Perdido Street Station

Perdido Street Station

Cover of first UK edition
Author	China Miéville
Illustrator	Edward Miller
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Bas-Lag novels
Genre	Speculative fiction
Publisher	Macmillan
Publication date	2000
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	867 pp
ISBN
OCLC	42912755
Preceded by	King Rat
Followed by	The Scar

Perdido Street Station is the second published novel by China Miéville and the first of three independent works set in the fictional world of Bas-Lag, a world where both magic (referred to as 'thaumaturgy') and steampunk technology exist. The novel has won several literary awards.

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!"

Perdido Street Station is set in Bas-Lag's large city-state of New Crobuzon: the title refers to a railway station at the heart of the city.

Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is a scientist living in the city of New Crobuzon. He is approached by Yagharek, a birdlike species known as Garuda, who has had his wings removed as a punishment in his native land. He asks Isaac to allow him to fly again. Isaac agrees and starts collecting samples of flying creatures for his research with the aid of Lemuel Pigeon, a fence with links to the criminal underworld. One sample he receives is a large and unusual caterpillar, stolen from a government research lab. The caterpillar sickens until Isaac realises that it can feed on a popular hallucinogenic drug. It grows and starts to pupate. After reaching maturity, it emerges as a monstrous flying beast known as a slakemoth with the power to paralyse its victims using its wings. It escapes after eating the mind of one of Isaac's colleagues, leaving him catatonic. Isaac, Yagharek and Lemuel resolve to re-capture or destroy it.

Isaac's girlfriend Lin is a khepri, an insect-like humanoid and an artist. She is commissioned by Mr Motley, a mob boss, to make a sculpture of him. Mr Motley has four more of the slakemoths in captivity and harvests their milk to sell as drugs. The slakemoth that Isaac inadvertently raised frees its siblings, Mr Motley discovers Isaac's connection to the slakemoths and imprisons Lin, demanding from Isaac the return of his creatures. The slakemoths start to terrorise New Crobuzon, feeding on its inhabitants.

With the aid of Derkhan, a journalist and friend of Lin, Isaac discovers that the government sold Mr Motley the slakemoths to begin with. The security forces become aware of the activities of the slakemoths and begin to suppress the various rebellious elements within the city. To re-capture the slakemoths, they attempt to enlist the help of demons and the Weaver, a spider-like creature who moves through dimensions, obsessed with patterns and its own peculiar view of beauty. The demons refuse to assist and the Weaver soon ends up aiding Isaac.