Perdido Street Station (2000) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

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• Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin: A human scientist, dabbling in all fields but obsessed with his pet theory of "crisis energy". Lover to Lin, and close friends with Derkhan Blueday.
• Yagharek: An exiled and de-winged Garuda from the Cymek Desert, far south of New Crobuzon. He comes to Isaac in order to have his flight restored, no matter how (nor the cost).
• Lin: Isaac's lover, and a Khepri artist.
• Derkhan Blueday: A middle-aged lesbian and seditionist, co-editor of the Runagate Rampant (an underground newspaper).
• Mr. Motley: New Crobuzon's most feared ganglord, who runs a dreamshit harvesting operation, among many other nefarious activities. He presumably originated as a human but has altered his body many times through remaking, into an amorphous collection of body parts and appendages.
• Lemuel Pigeon: A small criminal who helps Grimnebulin
• Weaver: A spiderlike entity
• David: Grimnebulin's coleague
• Mayor Bentham Rudgutter: The mayor of New Crobuzon
• Weaver: This is the character to look out for in the book.
• Lucky Gazid: A drug dealer and a drug addict
• Lublamai: Grimnebulin's coleague

Quotes edit see section history

• “"See, if you think that matter and therefore the unified force under investigation are essentially static, then falling, flying, rolling, changing your mind, casting a spell, growing older, moving, are basically deviations from an essential state. Otherwise, you think that motion is part of the fabric of ontology, and the question's how best to theorize that. You can tell were my sympathies lie. Statistics would say I'm misrepresenting them, but fuck it."”

  Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin

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• “This is what makes the world, Ms. Lin. I believe this to be the fundamental dynamic. Transition. The point where one thing becomes another. It is what makes you, the city, the world, what they are. And that is the theme I’m interested in. The zone where the disparate become part of the whole. The hybrid zone.

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• The point is that you are an individual inasmuch as you exist in a social matrix of others who respect your individuality and your right to make choices. That’s concrete individuality: an individuality that recognizes that it owes its existence to a kind of communal respect on the part of all the other individualities, and that it had better therefore respect them similarly.

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• Art’s something you choose to make . . . it’s a bringing together of . . . of everything around you into something that makes you more human, more khepri, whatever. More of a person.

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• “I think of myself as the main station for all the schools of thought. Like Perdido Street Station.

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• Isaac liked the idea of an inter-aspectual entity so enamoured with knowledge that it just roamed from realm to realm in a bath, murmuring with interest at everything it came across.

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• Palgolak was a god of knowledge. He was depicted either as a fat, squat human reading in a bath, or a svelte vodyanoi doing the same, or, mystically, both at once. His congregation were human and vodyanoi in roughly equal proportions. He was an amiable, pleasant deity, a sage whose existence was entirely devoted to the collection, categorization, and dissemination of information.

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• Veldt to scrub to fields to farms to these first tumbling houses

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• But Isaac’s research—unchanged in its aims over all those years—could not proceed in a vacuum. He had to publish. He had to debate. He had to argue, to attend conferences—as the rogue, the rebellious son. There were great advantages to renegacy.

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• “Termagant!” he moaned after her. “Shrew! Harridan! All right, all right, you win, you, you . . . uh . . . virago,

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• Don’t worship any gods, although they do have a devil-figure, which may or may not be a real eidolon.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• New Crobuzon
• Riverskin
• Bonetown
• The Crow
• Salacus Fields
• Kelltree
• Badside
• Shankell
• Ludmead
• Perdido Street Station
• Smog Bend
• Bas-Lag: The world in which Perdido Street Station is set.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• garuda: human-sized and human-shaped intelligent birds
• khepri: human-sized intelligent bugs
• remaking: fusing a human body with animal, plant or artificial parts through thaumaturgy
• vodyanoi: aquarius, they can shape water
• Wyrman: Wyrmen are semi-sentient flying creatures that look something like gargoyles. They are no more than a foot tall, with bright red skin and small bat wings. They are crude, vulgar, and laugh at anything and everything. They have a limited capacity for speech and are sometimes used by other races for reconnaissance and running errands.
• Cactacae: Humanoid cacti. The Cactacae are enormous plant people, often towering over human beings. Although their young grow out of the ground, they nurse them as mammals do. Cactacae have sap for blood. They are known for their strength, and are often employed as laborers and bodyguards. Cactacae bodies are fibrous, with wooden bones, making them notoriously difficult to kill or wound with normal weapons; bullets pass nigh-harmlessly through them. The Cactacae community in New Crobuzon is based around The Glasshouse, and is allowed to exist as a nominally independent community within the city. Their weapons of choice are Rivebows, oversized crossbows that fire a spinning metal disc capable of shearing off cactacae limbs.

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Identity: Identity is a big theme within this book. Several of our main characters struggle with their identity; Lin struggles with balancing her new life outside of the khepri colonies, and the traditional roots that she came from. Yagherak struggles with his identity as a Garuda without wings, and his quest to regain flight is more about his identity then the actual flight. The main enemies in this book (SPOILERS) also prey upon ones identity, in the form of consuming memory.

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by The Scar.

Followed by The Scar.

Preceded by Doomsday Book, and followed by A Spell for Chameleon.

Preceded by Dante's Journey, and followed by Never Knew Another.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. China Miéville (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Edward Miller (Illustrator)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• August Derleth Award (2001)
• Arthur C. Clarke Award (2001)
• Nebula (Finalist, 2002: Best Novel)
• BSFA (British Science Fiction Association) (Finalist, 2000)
• James Tiptree, Jr. Award (Finalist, 2000, Honor List)
• World Fantasy Award (Finalist, 2001: Novel)
• Locus Fantasy Award (Finalist, 2001, Nominee)
• Hugo Award (Finalist, 2002: Best Novel)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 813

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction › Adventure
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction › High Tech
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy › Urban

More Books Like This edit see section history