I will tell you today about a book that forced me beyond my boundaries. I am not very into fantastic worlds, but when I read about them, I tend to be very picky. The only titles from this genre that I truly enjoyed were Harry Potter and A Song of Ice and Fire. I don’t even know why I bought “Perdido Street Station”, but I am glad that I did.
About Perdido Street Station
China Mieville’s novel is a mix between fantasy and steampunk and as I researched after reading it, it is the first book set in the fictional world Bas-Lag.
The main character is the scientist Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin. He is secretly dating an artist, Lin, who is a Khepri (a species that has a human body and an insect head).
One day, Isaac receives a visit from Yagharek, a Garuda (a birdlike species), who needs assistance to fly again because he had his wings removed as punishment. Trying to find a cure for his new employer, Isaac manages to release some really bad creatures (Slakemoths) and this puts every living creature at risk because the moths feed on dreams, leaving the bodies in a catatonic state.
On a different plan, Lin is hired by a mob boss, Mr. Motley, to make his sculpture.
In the end, you will learn how the stories are all connected and how the terrors unleashed in Perdido Street Station are so nasty that even the Ambassador of Hell is afraid to intervene.
Badger’s thoughts on Perdido Street Station
I must confess that I did like China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station. It was intriguing and well written. It has nice characters and an interesting way of putting them together.
The only thing I didn’t dig (but maybe because I am a noobie of the genre), I couldn’t really imagine how the species looked like. However, every time one new species appeared, I Google searched it and solved the issue.
So is “Perdido Street Station” for everybody? Of course not, but that doesn’t mean that people who are not very big into fantasy wouldn’t appreciate it. I know I did
