Perdido Street Station

[Vertigo]

Oh I don't know about that, I'd just need to be armed! And yes it does stay with me he painted such a vivid picture it's like I've been there!

[Ursa major]

That's exactly right: it pops into your mind as if you're reminiscing about somewhere you've been. (Perhaps reading those long sentences, with their brackets and dashes, mimics the intoning of ancient incantations, invoking the city in the dark depths of one's mind. Perhaps, psychologically, we're remade men....)

[Null_Zone]

Whilst I enjoyed it and there were some interesting ideas it felt in need of a good editor. Many of the scenes felt repeated. Come up with a plan, go to new part of the city, plan falls apart. Next night come up with a plan, go to new part of the city, plan falls apart. Next night, come up with a plan, go to new part of city, plan fal apart.

And so on.

Almost as if new ideas were being crammed in to prove the originality incase another book wasn't forthcoming.

[Vertigo]

I think that might be a little harsh NZ but you are probably right that the book needed a little firmer editing (I gather his later books are a bit tighter). I just didn't find a problem with that myself, which is a little surprising as that is normally something I do have a problem with!

[J-WO]

Well the characters go around in circles a bit but we get to see so many wonderful things along the way.

[Null_Zone]

Originally Posted by Vertigo

I think that might be a little harsh NZ but you are probably right that the book needed a little firmer editing (I gather his later books are a bit tighter). I just didn't find a problem with that myself, which is a little surprising as that is normally something I do have a problem with!

It probably is a bit harsh, I just felt some of the ideas would be better explored in other books allowing some of the others to be fleshed out in greater detail.

[digs]

The book's definitely a travelogue. I liked the plot, but I think it's basically there as a vehicle for Mieville to explore his crazy imagination. And I don't mean that as criticism - I loved going along for the ride.

[Ursa major]

That's definitely a major aspect of the book, digs. And like you, I'm glad it is.

[Vertigo]

I think it is interesting that technically you could probably argue that there are many things wrong with the book, and yet many people like myself, that would normally be irritated by such things, didn't find a problem with them. Though clearly others did . I just found the style of writing and description so enjoyable that I didn't mind the somtimes meandering nature of the story. As Digs said I just enjoyed going along for the ride! I even enjoyed the drawn out description of the laying of the cable towards the end, that I know irritated others. I found it gave a great sense of the calm before the storm.

[Stephen Palmer]

Sometimes, a travelogue is enough. You could argue that LOTR is a travelogue; still great though. And PSS is just amazing...

[J-WO]

Theres that bit with the Vodyanoi lady swimming out of New Crobuzon- absolutely zero plot advancement for nearly three pages but a fantastic insight into the city's unseen, aquatic side.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by J-WO

Theres that bit with the Vodyanoi lady swimming out of New Crobuzon- absolutely zero plot advancement for nearly three pages but a fantastic insight into the city's unseen, aquatic side.

I'm a bit of a description junky when it's well done, so PSS is a treat for my senses...

Description can also help build plot as well as advance it in unseen ways that only comes to fruition later in a story. It can also add further credibility to a plot, that is provide a story with more substance.

[Stephen Palmer]

Hear hear. I got a bit of flak for the travelogue style of Muezzinland, but most of that was relevant, as the instances were folk tales made real by the "cyberspace" of the novel. I still maintain that even no-plot-advancement is fine, as long as it's short, because it paints pictures inside the reader's mind and it's so important to do that...

[Vertigo]

I think you can have both, it's a bit like music really. You can have some pieces (eg Mozart, Beethoven etc) the have a really strong melodies that you can hum/whistle along to, and then other peices (eg. Haydn, Glass etc) that are all atmosphere. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Mozart doesn't do atmosphere it's just that he has very strong melodies (plots) whereas others are stronger on atmosphere (description). Both approaches work and both give the listener/reader different things.

[itstito]

Perdido Street Station, the more I think about it now, was disappointing. And I'm not just talking about his tendency to repeat words like pugnacious, ostentatious etc. or the pages upon pages of 'worldbuilding'. While Isaac started out interestingly enough, all of it soon disintegrated into predictability. The latter half of the book was almost painful to read through at times, because you could tell how the ideas being flung across at breakneck speed rarely served a purpose apart from sounding clever. Lin never got anywhere. Motley....what happened to Motley?! He had so much potential as a villain. And as for the slake moths, I didn't find the mind-sucking concept terribly original. Nevertheless, these are personal gripes. A vast number of people have praised this book to no end, and I was one of them too once. But when all is said and done, Perdido Street Station felt too strained. Like the author was trying too hard to sound different, and to show off his vocabulary. Its a pity, because Mieville has some truly brilliant ideas. His writing inevitably puts me off, as it did in The City and the City, and Kraken. I find myself coming back again and again to his novels because of the ideas primarily, and its always heartening to see someone trying to be original. But the man writes too much, and is way too pretentious at times.