Perdido Street Station

[The Book] Perdido Street Station
[The Author] China Mieville, self-described as a “wierd fiction author”
[Source] Borrowed from Drew
[How Found?] his recommendation
[Genre] Science Fiction, atypical fantasy, horror, humor…

Amazing.  This was incredibly dense and rather difficult to get
into, but once I did I was desperate to get to the end. 

Now that I’ve reached the end, I’m disgruntled by the lack of neatly
tied bows on the loose ends.  I wanted everyone — all the
characters that Mieville draws so clearly, that the reader comes to
love and admire despite their flaws — to get a happy ending.

Essentially no one gets a happy ending.  But they all get endings
that make sense, that feel organic to the story, that reflect the
values and sensibilities of the world Mieville drew. 

And, man, what a world!  Dark, twisted, urban, gothic, horrific,
fascinating… Industrial-age technology and science meet magic and
fantasy meet adventure and mystery.  The genre-bending and
genre-blending that go on in this book are simply stunning.

It’s a good read.  It’s not for everyone — every moment of
laugh-out-loud-funny is tempered with a shudder-in-your-seat moment of
horror — but the sheer audacity of the storyline, and the originality
of the whole melange, are magnetic.