Perdido Street Station

My vision of New Crobuzon is of dark and dirty Noir city full of shady elements and hard mouthed dames. It's just these elements and dames may be bugmen, or cactusmen, or frogmen.

China Mieville really knows how to build a world. But unlike Brandon Sanderson and J.R.R. Tolkien his world-building is at times too clunky, because he lacks the ability to edit down.

This story lacked a strong character base, and characters were developed just to be dropped without notice and without adding to the story. After a while I had a hard time keeping track of who was who. And the story of Isaac and Lin made no sense and added nothing, even though it was built up in the beginning as this major plot point. So frustrating.

Please someone introduce China Mieville to a good editor.