Perdido Street Station (Paperback)

So, you may be asking, why did I give this five stars? Because once the story got going, I couldn't put it down, flaws and all. Mieville's imagination is nearly boundless and it's a book, love it or hate it, that's unlike anything else. And in the Weaver, a spider-like god that walks the web of reality, Mieville has created one of the most interesting and wonderfully bizarre characters I've ever come across. The minute he/she/it stepped on the page, I was enthralled. Always. I'd reccomend checking this one out for the Weaver alone.

And even though Perdido felt aimless at times (a tighter plot would have done wonders), certain scenes were so amazing that I doubt I'll ever forget them. The chapter involving the Ambassador of Hell was simply brilliant, and it's just one amongst the many.

Though Perdido is not without its faults, its pros far out-weigh the cons, especially in the latter half. For the patient and open-minded, this is not a book to pass up, for it will definitely make an impression and probably a lasting one.

On the other hand, Mieville has a real gift for political intrigue and power plays in his writing, and bizarrely creative concepts and settings. My favorite is a garbage dump that evolves a collective artificial intelligence due to a computer virus. The most mind-blowing aspect of this novel is the villains - a tribe of mutants who feed on one's thoughts and dreams, and excrete dark psychic pain in amounts that drive entire populations insane. So while Mieville needs a little practice reining in his many ideas into a leaner-and-meaner focus, this book still has the power to blow your mind in ways that sci-fi hasn't been capable of in ages. Here's a hot new writer that deserves to be hot.

I had a hard time really getting into the novel, but that didn't scare me away. I've read a lot of books that i didn't find gripping until page one hundred or so. Then i found i didn't really care for any of the characters. Don't get me wrong, i didn't particularly dislike any of them, but i also didn't find myself growing attached to any of them either. It's not that they were boring or two-dimensional, they just didn't breath for me. Still, i read on, and i'll tell you why.

All the positive reviews i've read of this book, and many of the negative ones, at least mention the staggering number of ideas present in this book. I wholeheartedly agree. The level of orginality is, in my opinion, unsurpassed by any other book i've read in ten years. Additionally, while the characters themselves did little for me individually, the setting as a whole did indeed come alive in my mind as i read. That part of the book was not, in fact, too good to be true.

With more appealing characters and a more interesting story, i wouldn't have hesitated to give this book five stars.