I feel like China Mieville's books are ranked, for me, by how utterly bizarre they are. On a scale of 1 to Perdido Street Station, this was one of the odder ones

Of course, Meiville wanders in to different genres every time he starts a new book; this time he does sci-fi and semiotics (two things that have been strangely twinned in my life recently) and while he does them well and I very much enjoyed the book, I found that I enjoyed the beginning, when I could still follow the story, somewhat more than the end. I don't know whether that's Mieville's fault or mine.