesome novel — but it is undeniably fascinating. Its uniqueness is handled with exceptional skill.
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About the Author:
China Miéville is a Sunday Times bestselling author of fiction and non-fiction. His novels include The City & The City, Embassytown, Perdido Street Station and The Rouse. A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction, he has won the World Fantasy, the Hugo, and the Arthur C. Clarke awards, among others. His non-fiction includes a study of international law and a history of the Russian Revolution.
China Miéville is a Sunday Times bestselling author of fiction and non-fiction. His novels include The City & The City, Embassytown, Perdido Street Station and The Rouse. A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction, he has won the World Fantasy, the Hugo, and the Arthur C. Clarke awards, among others. His non-fiction includes a study of international law and a history of the Russian Revolution.
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