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China Mieville's New Crobuzon is industrial revolution London at its most corrupt and pathological, all its social issues splayed into a menagerie of the grotesque and fantastic by Mieville's very formidable imagination. He's also notably distinct from typical fantastic writers for being too cynical for obvious morality and clean resolutions, and for populating his story largely with artists and academics, far from central adventure story casting. Even so, he lets the (albeit gripping) story slide towards extended action sequences later in the book, becoming the Clive Cussler to the first half's Dickens. And let's not even get started on the Deus ex Machinas, whether literal or more deus ex arachnida. Ultimately this is something to read for straight entertainment, then, but uniquely inventive, entertaining entertainment at that.