Perdido Street Station is a slow burn, so slow in fact that people would find it really boring. China Miéville has spent a lot of time thinking about the world of New Crobuzon in great detail and then goes on to explain every aspect of it. While it does get rather technical and scientific, Miéville’s writing style was enjoyable enough to keep me going (a lesser writer I would have quit 300 pages in). The stunning settings of the seedy New Crobuzon, along with the well-crafted writing was the saving grace of this book.

New Crobuzon is a beautiful city, mixing many elements of Steampunk and Fantasy to create the authors very own version of London. After reading China Miéville’s book The City and The City, I knew that this author did define the weird genre; his imagination of the interlocking cities was so complex it was hard to keep up with it all. Then I came to Perdido Street Station and not only was the city overly thought out, all the creatures and the science behind it all was. I’m not sure how this author does it and I don’t think I would ever want to spend a day in the brain of China Miéville.

The Characters are so flawed, it was actually a joy to learn more about them and everytime they try to ‘do-the-right-thing’ you just know that they don’t know the bigger picture and the consequences of their own actions. The social aspects of this world thought out too, in fact I think the author knows more about the scientific, social and political aspects of New Crobuzon than he does of England and the world.

The two major plots within this book played out rather well and I think if I enjoyed Fantasy novels more that I actually do, I might have enjoyed Perdido Street Station a lot more. For me this book could have used a good editor to thin it out without losing all the proses that Miéville expertly uses. The 880 page paperback was really uncomfortable to read, I think I will stick to an e-reader for the next big book I tackle.