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Fantas
Fictio
Science Fictio
HTML:WINNER OF THE AUGUST DERLETH AND ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARDS ? A masterpiece brimming with scientific splendor, magical intrigue, and fierce characters, from the author who ??has reshaped modern fantasy? (The Washington Post)
??[China Miéville??s] fantasy novels, including a trilogy set in and around the magical city-state of New Crobuzon, have the refreshing effect of making Middle-earth seem plodding and flat.???The New York Times
The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the center of the world. Humans and mutants and arcane races brood in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the river is sluggish with unnatural effluent and foundries pound into the night. For a thousand years, the Parliament and its brutal militias have ruled over a vast economy of workers and artists, spies and soldiers, magicians, crooks, and junkies. Now a stranger has arrived, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand. And something unthinkable is released. The city is gripped by an alien terror. The fate of millions lies with a clutch of renegades. A reckoning is due at the city??s heart, in the vast edifice of brick and wood and steel under the vaults of Perdido Street Station.… (more)
souloftherose: Although The Windup Girl is more science fiction than steampunk/fantasy, I felt there were similarities in the exoticness of the world-building and readers who enjoyed Perdido Street Station may also enjoy The Windup Girl.
Perhaps i would have given it twice as many stars if I'd made it to the end instead of half way. I got bored with the overbearing prose that insisted on using as many synonyms of "putrid" as the author could think of. I have no doubt there's a good story in there somewhere, but I've given up struggling through to watch it unfold. ( )
I was incredibly disappointed in this book. Despite Mieville's astonishing imagination, this story could not rise above the pages and pages of relentless detail about so many literally disgusting things. It wasn't just the revulsion, I could have handled that, but it was the endless passages that were so unnecessary and boring, the truly hackneyed writing style, and the lack of any real insight. I would never have guessed that the same author wrote "The City and the City." ( )
What an extraordinary work of imagination this was! A crazy, psychedelic mix of steampunk and dark fantasy mixed with the plot of Alien. It's long and wordy, but wow the payoff is worth it. It's the first I've read by this author and I cannot wait for more. Highly, highly recommended. ( )
My first book by Miéville. Lots of big ideas and grand worlds, very imaginative. However, parts did drag and could probably have stood with some additional pruning by the editor. It seemed a bit like too many ideas jammed in one book, not an uncommon sin in sf/f. Overall I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more of his work. ( )
'I even gave up, for a while, stopping by the window of the room to look out at the lights and deep, illuminated streets. That's a form of dying, that losing contact with the city like that.'
Philip K. Dick , We Can Build You
Dedication
to Emma
First words
Veldt to scrub to fields to farms to these first tumbling houses that rise from the earth.
Fantas
Fictio
Science Fictio
HTML:WINNER OF THE AUGUST DERLETH AND ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARDS ? A masterpiece brimming with scientific splendor, magical intrigue, and fierce characters, from the author who ??has reshaped modern fantasy? (The Washington Post)
??[China Miéville??s] fantasy novels, including a trilogy set in and around the magical city-state of New Crobuzon, have the refreshing effect of making Middle-earth seem plodding and flat.???The New York Times
The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the center of the world. Humans and mutants and arcane races brood in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the river is sluggish with unnatural effluent and foundries pound into the night. For a thousand years, the Parliament and its brutal militias have ruled over a vast economy of workers and artists, spies and soldiers, magicians, crooks, and junkies. Now a stranger has arrived, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand. And something unthinkable is released. The city is gripped by an alien terror. The fate of millions lies with a clutch of renegades. A reckoning is due at the city??s heart, in the vast edifice of brick and wood and steel under the vaults of Perdido Street Station.
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