Perdido Street Station (Paperback)

Mieville is a true polymath, with an ingenious imagination and a formidable vocabulary. He seems able to write with authority on most subjects and weaves technical language and metaphors in to his work with ease. However, one of the greatest joys of this novel is its accessibility; the author uses his obvious intelligence to entertain rather than to impress. The result is an engaging, exciting and highly enjoyable read.

However, a valid criticism of this book is that it is overwritten. This becomes a serious nuisance towards the end of the book, when the highly descriptive prose slows down the plot instead of allowing the pace to pick up as the finale approaches. This loss of momentum caused me to lose interest at what should have been a critical point in the book.

Although this is a great novel, it is certainly not the best that this author can produce. The follow-up, set in the same world, is a far more accomplished novel and if you like 'Perdido Street Station' you will love 'The Scar'.

The description is excellent, providing vivid images of a decadent and squalor-ridden alien city that is just close enough to those of our world to be familiar. The feel is always futuristic and ancient- the steam technology always feels like an echo of something far more advanced that has long been lost. In some ways this is a drawback: almost all we ever see of the city is squalor and grime, to the extent where it feels that even the upper eschelons of New Crobuzon eschew the use of cleaners and maintenance staff. This is only a tiny quibble though. A superb touch is the occasional lack of detail one is given, which counters the occasional over description well: sometimes creatures are merely named and the reader left to dream up what that something is. The effect is that the city always feels yet more alive and just beyond the periphery of the reader's vision.

The plot is very simple (unknown monster terrorizes city), but is presented in a complex way: a number of lives and incidents converge on the central plot. The rationalization behind all of this is tremendous and the magnificent amount of imagination that has been bestowed on Mieville's creation is wonderful: every facet of the city lives and breathes, often in more ways than one. The downside to this is that there is a bit of a kitchen-sink feeling to the book: insect-people (check), cactus people (check), vivisection victims (check), genetic aberrations (check), steam-punk cyborgs (check), multidimensional horrors (check)- and all in the first few sections of the book, the list goes on beyond this! That said this does make for a wonderfully cosmopolitan world, and a good dose of character and colour that is sorely lacking from 99% of fantasy writing available these days.

Much has been made of the extensive vocabulary used: but this is surely a good thing? Generally where unusual vocabulary has been used it is used to create an atmosphere and effect.
Thankfully this book cannot be pigeon-holed: it truly is a work of real fantasy and proves that fantasy can be made to deal with any number of parallels and real-world issues (dominance of technology, distribution of wealth and economics, racial discrimination, social discrimination- all can be found in the book in one form or another).

The book is a little clumsy from time to time, featuring wasted sections and, ironically, a little too much creativity that does not always gel, but overall is a truly refreshing experience when the bulk of fantasy novels are pale imitations of each other mimicing Tolkien in one form or another. A superb read, though, well worth the money and a prime example that real fantasy is still alive and kicking: recommended to anybody but particularly those who have enjoyed Michael Moorcock's fiction, M. John Harrison's `Viriconium' series and Mervyn Peake's writing too. Perdido Street Station isn't the same or similar to any of those except it carries a wonderfully ornate and alien feel to it. What it does share is that it is rarely a jolly book, but is always an interesting and enjoyable, imaginitive read.

Admittedly Perdido Street Station attempts little more than to tell an exciting adventure story, and there's no real thematic depth to the novel at all, but it's such a vivid adventure that despite its length you'll be genuinely sad when the novel ends and you have to leave New Crobuzon behind. If you like intelligent fantasy, science fiction or horror, you should love this novel.