“I turn away from him and step into the vastness of New Crobuzon, this towering edifice of architecture and history, this complexitude of money and slum, this profane steam-powered god.”

China Miéville’s Perdido Street Station carried the New Weird into the literary mainstream, blending industrial grime, baroque imagination, and unrelenting strangeness in a genre-defying masterpiece. Winner of both the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award, the novel introduces readers to the richly imagined world of Bas-Lag, where the boundaries between science, magic, and nightmare dissolve.

New Crobuzon, the vast and teeming heart of Bas-Lag, is a city of contradictions—both grotesque and majestic, oppressive yet bursting with restless creativity. In its tangled streets and towering factories, an impossible demand and a rogue scientist’s reckless experiments set a chain of horrors in motion, drawing together a cast of revolutionaries, criminals, artists, and machines to confront an unspeakable threat.

Michael Moorcock hailed Perdido Street Station as “a massive and gorgeously detailed parallel-world fantasy,” and Miéville delivers exactly that—an urban epic where the surreal and the visceral collide, where beauty emerges from decay and wonder from the grotesque. More than a novel, Perdido Street Station is a testament to the boundless possibilities of speculative fiction, a feverish vision that lingers long after the final page.

Three years in the making, Conversation Tree Press is proud to present a new edition in a beautiful, two-volume, oversized format.

Our thanks to the Folio Society and the author for permission to include a slightly edited version of the afterword originally written for the Folio Society’s limited edition.

(Before we dive in, just a heads up that this writeup is [even] longer than usual. As with all our books, everyone involved in this edition put a lot of thought and passion into it and we felt this was a great opportunity to show some more of that.)

Edition Details

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville is issued in three states: the Collector’s Edition of up to 600 copies; the Deluxe Edition of 250 copies; and the Lettered Edition of 26 copies.

A brief overview of the edition, with additional details below:

• Binding Design: The Collector’s and Deluxe Editions are designed by Tony Geer; the Lettered Edition is designed by Tony Geer and Allie Oldfield.
• Artwork: Jana Heidersdorf has contributed 29 illustrations to the edition.
• Contributors: Foreword by Michael Moorcock and Afterword by the Author (courtesy of the Folio Society).
• Typography: Interior design and typography are by Emily Benton with a custom typeface by Leo Philp for the title and headings.
• Printing: Offset lithography at Gomer Press in Wales on the following papers:
  • Collector’s Edition: Munken Pure Rough Cream 120gsm.
  • Deluxe and Lettered Editions: Fedrigoni Acquerello 120gsm.
    
• Binding: The Collector’s Edition is bound by Gomer Press and the Deluxe and Lettered Editions by Ludlow Bookbinders in England.
• Format: Trim size of 170 × 240 mm (6.7 × 9.5 in) with 356 and 276 pages including front and back matter for volumes one and two respectively. All copies include a ribbon marker, headbands, and tailbands.
  

As with every Conversation Tree Press book, you can expect:
- All colour artwork reproduced in full colour across all editions.
- All artwork included in every state.
- A limited edition that will never be reprinted.
- A custom, handmade slipcase or other enclosure made of thick, sturdy boards with the insides lined in a flocked material for maximum protection, at no additional cost.

Spine Treatment

Just as the Remade are cut apart and reassembled, the author’s name and the illustrator’s name are split across both volumes—each spine carrying only half, with both books required to complete the person.

The title speaks to a different cut. “Perdido Street Station” runs the full length of both spines, but its words alternate between a foil that blazes clear and one that recedes—whole in name, as Yagharek is whole in name, but haunted by what is no longer there and shaped by that absence.

This treatment carries across all three states.

Collector’s Edition

Availability:
Thursday June 25th at 12pm ET: Copies available to the public.

The Collector’s Edition of Perdido Street Station is limited to up to 600 two-volume, unnumbered sets, in a binding designed by Tony Geer. The final limitation will be set some time after pre-orders commence.

N.B. The text on the spine of the Collector’s Edition will be updated to match the treatment described earlier.

Both volumes are bound in full cloth by Gomer Press printed with wraparound artwork by Jana Heidersdorf, with the title, author and artist foil-stamped on the spines. The endpapers are GF Smith Colorplan.

The text, dramatis personae, and part openers are printed on Munken Pure Rough Cream 120gsm (80lb) paper, with the artwork printed in full colour. The other interior colour artwork is printed on 135gsm coated paper and individually tipped into the books.

Click to enlarge

Both books are housed in a handmade slipcase crafted by Ludlow Bookbinders in England. The slipcase is covered in premium two-tone cloth and lined on the inside with Suedel, a soft, flocked material, for protection.

All copies are signed by Jana Heidersdorf on a letterpress-printed signature page at the end of the second volume.

US$325 for the two-volume set including slipcase. Shipping is expected in Q2 2027.

Deluxe Edition

Availability:
1. Monday June 22nd at 10am ET: Email sent to collectors who have Deluxe rights from our previous title, Rip Van Winkle, with a private link to pre-order a matching copy of Perdido Street Station numbered from #1–200.
2. Thursday June 25th at 12pm ET: Unclaimed copies between #1–200, and copies #201–250 available to the public. Any available copies between #1–200 (i.e. those with publisher’s rights) will be assigned first based on order time when public pre-orders open.

The Deluxe Edition of Perdido Street Station is limited to 250 hand-numbered, two-volume sets, bound by Ludlow Bookbinders in England in a binding designed by Tony Geer.

It is a Bradel binding with a dark blue leather spine made with real goatskin leather and foil stamped in two passes. The boards are covered in Ogura Lace (Asarakusui) paper, consisting of a fine tracery of fibres that seems spun rather than made, recalling the worldweave itself: the underlying tapestry of reality, perceived only by the Weaver as an endlessly complex pattern of interconnected threads.

The Ogura Lace paper is made at the Awagami Paper Factory in Japan from long, tough kozo and abaca fibres, which lend it a delicate appearance while keeping it remarkably strong. It is formed using the Rakusui technique—‘falling water’—in which droplets are released onto the freshly made sheet, parting the still-wet fibres to leave a web of soft-edged, organic holes.

The text, dramatis personae, and part openers are printed on upgraded Fedrigoni Acquerello Avorio 120gsm (80lb) paper, with the artwork printed in full colour. The other interior colour artwork is offset printed on 135gsm coated paper and individually tipped into the books.

The top edges of both volumes are gilded and the endpapers are made of richly textured Takeo Tant Select paper.

Each two-volume set is enclosed in a custom slipcase handmade by Ludlow Bookbinders. The sides are covered in a tough paper that recreates the look of rusted metal and the top and bottom are capped in a two-tone cloth. The interior of the slipcase is lined with Suedel, a soft, flocked material that cushions and protects the book.

All copies are signed by China Miéville, Michael Moorcock, and Jana Heidersdorf on a letterpress-printed signature page at the end of the second volume, and individually hand-numbered #1–250.

US$795 for the two-volume set including slipcase. Shipping is expected in Q2 2027.

Lettered Edition

Availability:
1. Monday June 22nd at 10am ET: Email sent to collectors who have Lettered rights from our previous edition, Rip Van Winkle, with a private link to pre-order a matching copy of Perdido Street Station.
2. Thursday June 25th at 12pm ET: Unclaimed copies will be made available to the public.

The Lettered Edition is limited to 26 two-volume sets, inscribed A to Z. Each copy is handbound by Ludlow Bookbinders in a binding designed by Tony Geer and Allie Oldfield and an enclosure designed by Tony Geer and Ludlow Bookbinders. 

It is a full leather binding that stages the moment Yagharek meets the consequence of his choice-theft—the removal of his wings. One board of each volume carries a wing built from three leather inlays that are extensively foil stamped; the facing board holds only its “memory,” a wing rendered in blind stamping alone. Drops of blood from the sundering—rendered in red pigment—are scattered across the entire binding.

As the reader moves through a volume, one hand rests on a wing and the other on the place a wing should be—the phantom ache of a severed limb made tactile.

The leather is sourced from Harmatan & Oakridge in the UK, celebrated for its exceptional quality. From their Fine Leather Range of goatskin, only the very best skins are selected, dyed, and hand-polished to highlight the natural grain, without pigment finishes or grain correction, preserving their authentic character.

The head and tail bands are hand-sewn using three thread colours to match the binding and marbled paper.

The text, dramatis personae, and part openers are printed on upgraded Fedrigoni Acquerello Avorio 120gsm (80lb) paper, with the artwork printed in full colour. The other interior colour artwork is offset printed on 135gsm coated paper and individually tipped into the books.

The top edges of both volumes are gilded, and the endpapers are a custom hand-marbled paper from Daniela Prina, pictured above. The tiger eye pattern, with its scattered eye-like markings, was chosen as a reference to Mr. Motley’s augmentations.

The two volumes are housed in a single hinged enclosure, conceived so a pair of wings—both inlaid, both blind-stamped, or one of each—can be displayed at once. Each volume sits in its own slipcase, open along one long side, and the two slipcases are mirror images of one another.

Hinged together at the centre, they open like the covers of a book, spreading flat so the two open sides come to rest side by side and the facing boards complete a single spread of wings.

Folded shut, the two volumes sit side by side within their hinged enclosure, and the enclosure in turn slides into an outer case. It can be seated either way round. Drawn in one way, the books’ spines are revealed.

Reversed, the case presents the backs of the two hinged slipcases—where the title and the names of author and illustrator are foil-stamped in the same divided treatment that runs across the spines.

All copies are signed by China Miéville, Michael Moorcock, and Jana Heidersdorf on a letterpress-printed signature page at the end of the second volume.

US$3,495 for the two-volume set and enclosures. Shipping is expected in Q2 2027.

Production Status

Production status is a new section we’re introducing as we announce the full edition details and begin accepting pre-orders. It allows collectors to see exactly how far along we are in the production process.

Artwork - complete
Prototypes - complete
Typesetting - complete
Proofreading - in progress
Printing - next up

Jana Heidersdorf’s Artwork

Jana, who describes herself as “artist and illustrator of everything hauntingly beautiful,” contributed 29 illustrations to Perdido Street Station, vividly rendering the city of New Crobuzon in all its gritty, grotesque, gaslit glory.

China Miéville’s world of Bas-Lag teems with fantastic creatures, and Jana has given form to a host of them. We worked closely with her on structuring the artwork, selecting scenes, and getting the look and feel exactly right.

The artwork includes:

• 2 wraparound covers (shown further up the page)
• 7 character portraits for the dramatis personae
• 8 pages from Isaac’s sketchbook to begin each part of the book
• 12 full colour interior illustrations, two of them foldouts

Dramatis Personae

The dramatis personae, located at the start of the first volume, includes portraits of seven of the main characters.

Mr. Motley’s character portrait gives a hint to his nature but is purposely obscured to avoid spoilers at the beginning of the book.

Isaac’s Sketchbook

Perdido Street Station is split into eight parts and each part opens with a page from Isaac’s sketchbooks.

Full Colour Interior Illustrations

Here are the ten portrait orientation illustrations:

And the two foldouts:

All 12 of these are printed separately on 135gsm coated paper and individually tipped into the books.

Interior Design and Typography

Perdido Street Station is the first Conversation Tree Press book designed by Emily Benton, and definitely not the last (in fact, she’s already well underway with Lord Dunsany’s The King of Elfland's Daughter).

There was a great deal of research and thought put into it and we thought collectors would appreciate seeing some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into making our books. 

Very early on, Emily shared:

“What drew me most to the novel was the ‘mongrel physiognomy’ of New Crobuzon. Nothing exists in a pure state, everything is hybridized, caught between conflicting/opposing themes, refusing easy classification. The design challenge was to embody this tension in physical form. Rather than resolving these contradictions, the book should hold them in uneasy balance, creating a reading experience that is sometimes unsettling.”

Text Face: Klim Type Foundry’s Newzald

Newzald provides excellent readability but brings quirkier personality, letter forms that feel less historically anchored, more temporally uncertain. This suits New Crobuzon as a place outside recognisable history and was perfect for the main text.

Yagharek: ABC Dinamo Gaisyr

Yagharek’s voice, a different consciousness, begins the novel and ends every part. ABC Dinamo’s Gaisyr creates this distinction. The mono-spaced structure evokes typewriters, but serifs add unexpected warmth. It feels simultaneously mechanical and organic, hard to place in time.

Title typeface: Doubler, A Custom Version of Fulmar

While previous title treatments for the novel favoured sans-serif typefaces, we had more conceptual ambition.

Inspired by a typeface of unknown origin (pictured above) found in an old specimen book, we stepped into weird territory, applying barb-like extensions to a serif skeleton. This complements the serif body copy and creates softer, more organic lines. Less industrial, more biological, with three potential degrees of transformation:

• Barbs only: Minimal
• Barbs with extensions: Moderate
• Vertical incises: Maximum

To accomplish this, we collaborated with type designer Leo Philp to create Doubler, a bespoke version of his typeface Fulmar, cut specifically for our edition. The name, of course, was taken from one term for readers of an underground press—the Runagate Rampant.

As enlightenment Europe industrialised, blacker ink, harder steel and smoother paper enabled type founders to experiment with different ways of rationalising printed letters. One result was a transition from the Old Style types of Caslon and others to the glittering, highly contrasted moderns of the 19th century, such as Bodoni and Didot; however, this transition was neither smooth nor predictable.

Fulmar ties together different offshoots of typographic thinking from this shift, including two from Glasgow and Paris: the structure and warmth of Alexander Wilson’s types for the Foulis press and the modulation of the ruler-and-compass letters of the Bignon Commission’s Romaine du Roi.

With Doubler, the design was Remade. The letters narrowed, and their contrast sharpened for use at large sizes. The default letters, manufactured and rational, are supplemented by sets of alternates where their forms erupt, transition and join in organic mutation. 

Page Layout

Emily started with the Van de Graaf Canon (see our Typesetting Treasure Island blog post for more information) and made some adjustments:

• Increased the text panel width
• Increased the number of lines per page to invoke the sense of height and upward draw that we get throughout the book
• Pulled the text away from the gutter to make the left margin less extreme. 

The result is a tall text block which creates visual tension. Running elements positioned at the foot (ground level) reinforce the sense of looking upward, making the reader physically aware of height and scale. 

The folios are a combination of part number, chapter number and page number. The running heads are also placed in the margins, with longer part titles severed and reassembled as with the author’s and illustrator’s names on the spine.

Distortions

Mr. Motley’s Remaking is extraordinary in its extremity—a body assembled from dozens of incompatible forms, refusing to resolve into any single recognizable shape. And the design conspires with him. 

Wherever the text turns to describe Motley, the type breaks its measure and subtly spills beyond the grid—the body on the page refusing the same boundaries as the body in the story.

Printing by Gomer Press in Wales

Gomer Press, a fourth-generation family-owned business, will print Perdido Street Station using offset lithography. Based in the beautiful town of Llandysul, Wales, they have produced work for clients such as the Royal Collection, the Royal Academy of Arts, and the Folio Society.

I had the pleasure of visiting their facilities last summer, meeting the people we’d been corresponding with over the past three years as we planned our edition of Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tigana and now Perdido Street Station.

Gomer Press will also be binding the Collector’s Edition of Perdido Street Station while Ludlow Bookbinders will be making the slipcases.

Hand Binding by Ludlow Bookbinders in England

Ludlow Bookbinders, located in Shropshire, England, have been keeping the craft of English bookbinding alive for generations. They’ve hand bound a number of Conversation Tree Press editions, and we’re looking forward to collaborating with them on the Deluxe and Lettered Editions of Perdido Street Station.

China Miéville

China Miéville is a Sunday Times bestselling author of fiction and non-fiction. His novels include The City & The City, Embassytown, Perdido Street Station and The Rouse. A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for fiction, he has won the World Fantasy, the Hugo, and the Arthur C. Clarke awards, among others. His non-fiction includes a study of international law and a history of the Russian Revolution.