"
Perdido Street Station" (2000) is the second published
novel by
British author China Miéville. The
novel is completely
sui generis: it defies
categorization, containing elements of
urban fantasy,
science fiction,
steampunk,
horror and
slipstream, to name just a few. While this may sound
messy, it is also an utterly
brilliant piece of
literature.
The
novel is set in the
fictional city of
New Crobuzon, an
ancient and
sprawling metropolis which Miéville describes in vivid and loving detail.
New Crobuzon is an
architectural nightmare of good and bad neighborhoods, human and non-human residents, politics, public transportation, militia, ... Much like in the
Gormenghast novels by
Mervyn Peake, the
squalid setting is an integral part of the story.
The
plot of the
novel is hard to summarize, but to give you an idea of some of the threads:
Scientist Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is contacted by a
garuda (a half-bird, half-man
species) who has lost his wings and wants to re-gain the power of
flight. While researching this, Isaac obtains a mysterious
caterpillar which evolves into a
dangerous predator that feeds on the dreams and thoughts of other sentient races. Isaac has a
forbidden inter-species relationship with a
khepri (a bug-like alien). One of the first scenes in the novel is a
love scene between the
khepri and Isaac, which is one of the only literary scenes that has ever given me
nightmares. The
khepri, Lin, is a
spit artist: she can
ingest a certain
substance mixed with coloured berries, and
exude it through a special
gland to create statues. She is commissioned by a
crime boss to create a likeness of him. There are many other plot threads and characters, some of which are only briefly touched upon in the course of the
novel.
It is hard to compare "
Perdido Street Station" to anything else out there. I've read several hundred
science fiction and
fantasy novels - this is by far the hardest one to classify. It's also one of the best I've read in years, and highly recommended.
In 2002, the author published "
The Scar", set in the same world as "
Perdido Street Station".