Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Good grief. Complex, rich and dark. Totally worth reading.
"It's got love, loss, crime, sex, riots, mad scientists, drugs, art, corruption, demons, dreams, obsession, magic, aliens, subversion, torture, dirigibles, romantic outlaws, artificial intelligence, and dangerous cults."
Gah, I think this is the kind of book you have to flap about in person, sorry to be so inarticulate but there's so much and I'm having a hard time finding a bit to grab hold of what with the amazing sciences and magics kinda blending into each other - flintlock guns and mechanical batteries that power thaumaturgical devices, an undine who lives in a Vodyanoi woman's shirt and Isaac's mission to create a Unified Theory incorporating it all.
There's Too Too Abstract Yagharek Not To Be Respected, the garuda whose wings have been sawn off for the crime of "choice theft in the second degree with utter disrespect" who wants Isaac to help him fly again. Buried in the heart of the city is the Weaver, a giant, multidimensional spider with no subconscious who is quite keen on scissors. It lives to increase and protect the beauty of a web only it can see.
It's set in a giant, multiracial, sprawling city controlled by secret police, criminal underbosses, strange religions, ghetto enclaves and the human slaves of a burgeoning artificial intelligence.
"It's got love, loss, crime, sex, riots, mad scientists, drugs, art, corruption, demons, dreams, obsession, magic, aliens, subversion, torture, dirigibles, romantic outlaws, artificial intelligence, and dangerous cults."
Gah, I think this is the kind of book you have to flap about in person, sorry to be so inarticulate but there's so much and I'm having a hard time finding a bit to grab hold of what with the amazing sciences and magics kinda blending into each other - flintlock guns and mechanical batteries that power thaumaturgical devices, an undine who lives in a Vodyanoi woman's shirt and Isaac's mission to create a Unified Theory incorporating it all.
There's Too Too Abstract Yagharek Not To Be Respected, the garuda whose wings have been sawn off for the crime of "choice theft in the second degree with utter disrespect" who wants Isaac to help him fly again. Buried in the heart of the city is the Weaver, a giant, multidimensional spider with no subconscious who is quite keen on scissors. It lives to increase and protect the beauty of a web only it can see.
It's set in a giant, multiracial, sprawling city controlled by secret police, criminal underbosses, strange religions, ghetto enclaves and the human slaves of a burgeoning artificial intelligence.