shalini_rasamdaa's reviews
735 reviews

The world-setting of New Crobuzon is like nothing I'd encountered before, and it was exhilarating. A lot of it was plain old insane, but there is an ordered chaos to the city, and it's a character all by itself. The plot is reminiscent of old-timey science adventures, with enough drama and action to keep one satisfied. You would be following an action plot and then suddenly, "Wait! What's that thing? Wait, I wanna see!" That's what New Crobuzon feels like. The characters are very interesting, but you do get the feeling that if their "New Crobuzon-ness" was taken away they'd be quite normal stereotypes. The ending is not unexpected, but still painful just the same as you grow quite attached to them.

This book was a lot of fun, although it was quite difficult to follow the language used. It's a sort of fictional pidgin which is descriptive and colourful. An engaging modern fairy tale, although the plot action tapers off towards the end.

Most stories were great. I'd read many of them before, but some were new. They were not all interesting, I had skipped the one about the submarines as it had bored me terribly. Still engaging on the whole.