Hey readers,
I thought I'd try something different for this post, cos chances are there's a bazillion reviews already talking about China's amazing imagination and vivid world. So I thought I'd do one better and list all the nifty things about the amazing world he's created in Bas-Lag.
Khepri - a race of bug people. The women have scarab heads and human bodies while the males are just big bugs. Procreation is done via the head. The bug race also make sculpture from chewed up and spat out material from their bug heads. The book also feature a human and Khepri romance.
Cacatae - a race of cactus humanoids. They have developed particularly gruesome weapons to chew threw their plant hides (yes there's even a scene where a child gets stabbed by the spikey spine of its mother)
Vodyanoi - Amphibians creatures that can magically shape water by using their watercraft, one of the Vodyanoi in the book also has a water elemental strapped across them to keep them hydrated.
Garuda - Proud bird creatures that live across the desert in a place called Cymek. One of the main characters in the story is a Garuda guilty of the races only crime choice theft (read to find out what that is) and he comes looking to fly again.
Re-Made - The official version is done to punish people guilty of crimes. Basically a person's body is remade in grotesque ways attaching parts from other creatures and often the way a person is "re-made" is a reflection of their punishment. There is organic remades, but some are mostly machine. In the underworld, remaking is a means to develop a good ol private army. There is one particular character who has taken remaking to the extreme and is very literally almost a piece of every creature you can think of. Why and how? (read, but I won't promise you'll find anything else).
AI Constructs - This comes in later, but through a out of control computer Virus the little helper robots of the city develop a sort of conbsciousness born of calculations and mathetmatical formulae.
Weavers - Now this is a truly aweinspiring creature. It's an interdimensional spider that speaks in verse and moves between dimensions as easily as walking down the street. It also tends to the world web you might say it weaves it.
There's also very cool technology and energies. Thaumaturgy I haven't quite worked out what it is, but there's lots of different types. To me it's almost magic really. Then there's Crisis Energy that comes from objects in crisis. And a really cool kind of energy called Torque. One bit of the book we're treated to Bas-Lag's version of nuclear fallout where a Torque bomb was left off. No one knows what it does, but when you emerge your body may have strangly transformed or you may be vaporised. It's very cool like a cloud of random magical energy.
And I haven't even mentioned the evil demons the protagonists unleash and have to track down. I won't spoil the story but do you want to read it are you curious? The story itself is easy enough to follow, but China Meiville breathes such freshness into a world populated with such alien creatures. And these creatures think like what they are, the Khepri are bugs and think like bugs. What can I say.
So what about the story? Well it's actually really engaging and nothing that's set up is a red herring or lose end. The main plot takes a while to get to, but on the way you get to meet these really interesting characters and ultimately what is a very interesting adventure story is not lost in this amazing world. So what should you all be doing, reading Perido Street Station that's what!
I think you'll be seeing some more China Meiville on this blog, just a feeling. Anyway, up next we have my first sequel on this blog. The Magican King, which is the recently released sequel to Les Grossman's The Magicians. I enjoyed the first book so I'm really looking forward to getting into the next one.
Anyway happy reading everyone!!!! and read Meiville even if you hate it (cos I imagine fiction like this can only be loved or hated) you'll walk away with some fascinating experiences and stories (trust me).
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