Characters / Perdido Street Station

The characters in China Mieville's fantasy novel Perdido Street Station.

Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin

The main protagonist of the novel. He is a well known rogue scientist who specializes in "crisis theory", a field in radical physics.

• The Ace: He is a genius scientist who manages to defeat all of the slake-moths, the militia, and Mr. Motley using his wits.
• The Atoner: Becomes this after he accidentally unleashes the slake-moths on New Crobuzon.
• Badass Bookworm: He is a genius scientist, and manages to take on the slake-moths, Mr. Motley, the corrupt government, and The Construct Council all at once.
• Crazy Enough to Work: The Crisis Theory engine plan that he puts in motion is audacious, and could get him and all of his friends killed if it fails. But, despite all the odds, it works.
• Fatal Flaw: He often rushes into things without considering the consequences of going through with said actions. This is often due to his curiosity getting the better of him and, being a scientist, he has to know all the things he can. It bites him in the ass hard when one of the specimens that he keeps gets loose, causing a city wide crisis, his girlfriend gets kidnapped, tortured, and eventually left a vegetable.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Yagharek, though tragically subverted when Isaac eventually discovers Yagharek’s crime. Played straight with Derkhan and Lemuel.
• Freakiness Shame: Isaac is totally hot for his girlfriend, who has a scarab for a head. He reflects at length about how his revulsion turns him on.
• Genius Bruiser: Isaac, in spite of being a scientist, is a mountain of a man who holds his own against the city's militia with some well-lobbed chemicals, not to mention taking on monsters that Hell itself was too scared to fight.
• The Hero: Probably the closest thing the novel has to one. Without hesitation, he risks his life and nearly getting his consciousness sucked out so he can stop the slake-moths, and succeeds at great cost to himself.
• Insufferable Genius: He has shades of this, as he often likes to go on long diatribes about his scientific theories, much to the chagrin of his friends. But he is a genuinely Nice Guy who proves to be a hero as the novel moves along.
• Mad Scientist: A heroic version. He is called a rogue scientist for his pursuit of Crisis Theory and he has a lot of tension with the scientific elite of New Crobuzon.
• My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction once he realizes what he's released out into New Crobuzon.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Of all the specimens that Isaac releases when declaring his research into flight having dead-ended, the single one that he elected to keep sets the plot in motion.
• Nightmare Fetishist: How else to describe Isaac Grimnebulin? He's in love with a woman whose head is a giant beetle, a bird-person turning up on his doorstep asking for a new set of wings all but causes him to squee, and he is cheerfully enchanted with one particularly weird grub netted by his black-market attempts to find flight specimens. Until that grub grows up. You know when Isaac is freaked out, shit got real. He can hold a conversation, an intelligible and productive conversation, with The Weaver.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Isaac has saved New Crobuzon, defeated the Slake Moths, proved his crisis engine will work (and more importantly, kept it out of the hands of the corrupt government & the Mecha-Mooks), and hardest of all, survived. On the other hand, Lin is lobotomized, Yagharek is revealed as a rapist, Isaac refuses to help Yagharek, and the Constructs are headed for destruction. Not to mention Isaac and Derkhan have to flee New Crobuzon with the lobotomized Lin in tow, as the government is understandably not interested in giving them credit for having saved the city and has left them at the top of the Most Wanted list.
• Renaissance Man: Isaac dabbles in virtually every science under the sun, often exploring new, underresearched areas just due to his obsession of the month. (And he manages simultaneously to not be an Omnidisciplinary Scientist; he doesn't know everything, so when someone comes to him with a new problem he has to spend weeks researching it and sometimes consults with experts in the fields he's not so good at.)
• Scary Black Man: Played with. Isaac is described as having skin the color of smouldering wood, he's very fat (meaning he possesses Stout Strength, which is described below) and knows how to use his not inconsiderable bulk to intimidate (see an amusing scene where he drives off a Godmech Cog and uses his bulk for this purpose.) and has a couple disturbing interests.
• Science Hero: He solves most of the issues of the novel with pure guile...and science!!
• Stout Strength: Isaac vomits after enough rooftop-hopping and gets winded after climbing up a flight of stairs, but he is very capable of punching Lucky Gazid across a room.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: He finds a small grub which he takes on for study. Then, whoops: turns out the grub was of an extremely dangerous Animalistic Abomination that comes to threaten the whole city.
• Xanatos Speed Chess: He does this by the end of the book. And he's playing against four different opponents simultaneously.

Lin

A khepri artist and Isaac's love interest. She is kidnapped by the ruthless crime boss Mr. Motley to create a unique art piece.

• Butt-Monkey: Poor Lin gets a rough go at it through the novel. She gets captured and tortured by Mr. Motley due to her association with Isaac, and when she's freed she looks at the slake moth, which leaves her as a vegetable.
• Fatal Flaw: Curiosity, which leads her to look at the slake-moth and cause her to become permanently brain damaged.
• Too Dumb to Live: Despite getting explicit orders from her boyfriend to not look at the slake-moths, she looks at it anyway, and it ends predictably.
• Trauma Conga Line: Not a lot goes right for our poor friend Lin. She gets kidnapped, beaten, has her wings and one of her eyes gouged out, and becomes a borderline vegetable by the end of the novel.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: When she’s kidnapped by Motley, she’s assumed dead. But it turns out she’s alive! Only to get attacked by a slake moth and be rendered a vegetable.

Yagharek

An exiled member of the garuda people. He has lost his wings after committing the crime of "second degree choice-theft", and wants Isaac's help to restore his powers of flight.

• Ambiguous Situation: Yagharek's crime is danced around throughout the novel, only to be revealed by the victim of his crime to be rape. But due to the nature of their rules and philosophy, it is left unknown if what Yagherek committed was actually rape, or something akin to rape.
• The Atoner: He grows into this as the novel moves along, becoming more heroic as a way to possibly make up for his crime.
• Broken Angel: Yagharek's quest to fly again kickstarts the main plot. The ending breaks him even further.
• Byronic Hero: He checks most of the marks. He's highly intelligent, introspective, brooding, and is deeply flawed. But he steps up as the book moves along and becomes one of the most heroic characters of the novel.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Isaac, but ultimately subverted once Isaac finds out what his crime was.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed, as Yagharek is generally amiable. But he proves to be a heroic character and a loyal friend to Isaac, until Isaac finds out what he did.
• Karmic Nod: After Isaac and his friends find out what he did and abandon him. A devastated Yagharek accepts his punishment, rips out all of his feathers, and chooses to live the remainder of his life as a man.
• Noble Savage: Initially played straight but ultimately subverted, as it's revealed that Yagharek's crime was rape...or something akin to rape.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: a more articulate and melancholy version of the trope.
• Reformed, but Rejected: He becomes a more heroic character as the novel moves along, and even manages to become one of the most steadfast and loyal friends to Isaac. But then Isaac and his crew find out what Yagharek did and abandon him. He is left to make a new life for himself, alone.
• Warrior Poet: Yagherek can handle himself in a fight, usually relying on his trusty whip. But we see through his monologues that he's also a deeply introspective and philosophical fellow.

Derkhan Blueday

• Intrepid Reporter: She is a dogged reporter who seeks to expose Rudgutter and his government's corruption, and will stop at nothing to do so.
• She Who Fights Monsters: Becomes much more jaded and more willing to take life as the story moves along, she even considers this very point when looking for someone to sacrifice to Isaac's Crisis Engine.
• Straight Gay: Played with. It's never outright said, although it may be a case of Hide Your Lesbians. She has a good reason: New Crobuzon is not, to put it mildly, rainbow-friendly.

Lamuel Pigeon

• Crazy-Prepared: He brings along mercenaries to help them take out the slake-moths. Not that it does much good, but it's the thought that counts.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He gets shot by the Cactacae with their crossbow in a case of mistaken identity, which leaves him in physical agony before he is brutally hacked to death, much to Isaac's horror.
• Friend in the Black Market: Initially downplayed, but ultimately played straight once he is strung along on Isaac's quest to destroy the slake-moths.
• Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: Due to his status in the underworld, he has a lot of contacts within it.

David Serachin

• Dirty Coward: A more sympathetic portrayal of this trope. He considers himself one, though his ratting Isaac out has more to due with his concern over the slake-moths
• Freakiness Shame: He is completely disgusted with himself for his fetish for the Remade.
• Lovable Traitor: Lovable is too strong a word, but his betrayal is played sympathetically, as he doesn't really want to betray Isaac to the government, but he is forced to because of the blackmail.
• Mad Scientist: One of the rogue scientists alongside Isaac, and one of his friends.
• Nightmare Fetishist: He was caught in an illegal Remade brothel getting a blowjob from a Remade prostitute.
• Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: He feels tremendous angst because of his Remade fetish.
• The Stool Pigeon: He ends up ratting out Isaac and his friends to the government.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After David is revealed to be a traitor, he just disappears from the book and never mentioned again.

Lublamai Dadscatt

• A Fate Worse Than Death: He is left a vegetable after Isaac’s slug is revealed to be a slake-moth, which sucks out his consciousness.
• Mad Scientist: One of Isaac's rogue scientist friends.
• Nice Guy: A generally amiable guy, and a good friend to Isaac, which makes his ultimate fate all the more tragic.

Lucky Gazid

• Addled Addict: He's described as constantly being high or trashed out of his mind off of dreamshit.
• Butt-Monkey: He gets the brunt end of the punishment asides from Lin throughout the novel. He gets beaten, kidnapped, and eventually killed by Motley.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Not many of the people who he hangs out with seems to think much of him, Isaac outright detests him because of his flakiness and drug addiction. That doesn't stop him from being horrified by his death and for his part in causing it.
• Killed Offscreen: He is killed by Motley's goons once they learn from him Isaac was the one who sprung the slake-moths loose.

Benjamin Flex

• Arch-Enemy: To Rudgutter and the other corrupt New Crobuzon officials. They eventually have him tortured and killed for the trouble he's caused.
• Deadpan Snarker: He's a rather sarcastic and playful fellow, all things considered.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: He is brutally tortured by the government, then gets his eyes removed for his hated enemy's use, and is dumped unceremoniously in a river.
• Inspirational Martyr: He becomes one to rebels across New Crobuzon, who even name a movement after him by the time of Iron Council.
• Intrepid Reporter: He is dogged in his pursuit of the truth, much like his friend and underling Derkhan. He gets tortured, his eyes taken out, and killed for his efforts.

Mr. Motley

• Bad Boss: Downplayed, but he is shown to not value their lives and he isn't very nice to them.
• Break the Haughty: Downplayed, but Mr. Motley's income for dreamshit is destroyed by Isaac, and he is left with his sculpture being unfinished, much to his rage.
• The Don: He is the biggest crime lord in New Crobuzon, and is in bed with the New Crobuzon government.
• The Dreaded: Everyone in New Crobuzon is afraid of him, and for good reason.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Motley automatically assumes Issac is studying the moths to start his own dreamshit enterprise.
• Faux Affably Evil: Despite his…appearance and reputation, he seems like a nice enough guy. But it’s an act to hide what he truly is: a vicious, cold blooded monster who would happily risk the city’s safety to make a buck.
• Hate Sink: Behind his gentleman facade, he's a vicious monster who delights in hurting others, and making money in the process.
• Humanoid Abomination: He has voluntarily been Remade so many times, that he now looks like a gigantic blob of different species.
• It's All About Me: He's self-absorbed enough to want a statue be made by Lin in his image.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Downplayed. But one of the slake-moths he purchased from the government lobotomised Lin and facilitated her escape. Even if he found her again, his statue can never be finished. The epilogue describes him ranting at the incomplete statue.
• Nightmare Fetishist: Motley has undergone this process of being Re Made voluntarily, hundreds of times, and now not only looks like a rolling mass of disjointed features but has hired the main character's girlfriend to create a sculpture to his "glory."
• The Sociopath: He cares not an ounce for human life, and would carelessly allow dozens of people to die or be lobotomized so he can make money.

Mayor Bentham Rudgutter

• Arch-Enemy: To Benjamin Flex, Derkhan Blueday, and the Runagate Rampant newspaper.
• Bad Boss: He has his right hand man Montjohn become the puppet of the headlinger because he was going to turn on him.
• Corrupt Politician: And boy is he!
• Deadpan Snarker: He's quite the sarcastic fellow, despite his vicious nature.
• Deal with the Devil: Subverted, as even the demons of Hell are afraid of the slake moths. Rudgutter doesn't blame them.
• Eye Scream: He has a strange disease where he eyes rot out of their sockets, so he gets new ones by killing his political opponents and taking their eyes for his own.
• Hate Sink: He's a slimy, sociopathic weasel who will do anything to keep his hands on power, and is one of the novel's most deplorable characters.
• Mayor Pain: He is New Crobuzon's crooked and cruel mayor.
• Oh, Crap!: Basically his reaction throughout the entire second half of the novel once the slake-moths are released.
• Serial Killer: It's revealed that he is the Eye Spy Killer. He has a strange eye condition which causes his eyes to rot and fall out of his sockets. So he has political rivals murdered, and takes out their eyes to use, before dumping them.
• Sleazy Politician: He certainly plays the part, but he proves to be far more ruthless and conniving than the common version of this trope.
• The Sociopath: He's a truly heartless individual who doesn't care who he hurts as long as he keeps his power. Even him trying to deal with the slake-moth situation is an attempt by him to cover his own ass after he carelessly allowed the slake-moths into the city.

Montjohn Rescue

• Affably Evil: Despite being a crony of Rudgutter and being the puppet of a parasite, he's a personable fellow.
• A Fate Worse Than Death: The original Montjohn Rescue was infected with a headlinger after Rudgutter found out he was plotting against him, leaving him a husk of a man.
• Parasites Are Evil: The headlingers are known associates and operatives of the corrupt Rudgutter government.

Vermishank

• Bad Boss: While he acts nice towards Isaac, he’s truly a nasty bastard to his subordinates. Isaac hates his guts.
• Bearer of Bad News: He tells Isaac and his friends about the slake-moths and their abilities before telling him that the effects are irreversible.
• Boom, Headshot!: How he ends up going out courtesy of David.
• Break the Haughty: Courtesy of Isaac when he kidnaps, tortures, and interrogates him over his role in the slake-moth crisis.
• Evil Old Folks: He's described as an older man, but he's undoubtedly a smug, unpleasant Jerkass whose irresponsibility in selling the slake-moths to Motley sets off the second half of the plot.
• Laser-Guided Karma: For his part in helping to create the slake-moth problem, he gets kidnapped, tortured, and eventually shot and killed by David.
• Mad Scientist: He gleefully helps with the cruel Remaking process, and also was the head of the slake-moth government project.
• Sadist: He is the head honcho of the Re Making process, and he's said to really enjoy his role.
• Smug Snake: He is an arrogant, disagreeable man and is a brilliant scientist, yet he didn't anticipate Isaac getting the better of him, which leads to his eventual demise.

The Construct Council

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Played with. Isaac realizes by the end of the novel that the Council is a machine wholly based on logic, and doesn't consider emotion, particularly that of compassion or mercy. So Isaac decides that the Council is unworthy of trust.
• A God Am I: His followers certainly think so.
• Ambiguous Situation: Is the AI A Crapshoot? Is it a Spock who operates entirely on logic and let Isaac cut off its control of the slake moth trap because it knew it needed his help still? Is it more attached to New Crobuzon and information collecting than it lets on? Since it factors into the ending of the story only indirectly, the answer is left to the reader's imagination.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Construct Council has no concept of emotions, which gives it a very different world-view from other sentient beings.
• Body Horror: A rather grisly example, as a corpse is plugged into his systems, making him seem like a zombie.
• The Spock: Deconstructed. Isaac realizes that he can't fully trust The Construct Council, as it is a machine that operates completely on logic and the objective, and thus it can't feel emotion and will have a radically different world-view than organic beings. Isaac decides to not take the risk of allowing it to betray him if it feels it is necessary for its objective.

The Weaver

• Blue-and-Orange Morality: The morality of The Weaver is a strange thing, as it is based on aesthetic taste and what it views as 'beauty.'
• The Bus Came Back: The Weaver (or another weaver) makes a brief appearance in the third Bas-Lag novel Iron Council.
• Cloudcuckoolander: The Weaver is a strange and alien being that is at best eccentric and at worst psychotic.
• Eldritch Abomination: It takes the form of a gigantic spider, but most people are unable to understand it or fully comprehend what it is or what it wants.
• Giant Spider: Its most common form.
• Lightning Bruiser: It can shift through time and space to deliver crushing attacks. It is more than capable of fighting multiple slake-moths at once.
• Reality Warper: Implied. We're never told the full extent of its powers, but one person that takes a trip with it finds, on the other side, that his gun has been turned to glass.