Perdido Street Station

Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin is a dissident scientist in New Crobuzon, a huge, polluted city-state where several species share the streets. Its brutal government is allied with big business and organised crime. Isaac does back-alley research and keeps company with radical politics. His lover Lin is a khepri artist.

A garuda named Yagharek comes to him with a request. His wings were cut off as a punishment, and he wants Isaac to help him fly again. Isaac treats the job as an intellectual puzzle and starts gathering winged creatures to study.

One specimen is a caterpillar of unknown kind, bought from a crime boss who trades in dangerous animals. It matures into a monster that preys on the minds of the city's inhabitants. As the creature spreads, the militia hunts Isaac, Lin and their friends, and so do criminals with plans of their own.

The pursued scientists turn to stranger and stranger allies, hoping to contain what they have loosed on the city.

The book mixes fantasy, science fiction and horror in a setting touched by steampunk, and the dread grows as the creature does. It was first published in 2000 as the first novel set in the world of Bas-Lag, and it won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award.