Perdido Street Station

This was a wild blending of elements: fantasy, cyber-punk, steampunk, horror, and classic mythology to name a few. So many different creatures it's impossible to remember how you're supposed to be imagining them as you come across different characters. As Douglas Adams put it in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, “the things are also people.”

I'd be better off reading this alongside a companion book, The Visual Guide to Bas-Lag (as yet non-existent). I like to think I have a visual imagination, and it's not so much the elaborate descriptions as it is the sheer number of species and locations. Bonus, everything is covered with slime and feces.

Oh yeah, I enjoyed the story as well, though I never got too cozy with any of the characters.