Perdido Stree t Station China Miéville, 2000

The new weird didn’t really exist as a coherent literary movement, so it’s somehow strangely appropriate that it nevertheless casts such a shadow over contemporary SFF. As for its key text, look no further than China Miéville’s first Bas- Lag novel, a dark fantasy that owes debts to Mervyn Peake, steampunk, HP Lovecraft and the 1960s new wave, yet transcends these influences.