Hard Last Train to Perdido Street Station Quiz / Test | Literature

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Perdido Street Station is a tall building located at the heart of the metropolis where the novel's events take place. What is the name of this city?

Answer: New Crobuzon

New Crobuzon is a huge metropolis, bustling with people of different races, ranging from simple humans to the most exotic species imaginable. There are all kinds of districts, the aristocratic district and the slums, the military headquarters and the cardboard ghettos.

The industrial part of the city has a cyberpunk feeling, but not very high-tech. Coal-powered trains, electricity-driven factories, lack of computers, television and other modern day devices. It looks, smells and feels like an alternate reality metropolis of the early 1900s.

2. What kinds of city transportation use Perdido Street Station as a central hub?

Answer: Both

All rail tracks originate from Perdido Street Station in a star pattern. There are both trains that travel along the conventional land-based rails and wagons called Pods that are suspended from Skyrails.

3. At the opening scene of the first chapter, a wire basket is lowered from a high window to the market street below, a street vendor fills it with food and it gets pulled up inside. The basket belongs to two secret lovers who have just woken up and start eating breakfast together. What makes this pair so secretive?

Answer: It is an interracial pair

The two lovers are Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, a human male, and Lin, a Khepri female. Female Khepri have the body of a human woman and a scarab beetle instead of a head (complete with antennae, mandibles and small, atrophied wings). They are mute, communicating with each other via movements of their headlegs and various chemicals they can squirt (something like the ant pheromones). Khepri use mostly writing and more rarely (like Lin) sign language to communicate with non-Khepri creatures. Isaac and Lin keep their relationship secret, since something like this is shunned by both races.

Interestingly enough, Khepri is the name of the Egyptian God of the Sun, depicted as a scarab-headed man.

4. The variety of species in this world is endless. There is a building in a district of the city called The Glasshouse. This building serves as a base for a specific (very exotic) race. Which one is it?

Answer: Cactacae

Cactacae are the species that amazed me the most, when I read the book. They are human plants, resembling cacti. Their skin is fibrous and covered in thorns. They have sap in their veins. They grow flowers in spring. They are not born like normal people, they grow out of the earth! They are very tall and extremely strong. Because of that, they are mostly used as bodyguards or heavy duty workers. All in all a truly amazing race.

All of the suggested answers are species existing in the world of Mieville.

5. Isaac, the protagonist, is a multi-scientist. Something like an old-school inventor. The main plot of the novel starts rolling when he is approached by Yagharek, a Garuda, who asks for Isaac's aid. Yagharek used to live in Cymek desert, member of a nomadic Garuda tribe. He committed a terrible crime, was judged by his peoples' Council and was sentenced to the ultimate Garuda punishment. He now seeks Isaac's help to reverse the effects of this punishment. What did the Council do to poor Yagharek?

Answer: They cut off his wings

The Garuda are humanoid birds. They have human bodies, avian heads and feet and, of course, wings. The Garuda law revolves around the idea of freedom of choice; the freedom that everyone has to live their life according to their own choices. Murdering, raping and other similar crimes, are considered "choice-thefts". Yagharek committed one such "choice-theft".

His punishment was to have his wings cut off. This is both a crippling experience and an ultimate disgrace. Yagharek comes to Isaac seeking a way to become airborne again, by biological, mechanical or any other means.

6. Mr. Motley is a crime boss of the city. He is described in one of the chapters as a horrible abomination. He has performed surgical modifications on his body, adding several extra limbs, mouths, eyes and other (not necessarily human) body parts, essentially becoming a monster. What is the name of the people who perform such body-modification practices?

Answer: The Remade

Mr. Motley describes his body as a perfect piece of art and hires Lin (who is a professional sculptor) to create a statue of him, in order to capture the harmony and supreme perfection of his existence. Go figure... When Mr. Motley first appears before Lin, she becomes nauseated by his sheer monstrosity.

Several of Mr. Motley's goons have also undergone similar - but in a much lesser extent - transformations.

7. I have carefully been avoiding giving away major plot spoilers, since the story is so fascinating that I would not want to spoil it for anyone intrigued enough to read it after taking this quiz. I will remain focused on the various species and creatures appearing in the book for this next question too. Halfway into the book, we meet an interdimensional creature called The Weaver. It is a unique creature which can move between dimensions and is something like a safekeeper of the fabric of time and space. What kind of creature is it?

Answer: A spider

Mieville borrows a basic element of world mythology here. Spiders have been depicted as spinners of destiny and keepers of order and time in most world mythologies.

The Weaver is a huge, ethereal spider, that can manifest itself wherever and whenever it chooses to. It acts like some kind of divine intervention in the story, making some very timely appearances and aiding the heroes of the novel at some very critical moments.

8. Lin, Isaac's girlfriend, is a Khepri sculptor. What material does she use to create her artworks?

Answer: Her spit

I hope you didn't choose the feces. Khepri artists swallow paste and special dyers called colorberries, they metabolize them, then they expose a gland located at the back of their chitinous heads and push out of it a thick substance called khepri-spit.

They use this material to form their statues. Within an hour, because of the contact with the air, the spit hardens and acquires a smooth, brittle, pearly brilliance.

9. Who or what is the Runagate Rampant in the novel?

Answer: An underground newspaper

The Runagate Rampant is an illegal newspaper which expresses radical ideas and beliefs and is circulated using underground networks. Derkhan Blueday, a middle-aged reporter and good friend of Isaac and Lin, officially works for a newspaper called The Beacon, but secretly runs the Rampant as co-editor.

10. So far I avoided any reference whatsoever to the novel's main villains. It's about time that I said something about them. So I will end this quiz on "Perdido Street Station" with a simple question: Are the main villains human?

Answer: No

I don't want to spoil this for you, but no, the main villains are definitely not human; Mieville's imagination is too vivid for that. Isaac's foes are called slake-moths. You know what a moth is, but these are mansize, almost indestructible moths and I am not going to tell you what they slake their thirst with (no, it is not blood!).

Source: Author dalthor1974

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor LadyCaitriona before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Last Train to Perdido Street Station Quiz

"Perdido Street Station" is an alternate reality horror novel written by China Mieville. It was nominated for 2002 Hugo and Nebula and won multiple other awards. Hop on the train and travel with me to this amazing world! (Minor Spoilers Warning!)

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