by Erika Livingstone

Created on: August 27, 2009   Last Updated: August 28, 2009

Perdido Street Station is an aptly titled book written by Londoner China Mieville in 2000. The novel has been praised around the globe, and has received many awards, including the British Fantasy Award (2000), The Arthur C. Clarke Award (2001), The Premio Ignotus Award (2005), and the Kurd Lawitz Award in 2003, along with other nominations and critical acclaim.

The novel itself could be placed in a few categories. At your local mainstream bookstore, it is probably located under Fantasy or Science Fiction. Though purists will tend to argue that it is neither, citing Steam Punk, or The New Weird as it's appropriate category.

Mieville writes for an audience that is bored with elves, dwarfs, wizards, and other elements of Tolkien-inspired fantasy. Instead, the world is based on humanoid characters with animal or plant attributes with indigenous cultures. Through the blatant differences from one 'specie' to another there is ample room for social commentary dealing with classicism, colonialism, immigration, globalism, and the metropolis.

The Remade, for instance, are the criminals of the city, made obvious by the use of thaumaturgy (a kind of magic) where parts of their body have been changed or removed after sentencing. In some cases the process is fatal, but occassionally the process improves some part of the individual. In one case a man is given a caterpillar tread in place of his legs, so he excels at ferrying goods for short distances. In either case, they are debased in terms of class as they are both physically mutated as well as publicly shamed as a result of the mutation. Such a backdrop gives rise to commentary on vigilantism and fascism, not to mention our current prison system.

There are also the Garuda (bird-people, though I am over-simplifying), Vodyanoi (fish-people), and Cactacae (cactus-people, you guessed it) among others. Most live in their own areas in the metropolis of New Crobuzon, much in the way a large city will have China Town or Little Italy.

The basic premise of the novel is a conundrum that Isaac is faced with. A reputable scientist with his own laboratory (complete with maintenance construct), Isaac attracts the attention of a tortured Garuda named Yagharek who has had his wings torn off as an act of punishment by his people. The act of living in a wheel-chair, while this helps with mobility, is not the same as having a pair of your own limbs. Yagharek wants to be able to fly as he was meant to fly. Not in a machine, but under his own

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