The Scar by China Mieville
This is the second in a set of three books that take place in the same world. The first, Perdido Street Station, was great, although quite intense at times and a bit hard to get into. This was a bit more accessible, but kept the intensity and the huge, huge amount of detailed ideas, which he seems to have in bucketloads to just use up so many on such small things. The different creatures in the world he’s created are all so clever - detailed and humanoid but disturbing at times too. If I had to have a complaint it would be that I don’t really find any of his characters particularly likeable, and I do like to be able to relate to at least one character on some level. That’s just me though, I don’t think it’s a measure of the quality of the book.
The writing’s fantastic, so descriptive, the plot is interesting, and although I don’t necessarly warm to the characters they’re really so well realised.
Ohhh, just read someone’s review on Amazon and they described the style as industrial fantasy. I think that sums it up well.
Anyway, this was good. It took me a while to get through, it’s definitely not a mindless holiday read sort of a book.