>>7291809I've said this before in other threads, but the first quarter or so of Perdido Street Station is some of the most charming fantasy writing I've read. I felt very let down that the story didn't stay on a local and domestic scale, on their relationship and culture struggles, inventing a device for flight, on their friends, etc.
In every book I've read of Mieville's (the whole Bas Lag trilogy, The City and the City) he inserts a monster at about the first quarter. I don't think he can actually develop characters by having them operate on their own power, without some outside incident.
The City and the City was the best thing I read.
