Perdido Street Station
by China Miéville
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
China Miéville may be the least predictable genre
writer of them all. He defies almost every
generalization you've heard about genre fiction. Do
you think popular fiction is all plot and devoid of
ideas? Miéville will surprise you with the philosophical
implications and sociological angles constantly at play
in his stories. Do you think
genre authors dumb down their
writing? Miéville will confound
you with his rambling sentences
and bulky paragraphs—denser
typographical terrain than you
will find in most works of literary
fiction nowadays. Do you despise
the simplistic good-versus-evil
story lines of genre authors, so
mind-numbingly predictable in
their unfolding? Miéville does
too, and will serve up more moral
relativism in one book than you
will encounter during an entire Spring Break week in
Cancun.
In short, Miéville seems primed to break out of the ghetto of
science fiction (the place in the bookstore where his works are
usually housed) and find his destined spot next to Herman
Melville in a more dignified section of Barnes & Noble. Except
that Miéville seems so cussedly content staying in the ghetto.
He brags about his ambition of writing in every genre
category. In interviews, he takes every opportunity to talk
about the monsters in his books. Yes, he could go the high-
brow route, but one gets the sense that he prefers slumming
with the purveyors of pulp.
I see that I am constantly turning to urban metaphors in
describing this author. How fitting! Miéville has done for
cityscapes what Mary Shelley did for dead bodies in
Frankenstein—showed how the most disparate and horrifying
elements are stitched together into a gruesome whole. One
that somehow lives and breathes, against all odds. In book
after book—works such as Perdido Street Station, The City &
the City, Embassytown—Miéville combines the intellectual
rigor of the urban planner with the aesthetics of a horror film
director. If Jane Jacobs and Roger Corman had a love child,
it would be China Miéville.
Perdido Street Station follows the exploits of renegade
scientist Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, who is a sort of modern-
day Dr. Frankenstein. His research into various mundane
matters—such as the nature of flight or alternative sources of
energy—leads to a series of unintentional consequences for
himself and his fellow city dwellers. The science in this novel
is self-consciously primitive—our hero actually uses an abacus
and slide rule, and in true steampunk fashion, most of the
"high tech" devices in this book literally run on steam. But
even with these meager tools as starting points, Isaac manages
unwittingly to unleash a cataclysm of devastation when his
experiments go awry.
Miéville’s dense prose—especially in early works such as
Perdido Street Station—aspires to a Byzantine high style that
has little in common with current day escapist lit. Not since
the days of H.P. Lovecraft has a genre writer housed his
frightening creatures in such grand ziggurats of modifiers and
dependent clauses. At times I resist, and grumble that an
editor should have trimmed here and there, but the cumulative
effect justifies the elaborate means. Miéville’s alternative
worlds eventually take on bulk through these avalanches of
words, and he achieves a rare distinction among genre writers
—indeed, among storytellers of any sort—in creating such rich
textures that the surrounding cities and neighborhoods of his
books become as vivid as the characters themselves.
It is no coincidence that most of his novels are named after
locations. In the front of Perdido Street Station, where, in a
Gabriel García Márquez book, you might find a family tree,
Miéville has placed a detailed city map. Welcome to sci-fi as
seen through the eyes of a flâneur.
But don’t jump to the conclusion that Miéville’s stories are
filled with scenery and short on plot. The opposite is true.
Not since Arthur C. Clarke has a sci-fi author been so skilled
at layering new complications on top of old ones, at taking a
clever plot and adding something unexpected to make it even
more compelling. In Perdido Street Station, Dr. Grimnebulin
doesn't just have an adversary—he eventually puts together an
enemies list as long as Nixon’s during his second term. First
and foremost, he and his friends are battling a swarm of
despicable monsters…and this alone might be sufficient to
justify a film adaptation and theme park tie-ins. Yet Miéville
also forces them into open conflict with a totalitarian
government, the university, the mob, a maniacal computer,
even an assortment of renegade household appliances. Each of
these storylines is fully fleshed out, and pulled neatly into the
over-arching narrative.
There are many other strange ingredients in this menagerie.
Our hero is dating a giant insect—but with the cutest set of
mandibles you ever saw. When he visits the World Wide Web,
it is a literal one created by a huge spider. An ambassador from
the devil even makes a cameo appearance in these pages. Yet
the strangest thing about all this strangeness is that it never
seems campy or staged, as in so many contemporary works of
speculative fiction. Seriously, friends, this is a serious
novel…but don’t tell Mr. Miéville—who prides himself on his
monsters—or his readers, who might be scared away if you told
them this was a first-rate literary work. Let them find out for
themselves.
by China Miéville
Reviewed by Ted Gioia
China Miéville may be the least predictable genre
writer of them all. He defies almost every
generalization you've heard about genre fiction. Do
you think popular fiction is all plot and devoid of
ideas? Miéville will surprise you with the philosophical
implications and sociological angles constantly at play
in his stories. Do you think
genre authors dumb down their
writing? Miéville will confound
you with his rambling sentences
and bulky paragraphs—denser
typographical terrain than you
will find in most works of literary
fiction nowadays. Do you despise
the simplistic good-versus-evil
story lines of genre authors, so
mind-numbingly predictable in
their unfolding? Miéville does
too, and will serve up more moral
relativism in one book than you
will encounter during an entire Spring Break week in
Cancun.
In short, Miéville seems primed to break out of the ghetto of
science fiction (the place in the bookstore where his works are
usually housed) and find his destined spot next to Herman
Melville in a more dignified section of Barnes & Noble. Except
that Miéville seems so cussedly content staying in the ghetto.
He brags about his ambition of writing in every genre
category. In interviews, he takes every opportunity to talk
about the monsters in his books. Yes, he could go the high-
brow route, but one gets the sense that he prefers slumming
with the purveyors of pulp.
I see that I am constantly turning to urban metaphors in
describing this author. How fitting! Miéville has done for
cityscapes what Mary Shelley did for dead bodies in
Frankenstein—showed how the most disparate and horrifying
elements are stitched together into a gruesome whole. One
that somehow lives and breathes, against all odds. In book
after book—works such as Perdido Street Station, The City &
the City, Embassytown—Miéville combines the intellectual
rigor of the urban planner with the aesthetics of a horror film
director. If Jane Jacobs and Roger Corman had a love child,
it would be China Miéville.
Perdido Street Station follows the exploits of renegade
scientist Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, who is a sort of modern-
day Dr. Frankenstein. His research into various mundane
matters—such as the nature of flight or alternative sources of
energy—leads to a series of unintentional consequences for
himself and his fellow city dwellers. The science in this novel
is self-consciously primitive—our hero actually uses an abacus
and slide rule, and in true steampunk fashion, most of the
"high tech" devices in this book literally run on steam. But
even with these meager tools as starting points, Isaac manages
unwittingly to unleash a cataclysm of devastation when his
experiments go awry.
Miéville’s dense prose—especially in early works such as
Perdido Street Station—aspires to a Byzantine high style that
has little in common with current day escapist lit. Not since
the days of H.P. Lovecraft has a genre writer housed his
frightening creatures in such grand ziggurats of modifiers and
dependent clauses. At times I resist, and grumble that an
editor should have trimmed here and there, but the cumulative
effect justifies the elaborate means. Miéville’s alternative
worlds eventually take on bulk through these avalanches of
words, and he achieves a rare distinction among genre writers
—indeed, among storytellers of any sort—in creating such rich
textures that the surrounding cities and neighborhoods of his
books become as vivid as the characters themselves.
It is no coincidence that most of his novels are named after
locations. In the front of Perdido Street Station, where, in a
Gabriel García Márquez book, you might find a family tree,
Miéville has placed a detailed city map. Welcome to sci-fi as
seen through the eyes of a flâneur.
But don’t jump to the conclusion that Miéville’s stories are
filled with scenery and short on plot. The opposite is true.
Not since Arthur C. Clarke has a sci-fi author been so skilled
at layering new complications on top of old ones, at taking a
clever plot and adding something unexpected to make it even
more compelling. In Perdido Street Station, Dr. Grimnebulin
doesn't just have an adversary—he eventually puts together an
enemies list as long as Nixon’s during his second term. First
and foremost, he and his friends are battling a swarm of
despicable monsters…and this alone might be sufficient to
justify a film adaptation and theme park tie-ins. Yet Miéville
also forces them into open conflict with a totalitarian
government, the university, the mob, a maniacal computer,
even an assortment of renegade household appliances. Each of
these storylines is fully fleshed out, and pulled neatly into the
over-arching narrative.
There are many other strange ingredients in this menagerie.
Our hero is dating a giant insect—but with the cutest set of
mandibles you ever saw. When he visits the World Wide Web,
it is a literal one created by a huge spider. An ambassador from
the devil even makes a cameo appearance in these pages. Yet
the strangest thing about all this strangeness is that it never
seems campy or staged, as in so many contemporary works of
speculative fiction. Seriously, friends, this is a serious
novel…but don’t tell Mr. Miéville—who prides himself on his
monsters—or his readers, who might be scared away if you told
them this was a first-rate literary work. Let them find out for
themselves.
| conceptual fiction |
| To purchase, click on image |
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules:
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules:
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction and its
sister sites may receive review copies
and promotional materials from
publishers, authors, publicists or other
parties.ç
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules:
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules:
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction and its
sister sites may receive review copies
and promotional materials from
publishers, authors, publicists or other
parties.ç