Hugos: Perdido St Station; Chronoliths; American Gods?

Gizzard · May 26, 2002

Theres a lot of solid stuff on this years Hugo ballot; I am still turning it over and over in my mind trying to figure out what to vote for.

Has anyone else here read Perdido Street Station, Chronoliths, American Gods, Passage or Cosmonaut Keep? If so, what were your favorites and why? (I havent read Cosmonaut Keep yet, but the rest I have.)

I'll start it out by saying that I just finished Chronoliths and enjoyed it quite a bit. Previously I had read Perdido Street Station; as someone else commented, "its a difficult read". Chronoliths is much more gripping; it reads more like a traditional thriller. Which is not to say its light-weight, the science is inventive and the issues raised are definitely strong. Its not as richly imagined a world as Perdido Street Station, but that would be a high bar for everyone to have to clear.

Umbran · May 26, 2002

I haven't read the others, so I cannot really compare, but I did just finish American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Excellent book.

Some say that the book is a little slow. In the sense that the book focuses a little more on thoughts than action, yes, I suppose it is. It can take a bit longer to develop a plot when you are more focused on thoughts than actions. IMO, it is still wonderfully written, with engaging plot and description. I found it to be a real page-turner.

It is also a book where if I tell you much about what's going on, it rather spoils some of the story.

Scarab · May 26, 2002

I really loved Perdido Street Station -- its on my top five list of 'darn good books everyone should read'. A little quote:

He indicated that Yagharek should turn the page. Yagharek did so, and something clucked deep in his throat. Isaac supposed it was the garuda equivalent of a sudden intake of breath. Isaac looked briefly at the picture, then looked up, not too quickly, at Yagharek's face.
'Those things in the background like melting statues used to be houses,' he said levelly. 'The thing you're looking at, as far as they could work out, is descended from the domestic goat. Apparently they used to keep them as pets in Suroch. This could be second, tenth, twentieth generation post-Torque, obviously. We don't know how long they live.'
Yagharek stared at the dead thing in the heliotype.
'They had to shoot it, he explains in the text,' Isaac went on. 'It killed two of the militia. They had a go at an autopsy, but those horns in its stomach weren't dead, even though the rest of it was. They fought back, nearly killed the biologist. Do you see the carapace? Weird splicing going on there.' Yagharek nodded slowly.
'Turn the page, Yag. This next one, no one has the slightest idea what it used to be. Might have been spontaneously generated in the Torque explosion. But I think those gears are descended from train engines.'

[...]

'There were twenty militia, Sacramundi the heliotypist and three research scientists, plus a couple of engineers who stayed in the airship the whole time.
Seven militia, Sacramundi and one chymist came out of Suroch. Some were Torque-wounded. By the time they got back to New Crobuzon one militiaman had died. Another had barbed tentacles where his eyes should be, and pieces of the scientist's body were disappearing every night. No blood, no pain, just... smooth holes in her abdomen or arm or whatever. She killed herself.'

[...]

'Yag,' Isaac said softly, 'we ain't going to use the Torque. You might be thinking "You still use hammers and some people are murdered with them". Right? Eh? "Rivers can flood and kill thousands or they can drive water turbines." Yes? Trust me... speaking as one who used to think the Torque was /terribly/ exciting... it's not a /tool/. It's /not/ a hammer, it's not like water. It's... the Torque is /rogue/ /power/. We're not talking crisis energy here, right? Get that /right/ out of your head. Crisis is the energy underpinning the whole of physics. Torque's not about physics. It's not /about/ anything. It's... it's an entirely pathological force. We don't know where it comes from, why it appears, where it goes. All bets are off. No rules apply. You can't tap it -- well, you can try, but you've seen the results -- you can't play with it, you can't trust it, you can't understand it, you sure as godsdamn-

can't control it.'

Gizzard · May 27, 2002

Scarabs quote from Perdido St brings up some of the problems I had with the book. Like I said previously, I liked it, but found it difficult to read. (I was chatting with someone else about *why* I found it difficult; its not difficult like James Joyce where his technique is so extreme that it becomes a barrier to understanding and enjoying the story. I still havent figured out why exactly the book is "difficult".)

Anyway, although the scene Scarab quotes is very atmospheric and ultimately effective, its also almost entirely tangential to the story! Is Torque mentioned ever again? Its nine pages of text devoted to this sequence (intercut briefly with another plot), and the major way it motivates the plot is to flesh out the depths of the Garudas desperation/ignorance. The more I think about it, the more I think this passage is a perfect encapsulation of the book; langorous, evocative, fabulously strange and imaginative; but it can be edited from nine pages to a handful of paragraphs without losing much.

Pielorinho · Mar 20, 2003

Resurrecting this old thread...

I'm reading Perdido Street Station now, and loving it. It's wonderfully rich, horribly creepy, very intelligent stuff. Nightmare material for sure.

I just finished readinga throwaway reference to adventurers. The protagonists are looking for some help with a problem they're having, and one of them mentiones a group of adventurers that just liberated a stash of trow gold from a set of ruins outside of the city. Another protagonist snorts in disdain, says that all adventurers are intereseted in is gold and experience. Hee hee! I think. The protagonist calls them thrillseeking scum.

I would love to play a game set in New Crobuzon. What a rich, freaky world!

Daniel

Chaldfont · Mar 21, 2003

I've read American Gods and Perdido Street Station. Although I am a huge Gaiman fan and really enjoyed A.G., I would have to vote for Perdido Street Station. Its originality alone is worth the price of the book and the time reading it. I actually enjoy a book that takes a little work to read. I love it when the author makes you learn from context rather than spelling every thing out. This book reminded me of Dune and A Clockwork Orange in that respect.

And this book is downright creepy! The main character's girlfriend has a beetle for a head for crying out loud!