"Up close to the orchestra by the stage it was a cramped clot of men and women, polyglot and many-raced. A slick of vagabonds, petty thieves. and their bosses, discharged foreign soldiers, discharged jailbirds, dissolute rich and tinkers, beggers, pimps and their charges, chancers, knife-grinders, poets, and police agents. Humans, and here and there catus-heads poking over the crowd (allowed in only if their thorns were plucked), the Cactacae,1 and the scarab-heads of the khepri.
Cigarillas hung form mouths, and people banged their glasse or cutery in time while waiters went between them, on the sawdusted floor..."
Iron Council, China Mieville
1The Cactacae are enormous humanoid plant people, often towering over human beings.
No comments:
Post a Comment