Perdido Street Station

Perdido Street Station, China Mieville, Del Rey Books, 2000

New Crobuzon is a sprawling city, that is also very polluted and dirty. It is a place where all sorts of races, including humans and Re-mades (those who have been physically altered for various reasons, not always with their consent) live in fear of Parliament's brutal Militia.

Isaac is an eccentric scientist studying Chaos Theory. One day, he is approached by Yagharek, a member of a race called the Garuda (half-man, half-bird). Yagharek's wings had been chopped off his back as punishment for a major crime, so he commissions Isaac to make him a new set of wings. As part of his research, Isaac acquires hundreds of species of flying things, from the smallest bug to the largest bird. He also studies the process by which caterpillars turn into butterflies. Deciding that his research is going in the wrong direction, Isaac gets rid of the rest of his "collection," and keeps a strange, multi-colored caterpillar that thrives on a very powerful and addictive drug. One night, it emerges from its cocoon as a slake-moth.

Slake-moths are flying, nocturnal creatures, whose wings show an ever-changing color pattern, hypnotizing anyone instantly. This gives the slake-moth the chance to feed on a person's thoughts, feelings and fears, leaving them in a permanent vegetative state. The Ambassador from Hell is asked to help in stopping the moths (there are now 5 of them terrorizing the city) and declines. The Weaver, a giant spider that can easily move between dimensions and has a liking for scissors, joins the hunt. How does one stop, or even slow down, creatures who can hypnotize anyone instantly?

This is a great steampunk novel. Put Charles Dickens, Franz Kafka and Neal Stephenson together in a blender, add a dash of Neal Gaiman and H.P. Lovecraft, and this is the result. It's a long novel, about 700 pages, and the body count gets rather high by the end, but this novel is very much recommended.