Perdido Street Station/The Darkness That Comes Before

Two books I’m currently reading.

I’ve been seeing this one for a while and thought I’d give it a whirl. So far it’s very interesting but difficult to get into. It breaks a lot of literary ‘standards’ I’m used to and I’m having a hard time grasping the storyline. It’s fantasy but a different take, has a strong middle eastern feel to it. I’m hoping when my brain isn’t such mush from drilling physiology that I’ll better be able to concentrate on it.

Several people have been after me to read this for a while. I finally picked it up. Very intriguing book. My first experience with Mieville, King Rat, left me a little underwhelmed. It wasn’t a bad book, per se, but as much as I’d heard he was so phenomenal King Rat most definitely did not live up the hype. I felt like I was reading a World of Darkness novel. Not that there’s anything wrong with that but it isn’t a bastion of high literature. However, Perdido Street Station is living up to the hype. I’m enjoying it a great deal. I do have some quibbles (Mieville tends to be pedantic, which is rather funny because of how much he insists he’s breaking the mold of fantasy and science fiction, and his story, outside of having fascinating setting, is turning out to be almost a straight forward mystery) but it is that setting that is so imaginative and vivid. Very striking. I understand that the second and third book set in New Cherbuzon aren’t quite as good. Then again, the two Endymion novels didn’t live up to the two Hyperion novels but that doesn’t stop Hyperion (by Dan Simmons) from being an amazing read.