Perdido Street Station
by China Miéville · first published 2000
72% recommend17% neutral11% critical
Why HN recommends it
Dark, intense fantasy set in New Crobuzon, a vast nightmarish steampunk-flavored city, with dense, rewarding prose; readers like its worldbuilding and go on to the rest of the Bas-Lag books.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to none—not even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory. Isaac has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half
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…including the Laundry Files series, Halting State, Glasshouse, etc. I'd say Glasshouse is an absolute "must read". 12. Greg Egan - I especially recommend Permutation City. 13. China Miéville - Check out Perdido Street Station
on “Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change” ↗…in 2010, and you will enjoy also. - The His Dark Materials Trilogy. Start with The Golden Compass. - The City & The City by China Miéville. Quite the post-modern detective story. (Read also his novel Perdido Street Station) - Surface Detail, the new novel by Iain M. Banks, who has quickly catapulted to the very top of my “Favorite Sci-Fi Authors” list. Surface Detail may not be the best novel for a Banks-unfamiliar reader,…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books of 2010?” ↗This is more a question, in terms of Sci-Fi are people familiar with China Miéville? Perdido Street Station, Embassytown, and The City and the City are classics, Perdido Street Station might be the best fiction I have ever read. Dark stuff
on “Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?” ↗If you dig victorian steampunk I warmly recommend Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.
on “Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?” ↗…started Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. It's been years since I last touched scheme. Just finished Refactoring in Ruby by Wake & Rutherford (a quick read, but had some good tips), and Perdido Street Station by China Miéville (fantastic).
on “Ask HN: What are you reading right now?” ↗The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne Neuromancer - William Gibson Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell Perdido Street Station - China Mieville Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card Foundation series - Asimov among others...
on “Ask HN: What's your favourite sci-fi/fantasy book?” ↗…each of these invaluable at different points in my life. YMMV Biz - the Personal MBA - Josh Kaufman - http://amzn.to/2aFsj3c Org - the Fifth Discipline - Peter Senge - http://amzn.to/2aNpbQz SciFi - Perdido Street Station - China Mieville - http://amzn.to/2aNoWFn Parenting - The Continuum Concept - Jean Liedloff - http://amzn.to/2aZEAAL
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗Perdido Street Station was one of the best sci-fi novels I've read. I haven't read much - if any - of Miéville's other material, but it's on my list. FWIW, his work seems to be at least relatively well known in the US. As…
on “Ask HN: What are some great books that are relatively unknown in the US?” ↗Is not exactly science fiction (fits more into the fantasy category), but Perdido Street Station, from China Mieville, is very intense, and if you like it, there are a few more books in the same universe to keep exploring.
on “Ask HN: What are the best Sci-Fi books you've ever read?” ↗…- Stephenson The Foundation trilogy - Asimov Something Wicked This Way Comes - Bradbury Strangers - Koontz After Dark - Murakami It - King The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien The Hobbit - Tolkien Perdido Street Station - Miéville Permutation City - Egan Glasshouse - Stross NON-FICTION Report from Engine Co 82 - Smith Godel, Escher, Bach - Hofstadter How the Mind Works - Pinker The Four Steps to the Epiphany -…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗China Mieville’s “Perdido Street Station” is also worth reading. It’s set in, essentially, a _bad_ Ankh Morpork; like Ankh Morpork it’s a vast chaotic fantasy city (both are probably based on London) but New Crobuzon is _nightmarish_. (I’ve…
on “Discworld Rules” ↗…of their life in the air, looking down onto human-designed landscapes. The aerial view of our cities is probably as familiar to them as our neighborhood streets are to us. The opening few chapters of Perdido Street Station does a great job of conveying this difference.
on “How a hawk learned to use traffic signals to hunt more successfully” ↗…location references.) An older classic: Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan is extraordinary in language, but also in the rhythm of sentences. Definitely one written to be read with a voice, not just internally. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville has dense prose. Wonderful book, very rewarding to read.
on “To become a better writer, read as much as you can” ↗Amazing book. I would love to see a film adaptation. I also recommend his Bas-Lag series starting with Perdido Street Station.
on “Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?” ↗…amounts "I misled you about what's really going on" and while that works for a stand up comic beat (e.g. Taylor Tomlinson "he cheated on me ... in my head") I don't want to read a whole novel this way. Perdido Street Station and Kraken I really enjoyed, but I almost threw the book across the room for Embassytown once I realised.
on “Sci-fi books that you may never have heard of, but definitely should read” ↗