
1. Perdido Street Station (2000)
The New Crobuzon series by China Miéville. This series is also known as:
- Bas-Lag
- Svět Bas-Lagu
- Noul Crobuzon
Genres and Sub-Genres[]
Urban Fantasy, Sci-UF, "Weird Fiction", "Fantastic Fiction",
- influenced by the themes and tropes of multiple genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror and steampunk
Series Description or Overview[]
❖ New Crobuzon is a fictional city-state created by China Miéville and located in his fictional world of Bas-Lag. It is prominently featured in both Perdido Street Station and Iron Council, and serves as a plot device and background for The Scar. ~ Goodreads | New Crobuzon series
❖ Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to none—not even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory. Isaac has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before fathomed. Though the Garuda's request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger. While Isaac's experiments for the Garuda turn into an obsession, one of his lab specimens demands attention: a brilliantly colored caterpillar that feeds on nothing but a hallucinatory drug and grows larger -- and more consuming—by the day. What finally emerges from the silken cocoon will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon -- and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it invokes. (WorldCat) ~ Bibliography: Perdido Street Station ~ ISFdb
❖ The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the centre of its own bewildering world. Humans and mutants and arcane races throng the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the rivers are sluggish with unnatural effluent, and factories and foundries pound into the night. For more than a thousand years, the parliament and its brutal militia have ruled over a vast array of workers and artists, spies, magicians, junkies and whores. Now a stranger has come, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand, and inadvertently something unthinkable is released. Soon the city is gripped by an alien terror—and the fate of millions depends on a clutch of outcasts on the run from lawmakers and crime-lords alike. The urban nightscape becomes a hunting ground as battles rage in the shadows of bizarre buildings. And a reckoning is due at the city's heart, in the vast edifice of Perdido Street Station. It is too late to escape. ~ Perdido Street Station - Pan MacMillan: China Mieville
Books in Series[]
New Crobuzon series: — won awards
- Perdido Street Station (2000)
- The Scar (2002)
- Iron Council (2004)
Shorts, Anthologies, etc. []
- "Jack" (2005) in Looking for Jack short story collection (see Bas-Lag Wiki)
World Building[]
Setting[]
Fictional world of Bas-Lag
Places:[]
CONTINENTS & LANDMASSES:
- Rohagi
- Bered Kai Nev
- Islands and other landmasses
~ Geography: Bas-Lag - Wikipedia
KNOWN STATES: New Crobuzon, The Brothers, Gharcheltist, The Gengris, Hell, High Cromlech, Khadoh, Maru'ahm, Qé Banssa, Salkrikaltor, Suroch, Tarmuth, Troglodopolis, Vadaunk, Yoraketche
Supernatural Elements[]
Re-mades, arcane races, Xenians, zombies, vampire, pirate wars, magicians, Re-mades, arcane races, half-bird, half-human creature, lab specimens, thaumaturgy, steampunk technology, xenian species, fantastic instances of science,
Glossary:[]
- Garuda — half-bird, half-human creature
- xenian species: humanoid beings that are part insect, part bird, part cactus, etc
Groups & Organizations:[]
Races:[]
- Anophelii
- Cactacae
- Cray
- Elementals
- Garuda
- Grindylow
- Handlingers
- Humans
- Khepri
- Remade
- Scabmettler
- Stiltspear
- Thanati
- Vampir
- Vodyanoi
- Weavers
- Wiremen
~ Known Races of Bas-Lag - Wikipedia
World[]
❖ Bas-Lag is a world where both magic (referred to as "thaumaturgy") and steampunk technology exist, and is home to many intelligent races. Bas-Lag possesses a number of continents. Two landmasses, Rohagi and Bered Kai Nev, are named in the three novels, though numerous other landmasses and unique structures play important roles in the novels. ~ More: Bas-Lag - Wikipedia
❖ New Crobuzon is a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. ~ Goodreads
❖ Crobuzon is a city-state in a strange world inhabited not only by humans but also by a wide variety of "xenians"—humanoid beings that are part insect, part bird, part cactus, etc. Humans are the dominant species, although the other species live, work and even, to varying degrees, interact socially and commercially with humans and with each other. New Crobuzon includes many ghettos where xenian species live. The origins of these species are never discussed—this is simply the way of the world. Actually, much about the background is left mysterious. ~ Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
❖ Technology on Bas-Lag is wide and varied and evolves over the course of the books. In Perdido Street Station the primary piece of weaponry is the flintlock musket; by the time of Iron Council militia are armed with what appears to be percussion cap weaponry in the form of motorguns and pepperpot revolvers. On pg. 229 of Perdido Street Station Isaac states: "That's where they dropped the colourbomb in 1545. That's what they said put an end to the Pirate Wars, but to be honest with you, Yag, they'd been over for a year before that [...]". Interestingly, in Iron Council, the science behind colourbombs is referred to as a "lost science."
Another power source is The Torque, mentioned on pg. 225, a mysterious energy plaguing the Cacotopic Stain that might be compared to radiation. Torque leads to strange mutations, altering both living creatures and the inanimate environment: for example, during Iron Council, a railway carriage and its three occupants are transmogrified by the Torque into a blob of semi-solid matter containing three nuclei. Another implication of dropping the colourbomb is that it was done to hide the extent of the torque weapon's devastation of city of Suroch, which later revealed to be the unnamed opponent in the Pirate Wars.
In all three novels there are also several mentions of clockwork gems, metaclockwork, sentient robot-like constructs operating with difference engines, and many other inexplicable or fantastic instances of science, magic and combination of both.
In Iron Council, Miéville dedicates a lot of attention to the magic art of golemancy, explaining the logic behind the art and its difference to the calling and control of elementals. ~ Bas-Lag Technology- Wikipedia
❖ History, Ages:[]
- Ghosthead Empire
- Malarial Queendom
- First Umbric Age
- Full Years
- Pirate Wars
- The Ravening
- 1779–1780
- 1804
~ History of Bas-Lag - Wikipedia
❖ Politics and Societies:[]
- The Brothers
- Gharcheltist
- The Gengris
- Hell
- High Cromlech
- Khadoh
- Maru'ahm
- New Crobuzon
- Qé Banssa
- Salkrikaltor
- Suroch
- Tarmuth
- Troglodopolis
- Vadaunk
- Yoraketche
Protagonist[]
Isaac, a brilliant scientist, is asked by a bird-man Garuda to restore his power of flight.
Sidekick[]
- Name: / What: / Sidekick-to: / About: / Book First Seen:
Characters Chart[]
More Names: New Crobuzon Series ~ Shelfari
Characters | What | About |
---|---|---|
Isaac | brilliant human scientist | obsessed with his pet theory of "crisis energy"; Lover: Lin; close friend: Derkhan Blueday; |
Garuda | bird-man | asks Isaac to restore his power of flight |
Ms. Lin | Isaac's lover | Khepri artist |
Derkhan Blueday | middle-aged lesbian and seditionist | co-editor of the Runagate Rampant (an underground newspaper) |
Lemuel Pigeon | small criminal | helps Grimnebulin |
Weaver | spiderlike entity | |
David Serachin: | Grimnebulin's coleague | |
Mayor Bentham Rudgutter: | mayor of New Crobuzon | |
Weaver | ||
Lucky Gazid | drug dealer | addict and wannabe artists' agent |
Lublamai Dadscatt | Grimnebulin's coleague | |
Bellis Coldwine | linguist | cold, reserved, fleeing for her life for her alleged connection to the events in Perdido Street Station |
Tanner Sack | Remade criminal | bound for slavery; his body surgically and magically altered as punishment for his crime |
Shekel | young cabin boy | befriends Tanner |
Johannes Tearfly | scientist | interests lie in megafauna and underwater sealife |
Silas Fennec | New Crobuzonian spy | |
Uther Doul | bodyguard | mysterious, scarred leader of Armada |
Carrianne | citizen of Armada | press-ganged citizen; Coworker and friend to Bellis |
Angevine | Servant/bodyguard | to one of the foremost scientists in Armada; lover: Shekel |
Sister Meriope | neurotic/pregnant shipmate to Bellis | Press-ganged and taken to Armada at the same time as Bellis Coldwine |
Sengka | Cactae Pirate Captain | commissioned to take a warning to New Crobuzon by Tanner Sack |
Bastard John | police/guard dolphin | patrols beneath Armada |
Hedrigall | former Cactae Pirate Captain | trader that lives aboard Armada and has considerable influence |
Judah Low | Golem maker | this book starts with him in his later days (say about 50), but then details his life from his late teens. A hopeful, smiling, saintlike True Believer. Loves men and women equally but always distantly. He seems to be being called from afar, and he infuriates his male lover, Cutter, who also stars as a major character, by his lack of attachment |
Cutter | friend, disciple, and lover to Judah | during Judah’s return to New Crobuzon |
Ori | revolutionary | cannot abide the endless talk of his fellow Runagaters |
Ann-Hari | prostitute | joins Judah and Uzman to lead a revolution in which the rail workers drive the overseers away |
Qurabin: | disciple of a Teshi | religious tradition whom Cutter and Judah met on the journey to Iron Council |
Drogon | ||
To expand the table, in Edit–Visual mode, right-press on a Row of the table or Column (Control-press on a Mac)—choose add Row or Column. Or, in Source Mode: copy-paste rows.
Author[]

China Miéville (
China Miéville
- Website: China Mieville
- Genres: "Weird Fiction", "Fantastic Fiction", Urban Fsntasy
Bio: A British "fantastic fiction" writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" (after early 20th century pulp and horror writers such as H. P. Lovecraft), and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird who consciously attempt to move fantasy away from commercial, genre clichés of Tolkien epigons. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist Workers Party. He has stood for the House of Commons for the Socialist Alliance, and published a book on Marxism and international law. ~ Goodreads via Wikipedia
❖ China Miéville lives and works in London. He is three-time winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award and has also won the British Fantasy Award twice. The City & The City, an existential thriller, was published to dazzling critical acclaim and drew comparison with the works of Kafka and Orwell and Philip K. Dick. His previous novel, Embassytown, was a first and widely praised foray into science fiction (published in 2011). ~ panmacmillan
Quote: 'My job is not to try to give readers what they want but to try to make readers want what I give' ~ China Mieville:| theguardian.com
Cover Artist[]
1. Perdido Street Station (2000)
- Artist: Edward Miller (2000 & 2011—Macmillan UK)
- Artist: David Stevenson (2001—Del Rey / Ballantine)
- Artist: Ludovic Moulin, John Lofaso (2003—Del Rey / Ballantine)
- Artist: Crush (2011) (Pan Books)
2. The Scar (2002)
- Artist: Edward Miller (2002—Macmillan UK) (2003—Pan Books)
- Artist: Ashley Wood (2002 & 2004—Del Rey / Ballantine)
- Artist: Crush (2011—Pan Books)
3. Iron Council (2004)
- Artist: David Stevenson, Carl D. Galian (2004—Del Rey / Ballantine)
- Artist: David Stevenson, Carl D. Galian (2005—Pan Books)
- Artist: Crush (2011—Pan Books)
~ Sources:
- ISFdb: Bibliography: Perdido Street Station
- ISFdb: Bibliography: The Scar
- ISFdb: Bibliography: Iron Council
Publishing Information[]
Publishers: Del Rey
- Author Page: China Mieville * Author Bookshelf - Random House - Books - Audiobooks - Ebooks
- Author Page: China Mieville - Pan Macmillan
- Bk-1: Paperback, 623 pages, Pub: July 29th 2003—ISBN: 0345459407
- Bk-2: Paperback, 578 pages, Pub: June 29th 2004—ISBN: 0345460014
- Bk-3: Paperback, 576 pages, Pub: —July 26th 2005ISBN: 0345458427
Book Cover Blurbs[]
✤ BOOK ONE BLURB—Perdido Street Station (2000): New Crobuzon is a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. Isaac, a brilliant scientist, is asked by a bird-man Garuda to restore his power of flight. But one lab specimen threatens the whole city. A vividly colored caterpillar eating a hallucinatory drug grows in order to consume all. ~ Goodreads | Perdido Street Station (Bas-Lag, #1)
✤ BOOK TWO BLURB—The Scar (2002): A mythmaker of the highest order, China Miéville has emblazoned the fantasy novel with fresh language, startling images, and stunning originality. Set in the same sprawling world of Miéville’s Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel, Perdido Street Station, this latest epic introduces a whole new cast of intriguing characters and dazzling creations. Aboard a vast seafaring vessel, a band of prisoners and slaves, their bodies remade into grotesque biological oddities, is being transported to the fledgling colony of New Crobuzon. But the journey is not theirs alone. They are joined by a handful of travelers, each with a reason for fleeing the city. Among them is Bellis Coldwine, a renowned linguist whose services as an interpreter grant her passage—and escape from horrific punishment. For she is linked to Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, the brilliant renegade scientist who has unwittingly unleashed a nightmare upon New Crobuzon.
For Bellis, the plan is clear: live among the new frontiersmen of the colony until it is safe to return home. But when the ship is besieged by pirates on the Swollen Ocean, the senior officers are summarily executed. The surviving passengers are brought to Armada, a city constructed from the hulls of pirated ships, a floating, landless mass ruled by the bizarre duality called the Lovers. On Armada, everyone is given work, and even Remades live as equals to humans, Cactae, and Cray. Yet no one may ever leave. Lonely and embittered in her captivity, Bellis knows that to show dissent is a death sentence. Instead, she must furtively seek information about Armada’s agenda. The answer lies in the dark, amorphous shapes that float undetected miles below the waters—terrifying entities with a singular, chilling mission. ~ Goodreads | The Scar (Bas-Lag, #2) by China Miéville
✤ BOOK THREE BLURB—Iron Council (2004): Following Perdido Street Station and The Scar, acclaimed author China Miéville returns with his hugely anticipated Del Rey hardcover debut. With a fresh and fantastical band of characters, he carries us back to the decadent squalor of New Crobuzon—this time, decades later. It is a time of wars and revolutions, conflict and intrigue. New Crobuzon is being ripped apart from without and within. War with the shadowy city-state of Tesh and rioting on the streets at home are pushing the teeming city to the brink. A mysterious masked figure spurs strange rebellion, while treachery and violence incubate in unexpected places. In desperation, a small group of renegades escapes from the city and crosses strange and alien continents in the search for a lost hope. In the blood and violence of New Crobuzon’s most dangerous hour, there are whispers. It is the time of the iron council. . . .
The bold originality that broke Miéville out as a new force of the genre is here once more in Iron Council: the voluminous, lyrical novel that is destined to seal his reputation as perhaps the edgiest mythmaker of the day. ~ Goodreads | Iron Council (Bas-Lag, #3) by China Miéville
First Sentences[]
- Book #1: Veldt to scrub to fields to farms to these first tumbling houses that rise from earth. ~ Shelfari
- Book #2: It is only ten miles beyond the city that the river loses its momentum, drooling into the brackish estuary that feeds Iron Bay.
- Book #3: A MAN RUNS.
Quotes[]
- Goodreads | China Miéville Quotes (Author of Perdido Street Station)
- New Crobuzon Series ~ Shelfari (list of quotes for each book)
- "I turn away from him and step into the vastness of New Crobuzon, this towering edifice of architecture and history, this complexitude of money and slum, this profane steam-powered god."
The Scar:
Trivia[]
~ ranked #29 on Goodreads Best UF List
Lists:
- Goodreads | Best Weird Fiction Books (144 books)
- Goodreads | Essential Weird Fiction (54 books)
- Goodreads | Best Steampunk Books (623 books)
- Goodreads | Highbrow Fantasy Books (298 books)
- Goodreads | Trippy Books (390 books)
- Goodreads | Best Hugo Award Runner-Ups (84 books)
- Goodreads | Nebula Award Runners-Up (67 books)
- Goodreads | Favourite Fictional Cities (116 books)
~ Goodreads | Lists That Contain Perdido Street Station (Bas-Lag, #1) by China Miéville
~ Goodreads | Lists That Contain The Scar (Bas-Lag, #2) by China Miéville
~ Goodreads | Lists That Contain Iron Council (Bas-Lag, #3) by China Miéville
Awards[]
❖ China Miéville: List of Honours - Wikipedia
❖ He is three-time winner of the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award and has also won the British Fantasy Award twice. The City & The City, an existential thriller, was published to dazzling critical acclaim and drew comparison with the works of Kafka and Orwell and Philip K. Dick. His previous novel, Embassytown, was a first and widely praised foray into science fiction (published in 2011). ~ China Mieville ~ Pan Macmillan
❖ LIST of AWARDS:
Perdido Street Station:
- Nominated:
- 2002 - Nebula Award for Best Novel
- 2002 - Hugo Award for Best Novel
- Won
- 2001 - Arthur C. Clarke Award
- 2001 - British Fantasy Society's August Derleth Award
- 2001 - Amazon.com Editor's Choice Award in Fantasy
- 2002 - Premio Ignotus Award for Best Foreign Novel (for the Spanish translation)
- 2002 - Kurd Lasswitz Award for Best Foreign Novel (for the German translation)
Read Alikes (similar elements)[]
- See Category links at bottom of page
Notes[]
See Also[]
- UF Release Schedules
- List of Sidekicks
- List of Vampires of Urban Fantasy
- Characters (category)
- List of UF Anthologies
- List of PNR Anthologies and Collections
- List of Cover Artists
- Urban Fantasy Links
Category links at bottom of page
External References[]
Books:
- New Crobuzon series by China Miéville ~ GR
- New Crobuzon - Series Bibliography ~ ISFdb
- New Crobuzon Series ~ Shelfari
- China Miéville - FF
- FictFact - New Crobuzon series by China Miéville
- New Crobuzon | Series | LibraryThing
- China Mieville - Summary Bibliography - ISFdb
Wikipedia Book Pages:
Summaries:
- The Bas-Lag Trilogy by China Miéville | Frivolous Waste of Time
- Prose & Conversation: 'Perdido Street Station' by China Mieville | LitReactor
- Book Report: The Bas Lag Trilogy | Guild Of Dreams
- Perdido Street Station by China Miéville | the contextual life
- The Speculative Fiction of China Mieville - Nick Leshi - Open Salon
Devoted Sites:
The World, Characters, etc:
- Bas-Lag Wiki
- Characters in Perdido Street Station - Bas-Lag Wiki
- Bas-Lag - Wikipedia
- New Crobuzon - Wikipedia
- New Crobuzon Series ~ Shelfari
- Literature/Perdido Street Station - Television Tropes & Idioms
Reviews:
- China Mieville A to Z
- New Crobuzon #1 | Full of Words
- Book Review: Perdido Street Station #1 | Sweat, Tears and Digital Ink
- All Things Speculative: Review: Perdido Street Station #1 (New Crobuzon)
- Review | Perdido Street Station #1 by China Miéville
- Tethyan Books: Review: Perdido Street Station #1 by China Miéville
- Perdido Street Station #1 by China Mieville | Drunken Dragon Reviews
- China Mieville's Perdido Street Station #1 Review | Miss Momus
- Review: Perdido Street Station #1 | Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Reviews
- Wilder's Review: Perdido Street Station #1 by China Mieville
- Perdido Street Station #1 by China Miéville - Book Review | Vivid Scribe
- Review of Perdido Street Station #1 by China Mieville | Best Fantasy Books Blog
- Review: Perdido Street Station #1 by China Miéville
- Audiobook Review: Perdido Street Station #1 by China Mieville | The Guilded Earlobe
- Book Review: China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station #1 | Dial H For Houston
- Book Review: Perdido Street Station #1 by China Mieville | Dave Ex Machina
- Book review: Perdido Street Station #1 by China Mieville | Life or the lack thereof
- Being obscure clearly: Perdido Street Station #! by China Miéville
- PERDIDO STREET STATION #1 by China Miéville | Kirkus
- Book Review: Perdido Street Station #1 by China Mieville | Dave Ex Machina
- SF REVIEWS.NET: The Scar #2 / China Miéville
- Review: The Scar #2 by China China Miéville | Books | The Guardian
- The Scar #2 (China Miéville) | kalafudra's Stuff
- China Mieville's The Scar review and reading guide page - authortrek.com
- The Scar #2 by China Mieville - read excerpt
- The Wertzone: Iron Council #3 by China Mieville
- New Crobuzon #3 – If you can Re-Make it There! — Crooked Timber
- 'Iron Council' #3 by China Mieville (washingtonpost.com)
- " On Books" - Iron Council #3 - By Norman Spinrad
- Speculiction...: Review of "Iron Council"#3 by China Mieville
- China Miéville – The Iron Council (2004) |
- The SF Site Featured Review: Iron Council
- ▶ Book Review | New Crobuzon Series by China Mieville - YouTube
References:
Interviews:
- China Miéville Answers Five Questions | Tor.com
- Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction and Fantasy : In a Carapace of Light: A Conversation with China Miéville by Jeremy L. C. Jones
- China Miéville | Books | Interview | The A.V. Club
- Return to Bas-Lag: An Interview with China Miéville
- Fantasy and revolution: an interview with China Miéville
- [http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/mievilleinterview.htm Joan Gordon -- Reveling in Genre: An Interview with China Mi�ville]
- China Mieville interviewed - infinity plus non-fiction
- Interview with China Miéville | The White Review
- China Mieville: interview | Children's books | theguardian.com
- China Miéville | Books | The Guardian - article list
- Clarkesworld Magazine - Science Fiction and Fantasy
Articles:
- Fantasy Remade | Online Only | n+1
- China Mieville | Words and Coffee
- China Mieville sure likes cities (Perdido Street Station and others) | Doing In The Wizard
- Steampunk Scholar: Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
- Being obscure clearly: Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Art Reveals:
Artists:
- Edward Miller aka Les Edwards - Bibliography ~ ISFdb
- Edward Miller Author Page ~ Shelfari
- David Stevenson - Bibliography ~ ISFdb
- Ludovic Moulin - Bibliography ~ ISFdb
- John Lofaso - Bibliography ~ ISFdb
- Ashley Wood - Bibliography ~ ISFdb
- Crush - Bibliography ~ ISFdb
- Carl D. Galian - Bibliography ~ ISFdb
Author, Misc:
- Authors : Miéville, China : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia
- China Miéville - Wikipedia
- Goodreads | China Miéville (Author of Perdido Street Station)
- rejectamentalist manifesto
- Urban Dictionary: China Miéville
Community, Fan Sites: