Title Perdido Street Station Author China Miéville Cover Art --- Publisher Ballantine Del Rey - 2003 First Printing 2000
	Title The Scar Author China Miéville Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Iron Council Author China Miéville Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Title Looking for Jake Author China Miéville Cover Art --- Publisher --- First Printing ---
	Category Weird Fiction Warnings None Main Characters Lin, Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, Yagharek, Mr. Motley, Derkhan Blueday Main Elements Ah...things that defy description! Website ---

Perdido Street Station

Took me nearly two years to get around to writing this review, I kept intending to read the rest of the trilogy first but I always had something else on my to read list. And they weren't necessarily better things on my list, since my foray into this first book impressed me a lot.

I haven't been exposed to too much "weird" fiction, but wow, this one qualifies. For example, one of the main characters, Lin, has essentially an entire beetle for a head (not a beetle's head, but also its wings, legs, etc) and she extrudes a kind of goo that she uses to produce works of art. Oh, and her boyfriend is human. In fact my sister found this too weird and stopped reading. My reaction was I needed to dig deeper into the imagination of an author that could invent something this bizarre. I mean she shows up on the first page, what will happen a couple hundred pages in?

Her boyfriend on the other hand is a surprisingly normal guy, an excentric scientist really dedicated to his research. He acquires a strange catepillar like creature that...well, unleashes hell on his city when it escapes! And yes, they need to contact the Ambassador of Hell himself to see if he can help deal with the issue (he can't, but a giant interdimensional spider can). The creature that is released is legitimately nightmare-worthy, it was so dark, so evil it terrified me.

Did I mention there are cactus people too? And guys with bird heads, the Garudas, one of which becomes an important character. There are also sentient machines, I wouldn't say this book screams Steampunk but it has some of the feel of it. Thus, the worldbuilding is awesome. The characters were all different and complex. The plot is harrowing with more than a touch of horror to go with the weird. It's also pretty dark, since not all the "good" guys are actually good, and the chance of actually saving the world is pretty slim, and probably somebody has got to die to achieve it. It was nominated for just about every award out there (Hugo, Nebula, Locus, etc) though it didn't manage to win. Not sure what it was up against those years but this one was pretty darn good.

So the reason I didn't just jump onto the next two books? I'm someone who has this nasty habit of "saving" up really good books. Also, I tend to give myself "themes" for the year and if a book doesn't fit I put it off. But I will DEFINITELY eventually get around to the next book. They are, I understand, pretty standalone so the fact my memory might be a little hazy by the time I get to it, that shouldn't be a problem.