Re:Symptomatic of historical revisionism (Score 1)

I am afraid I have to agree with Anonymous Coward. The down side is that Mieville seems to be using well-worn themes and plot lines. The up side is that after working very familiar territory in the SF and horror genres, he made a step-level jump in Perdido Street Station and The Scar. Some of us think he is at the top of his game now. Many SF writers cut their teeth writing short stories. Mieville has done his experimenting with themes and characters and honing of skills in his first book. After humming the first couple measures not very successfully, he got the tune and produced two outstandings works bridging SF and horror fiction.