** spoiler alert ** 
 A comment that I often make about talented writers is that they know how to work with language, and how to make it do what they want. Well, Mieville does good once again, with all of his best traits on display: world-building, creature-creating, language-twisting, and utterly bleak and fascinating stories with the faintest glimmer of hope in the end. Roaring stuff. 
 Real scifi, right here.