The first time I had heard about this book, I was talking with a couple fellow book readers at a World Fantasy Convention in that part of hell known as Columbus, Ohio. I had not heard of this author or his work before, but the consensus seemed to be: "Ewww...bug sex..."

"Wait, like, sex between bugs?"
"No," they replied, "A man has sex with a giant bug."
"Is it...an anthropomorphic bug?" I inquired.
After staring at me with some disgust as if I were some obscene deviant, they responded, "No...it...was...a...bug!"
Well, okey-dokey.

I would not think of Mieville again until I got The Illustrated Gormenghast Trilogy (order now! Your library is not complete without Gormenghast!). China had written a nice little introduction to this wonderful volume of literature, which gave me a positive view on him as an author.

At long last, I had picked up a copy of Perdido Street Station and saw in the acknowledgement that he had been heavily inspired by Mervyn Peake to write this book. Well, I had to read it... too many fantasy books rely on inspiration from Tolkien plotting instead of the superior style of Mr. Peake.

That was two years ago, it appears that I have a habit of reading something years after I have decided to read it.

How is it? Does it capture the Groan-ing spirit of Peake? Does the bug sex distract from the experience? Does it even have a plot?

First, I liked to point out that there is no bug sex... since the bug in question is highly anthropomorphized. Don't look at me like that, the khepri (except the males) are pretty much red-skin humans from the neck down with a scarab for a head, so I don't entirely see what the big deal is. No, I am not a deviant...quit judging me! This is the 21st century, I should not have to justify myself to you!

Moving on: China Mieville happens to be an anthropologist, and it shows. He steals from a lot of cultures (for example the khepri are Egyptian) to create his patchwork city of the fantastically weird and grotesque. In this sense, he succeeds in channeling Peake: invoking a Dickensian setting with underlying horrors.

There is also a pervading absurd humor that permeates the work. This works really well when species alien to each other interact with each other and their environment. It also helps to alleviate what could very easily become a dark, depressing environment. New Curobozon is not a happy place. Like Gormenghast, any sane person would want to stay away.

But there is something exhilarating about exploring some threads of lives in this environment as they combine into an overarching plot. Or a crisis that all the disparate characters work towards resolving.

Over-all, I wish there was less plot and more meandering in the bizarre city of New Curobozon. But despite that, Perdido Street Station is a highly creative, subtle novel. It does not reach Peake heights, but it does not have to because it succeeds splendidly in being its own thing.