I read _Perdido_ recently and was very disappointed. It has a lot in common with Mary Gentle's _Rats and Gargoyles_ in terms of setting and out-of-control plot, but little of R&G's occasional charm. Another strong influence is the Titus trilogy of Peake, a much harder but much more rewarding read. - Philip On Mon, 24 Feb 2003, Andrew Lias wrote: > I just finished reading a novel titled _Perdido Street Station_ by China > Mieville and thought that it may be of interest to some of you. > > It's one of those novels that hard to catagorize by genre. It is most > similar, IMO, to Michael Swanwick's _The Iron Dragon's Daughter_ in that it > is set it a world that combines aspects of fantasy and gritty industrial > technology, although it has a heavy steampunk flavor as well (e.g., > Babbage-like computing machines). > > This is China Mieville's second book and it has some of the rough edges that > one would associate with a new author. Among its basic faults, there are a > few points where the book descends into thaumaturgic techno-babble, there > are points where the descriptive flavor gets away from him, and there is one > sequence where a specific person, who has barely even been mentioned, shows > up and saves the day. That said, it is an immensely inventive and > captivating story. > > Mieville clearly has the soul of a poet. His use of prose is beautiful even > when dealing with things that are utterly stark and ugly. Likewise, he has > a keen sense of characterization that must be admired. > > Since much of the delight of the book is in discovering the story, I don't > want to give too much of the actual plot away. I will say that it starts > (more or less) with a meeting between a renegade scientist (Isaac) and a > Garuda (a type of bird-man) who has has his wings cut off for a violation of > his tribes codes of conduct. The Garuda wants Isaac to restore his ability > to fly. > > >From there the story developes along a number of tangents eventually leading > to events and consequences which are quite horrific. > > Be warned that this is a brutal story. Mieville is not an author who is > afraid of treating his protagoists poorly. In fact, if there is a moral to > the story, I think that it would be that one must honor their > responsibilities and attempt to do good to the best of their ability, but > that one should not expect that the universe, or anyone else, will reward > one for doing so. > > At any rate, it is rare to find such a promising author so early in his > career. I would definitely advise taking a look. > > _________________________________________________________________ > MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus > >