New Crobuzon

This is a different sort of fantasy and helped solidify the New Weird / Slipstream movement. The New Crobuzon novels are loosely connected (set in the same world), with the first being Perdido Street Station. It's hard to explain Mieville's work -- it's a combination of the bizarre, the familiar, and the totally weird. But everything somehow fits right together in the end. And the writing is good, so very good. Beautiful metaphors and similes dance from the pages. Prose so sharp it almost cuts. and keeps you turning the pages. The books take a bit to get into due to the utter weirdness of the characters and the landscape, but after a bit of time the environment starts to sink in. The plots are always strong, however. All in all, the series is as grand as it is grotesque and gaudy, and the whole tale is captivating. I'll be the first to admit that China Mieville is a polarizing author and his works are definitely not for everyone. I recommend you start with his Perdido Street Station for a good introduction to his style of writing. If you don't like this book, then you probably won't like his other books. His most interesting book is The City and The City, which is a pseudo science fiction read, but quite remarkable.His New Crobuzon books require you to put some work into and just slow down your reading pace and let the words, story, and setting wash over you. If you do, you'll be in for something special.