[[Perdido Street Station|One in a city]], [[The Scar|one on a boat]]… and now one based around an entire civilization built around a ‘perpetual train’, putting down rails as it goes (and at times, tearing them up behind it).

Man China Miéville has some bonkers worldbuilding ideas.

I mean course you want a change, we want a change, but if a change ain’t godsdamn coming, then the next thing I wish is that I didn’t care.

Beyond that, we have a whole book about political oppression and xenophobia (the Iron Council is initially founded by the remade working on the train). It’s about the tension of a revolution that feels inevitable. We have a story about gender differences (in a world where sexual dimorphism is a huge deal for some species) and love and longing. And a story about future history. The messy way of how one ends up getting history books written about them.

“History…” Jacobs spoke with terse authority. Brought Ori to a hush. “Is all full. And dripping. With the corpses. Of them who trusted the incorruptible.”

It’s also interesting to see the fallout of the ‘Contruct Uprising’. A direct consequence of Perdido Street Station. And now instead, we have golems–which in this world can be made by animating any sorts of bits of innanimate matter and giving them life/instructions. It’s cool!

Unfortunately, I think this may be the weakest of the three. Despite how cool an idea a ‘perpetual train’ is, I think the story spends too much time on other people/places/things. It’s all building up, but when one of the things I love the most (and always start by describing) is left wanting? That’s a bit of a bummer. It’s still fascinating and there’s a bunch of it… but I wanted more!