Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

One creature is a large and unusual caterpillar, stolen from a government research lab. Isaac agrees and starts collecting flying creatures for research purposes with the aid of Lemuel Pigeon, a fence with links to the criminal underworld. He is approached by Yagharek, a member of a birdlike species known as garuda, who has had his wings removed as a punishment for an undisclosed crime in his native land. Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is a scientist living in the city of New Crobuzon. A US paperback followed in March 2001 from Ballantine Del Rey. The UK edition was a hardcover, while the Australian version was a trade paperback it featured a cover by Edward Miller and was marketed as a dark fantasy novel. The book was published simultaneously in the UK and Australia in March 2000 by Macmillan.

So rather than being a feudal world, it's an early industrial capitalist world of a fairly grubby, police statey kind!'. Miéville described the book as 'basically a secondary world fantasy with Victorian era technology. Perdido Street Station is set in the fictional world of Bas-Lag, in the large city-state of New Crobuzon the title refers to a railway station at the heart of the city. Perdido Street Station is the first of three independent works set in the fictional world of Bas-Lag, and is followed by The Scar and Iron Council.

Clarke Award and was ranked by Locus as the 6th all-time best fantasy novel published in the 20th century. Often described as weird fiction, it is set in a world where both magic and steampunk technology exist. Perdido Street Station is a novel by British writer China Miéville, published in 2000 by Macmillan.

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville