Perdido Street Station
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Perdido Street Station | |
![]() Cover of first UK edition |
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Author | China Miéville |
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Illustrator | Edward Miller |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Genre(s) | Speculative fiction |
Publisher | Macmillan |
Publication date | 2000 |
Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
Pages | 710 pp |
ISBN | ISBN 0-333-78172-4 |
Preceded by | King Rat |
Followed by | The Scar |
Perdido Street Station is the second novel written by China Miéville, and the first set in New Crobuzon. It was nominated for the 2002 Nebula Award for Best Novel and Hugo Award for Best Novel.[1][2] It won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Society's August Derleth Award in 2001 and both the Premio Ignotus and Kurd Lasswitz Best Foreign Novel Awards in 2002.[3][4][5][6] It also won the Amazon.com Editors' Choice Award in Fantasy in 2001.[7]
Contents |
[edit] Plot
In an interview, Miéville described this book as "basically a secondary world fantasy with Victorian era technology. So rather than being a feudal world, it's an early industrial capitalist world of a fairly grubby, police statey kind!" [8]
Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is an eccentric scientist living in the city of New Crobuzon with his Khepri girlfriend Lin. While Lin, an artist, is commissioned to create a sculpture of mob boss Mr. Motley, Isaac is offered a unique challenge. He is approached by the garuda Yagharek, who asks for the restoration of his wings which were cut off by his tribe as punishment for a crime that he claims has no human equivalent. Isaac is sparked by the seemingly impossible nature of the task, and gathers all manners of flying beasts to study in his lab - including multicolored, unidentifiable larvae gathered through illicit means enabled by Lin's involvement with Motley. Once Isaac learns that the caterpillar only eats a hallucinogenic drug called "dreamshit", he begins to feed it, unwittingly stimulating its metamorphosis into an incredibly dangerous, hypnotic and monstrously large butterfly-like insect, a slake moth, that feeds off the dreams of sentient beings, leaving them as catatonic vegetables. Later, it is revealed that dreamshit is in fact the "milk" of a fully-grown dream slake moth, and that four other such creatures are being kept by Mr. Motley, a hideously Remade crime boss, and "milked" to produce the drug. When the fifth larva transforms and escapes, it frees its brethren, and together they plague the citizens of New Crobuzon until Isaac can find a way to stop them.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Perdido Street Station publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Runagate Rampant: Perdido Street Station description, list of awards, publication history, and annotations.
[edit] References
- ^ Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, 2002 SFWA Final Nebula Awards Ballot, <http://www.sfwa.org/awards/2003/NebFinal2002.html>. Retrieved on 20 April 2008
- ^ World Science Fiction Society, The 2002 Hugo Award & Campbell Award Winners, <http://www.fanac.org/conjose/wsfs/hugo_nominees.htm>. Retrieved on 20 April 2008
- ^ The Arthur C. Clarke Award, 2001 Winner, <http://www.clarkeaward.com/index.php?view=article&catid=34%3APrevious+Winners&id=55%3A2001+Winner&option=com_content&Itemid=58>. Retrieved on 20 April 2008
- ^ British Fantasy Society, BFS Awards - Past Winners, <http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/past-awards.html#2001>. Retrieved on 20 April 2008
- ^ Asociación Española de Fantasía, Ciencia Ficción y Terror, (List of Premio Ignotus award winners, in Spanish), <http://www.aefcft.com/ignotus/resumen.htm>. Retrieved on 20 April 2008
- ^ The Locus Index to SF Awards: Kurd Lasswitz Preis Winners by Year, <http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/LasswitzWinsByYear.html>. Retrieved on 20 April 2008
- ^ Amazon.com, 2001 Editors' Choice: Fantasy, <http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_1401432_12?ie=UTF8&docId=221114&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=left-2&pf_rd_r=1R1EMP18HHE2R4J3AZKM&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=218533301&pf_rd_i=725796>. Retrieved on 20 April 2008
- ^ Marshall, Richard (Feb 2003), “The Road to Perdido: An Interview with China Miéville”, 3:AM Magazine, <http://www.3ammagazine.com/litarchives/2003/feb/interview_china_mieville.html>. Retrieved on 20 April 2008
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