The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the centre of its own bewildering worl
d. Humans and mutants and arcane races throng the gloom beneath its chimneys, wh
ere the rivers are sluggish with unnatural effluent, and factories and foundries
pound into the night. For more than a thousand years, the parliament and its br
utal militia have ruled over a vast array of workers and artists, spies, magicia
ns, junkies and whores.
Now a stranger has come, with a pocketful of gold and
an impossible demand, and inadvertently something unthinkable is released. Soon
the city is gripped by an alien terror - and the fate of millions depends on a
clutch of outcasts on the run from lawmakers and crime-lords alike. The urban ni
ghtscape becomes a hunting ground as battles rage in the shadows of bizarre buil
dings.
