Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
There are certain writers who astound me with their imagination. Their books are simply so far out of my universe — even my imaginary universe — that my jaw metaphorically drops as I read them. China Mieville is such an author.
Perdido Street Station is, more or less, a work of sci-fi/fantasy. The characters are detailed and fascinating, but it is the setting that enthralled me most. Mieville’s New Crobuzon is like nothing else in fiction, a strange, old metropolis of many layers. A map is included, detailing the neighborhoods, rail lines, and rivers. Each quarter of the city is lushly described, from the affluent suburbs to the (far more common) semi-slums where the oppressed masses live. The writing is so equisitely vivid that I felt dirty just reading the descriptions of the decaying brick ghettoes and polluted rivers. In this city dwell inhabitants of many races in an uneasy truce, including humans, giant bird people, a hybrid insect-human race, even a community of sentient cacti. All are governed by a corrupt parliament which maintains power through paramilitary force. Dissent is ruthlessly supressed; one of the heros is in fact the editor of an underground newspaper.
There is a crisis, of course. Something goes wrong with the system, a horrible power is unleashed, only an unwitting few can save the city– a typical fantasy plotline, it is true. What makes this story different is the insight it brings to bear as the characters struggle with dilemmas both private and public. Mieville touches on computer science, magic, eugenics, drugs. He has things to say about politics, he has things to say about art, he has things to say about science. He has things to say.
Highly recommended.
