Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Jul 04, 2011 hh rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, reread, sff, 2011

what to say about Perdido Street Station... i reread this after having the opportunity to see China Mieville read from his new book Embassytown. he mostly chatted, which was incredibly entertaining. i couldn't stop raving about him for a while; and since a few friends were reading this for the first time, it seemed i should pick it back up.

i've had more graduate-level training than i'd had the first time i read this, and it made for a wholly different encounter with the novel. one of my research ...more

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Sep 13, 2009 Leon rated it really liked it

Pretty good. The story is fair, but Mieville manages to imagine a whole world, full of magic, complex but sensible, all believable.

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Oct 05, 2010 Carl rated it really liked it

Gosh, can't believe I hadn't reviewed this yet- we finished this several months ago for my sci-fi group. The general consensus was that it was ambitious and interesting, but awkward in the way it switched from a meditation of the simultaneous beauty and horror of the City to a supernatural thriller. Well, I think the whole book can still be taken together to communicate a sense of the complicity of ALL of the populace in this beauty/horror, but I can understand people's disappointment. Still, I ...more

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Oct 28, 2011 Joey Manley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

My brain felt like it was 14 again, by which I mean I haven't, since then, until now, felt as alive and open to a work of fiction.

Two flaws:

It took a while to get going.

Some of the loose ends were wrapped up too quickly and predictably at the end (for example: the mysterious stranger appeared exactly one paragraph after I thought to myself, 'ah, it's time for the mysterious stranger to appear and reveal who he/she is').

So not perfect, no. Still the best book I've read in years. ...more

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Jul 07, 2008 J.M. Brister rated it liked it

Shelves: 2008

Mieville's a master of creating dark and fascinating settings. The world he creates is intricate, yet terrifying, and it was not what I had expected when picking up this book. This was much different from the usual Sci Fi/Fantasy that I read. However, I think that along with creating such an intricate setting, the author runs the risk of writing a novel that is a bit too long with a bit too much details. Mieville was dabbling with that a little... ...more

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Jul 23, 2008 Sarah Sammis rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2004, scifi

The book reads like an exquisite corpse written by James Joyce, Philip K. Dick, Philip José Farmer and Lovecraft. At 880 pages, it takes its time to unfurl the story, block by grimey block.

I'm thoroughly enjoying the book but it's taking a long time to read. Regardless of where I am in the book, I will mail it a week from tomorrow. Apologies for keeping it so long. ...more

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Sep 17, 2012 Peter rated it really liked it

Shelves: sciencefiction

Interesting combination of (semi) hard sci-fi and steam-punk. Plenty here to keep you thinking (about what constitutes sentience, forms of government, etc..) as well as a propulsive plot. I'm looking forward to the next book! ...more

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