Book Review: Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

[kilroy]

Finally, a book that was actually good. I weep tears of joy.

Perdido is set in a city called New Crobuzon, and said city is as much of a character as any of the sentients in the book. NC isn't merely dark, it's rotten. Pustulent. It drips and stains. And yet it's also magnificent in its macabre way, dizzying in its composted variety, vibrantly alive beneath the smog and the garbage. It's a kind of city that you can love and loathe at the same time, gritty and fantastic.

The characters belong in that city. They can't quite be heroes, because heroes cannot truly exist there; but they can try to be. Mieville is deft with his population, able to make you interested in characters in a paragraph and care about them even though you don't like them. There are no unnecessary parts, and each is given just the right amount of space to fly. They interact with their world and each other in ways that ring true, grounding the often truly weird details of the world into something you can believe in.

The book pulls you into its universe and doesn't let go. By the time the plot really starts moving you're already hooked-- after that it's only a matter of how quickly you turn the pages. Along the way there's tragedy and love, horror and adventure-- the process is transformative both for the characters and the reader, right up through the last page. The ending isn't simple or pretty but it fits the story down to the bone.

You will be swear at this book and you will be confused by it, be disgusted and aroused and frightened reading it. I cannot recommend it enough.



Print date: 2000 (60s: 1, 80s: 1, 00s: 2)
Page count: 710 (2206 total)

Verdict: Keep and lend to as many people as possible.

Next book due: The Charwoman's Shadow by Lord Dunsany, 3/1/10