For starters, "Perdido Street Station" is the first installment of China Mieville's sci-fi/fantasy/steam-punk trilogy set in the world of Bas-Lag. Got that? No? Let's back up a hair and define steam-punk. From what I gather, steam-punk is an artistic motif (not really limited to the literary world) characterized by anachronistic Victorian style, the incongruous and inexplicable dominance of analogue mechanics and steam power, and the existence of fantastic, quasi-magical technologies that tend to empower rebellion. To this already effervescent mix, Mieville adds traditional fantasy elements, an inventive array of sentient beings, compelling story-telling, cultural critique, wacky imagery, dystopian aesthetics, and a powerful depiction of the horrific and imaginative setting: the city of New Crobuzon in the world of Bas-Lag.
What I like about this book is what, I think, a lot of people don't understand about the fantasy/sci-fi genre. This other-world of literature has so much to offer. It (and by the vague pronoun "it" I mean both this particular book and the genre "it" represents) is refreshingly unique, it incorporates so much from the gamut of human experience, it can be extremely compelling reading (like when you start to not do other things in your life so you have more time to read your book), and it is a literary art-form with loving, dedicated artists working in virtual obscurity for a small but equally loving audience. Done right, sci-fi/fantasy can be really high value literature. "Perdido Street Station", though bizarre and off-center, offers the reader a feast of humanity. And though, put that way, it sounds really disgusting, that's what literature should do. It should communicate humanity. What's doubly incredible and why I find it so inventive is that the story, characters, and setting are so distant from all reality while still pertaining to our real world!!
I don't think it would be too valuable to try to synopsize the plot for you here, but let's just say it involves an outcast flightless bird-man creature attempting to recapture flight after having his winds sawed off, a pseudo-scientist with a taboo inter-species sexual orientation working on a "crisis energy engine", a group of unimaginably horrific, dream-sucking, mesmerizing moths terrorizing the city, a mob boss/drug kingpin constructed from multifarious animal grafts, and an inter-dimensional spider-being who maintains the World Web. The plot is complicated and meandering enough that to get it, you would just have to read it. Read it.
I think my favorite part of this book, though, is the rendering of the setting: New Crobuzon. Like a dark, futuristic, bastard version of New York, this sprawling, dirty, dark, towering, convoluted, corrupt, and diverse world capitol just comes alive under Mieville's direction. It was so well constructed in the book, I felt like I lived in this other-worldly locale. Really cool.
If I had to have one complaint about the book, it would be that the story kind of floundered for a bit there in the middle section, and that the book was a bit longer than it needed to be (at 622 pages). I was happy to deal with these minor issues, though.
As I said earlier, this book is simply the first novel in a trilogy. The ending of this book threw me for a twist, and it left the story really well poised to continue. Pretty much all of the main characters survive and move on in unexpected directions.
In conclusion, I look forward to reading the next two books, "Iron Council" and "The Scar". China Mieville also has a new book out, "The City and The City", which I will also read. So much to do...
And, as I like to do at this point, I will offer you one excerpt from the book. A quote, if you will. This particular one does not represent the story, nor does it have any universal appeal. I just like the way it sounds, and I believe it offers a feel for the book as a whole. From page 199:
"A slow kaleidoscope of mutation and violence, petty wars fought between unfathomable monstrosities over no-man's-lands of shifting slag and nightmare architecture."
PS Allow me to thank my friend Owen from Ireland for the rad suggestion.
No comments:
Post a Comment