I recently finished Perdido Street Station, and one minor thing that bothered me is how many of the other races were either a humanoid version of earth life (cactus person, bird person) or a literal combination of a human and something (head of a bug, body of a person). That just seems so fantastically unlikely that I wonder if any of the other books in that setting explain it. Like, is it a future earth and the races are results of generic modification in some prior era?
I liked the book pretty well, through it’s not exactly uplifting. Thought provoking though.
If you want to read something slightly closer to “normal” SF by him, The Embassy is good. Although my absolute favorite is still The City and The City, which is all about social mores and to a degree, castes.
I read a lot, and it got expensive, so now I use a library app connected to three library cards I’m entitled to. I have The City and The City on hold, but it’s apparently pretty popular because the app is estimating seven weeks until it’s available. But I’ll read it when it comes up.
Hahaha, yeah I only buy books that I know I will be rereading down the line, because otherwise the foundations of my house would crumble under the weight.
My library allows requesting new books 3 months before they come out, so I usually try and be the guy requesting it and getting the first hold on it that way…
Amusingly, it popped up yesterday as available on one of the smaller libraries, so I’ve started reading it. Interesting.