Perdido Street Station – China Miéville

This critically acclaimed steampunk novel about is a man and his forbidden love, and lots and lots and lots of other things. A very big novel, in many senses. Apart from its heft, it carries a heavy baggage of stylized themes and has a lovely style to its prose. It was definitely worth a read, but I still felt that by the end I just wanted to get it over with. In other words, good stuff but it a bit too long.

 

Anti-Ice – Stephen Baxter

Steam Age SciFi from Baxter. In the 19th Century, the British discover a pile of stuff in the Antarctic. This stuff releases fabulous quantities of energy when it comes into contact with other stuff. A whole transportation economy develops based on the so-called Anti-Ice. And there is a mission to the moon. Fun!