When I was a kid, Arthur C. Clarke's 'The Fountains of Paradise' was one of my favorite books. I must've read it more than half a dozen times, checking it out from the library. The book has to do with the creation of a space elevator, and though I haven't read it, now, in over 30 years, I remember it dealing beautifully and sensitively with the conflicts between traditionalism and social and technological progress. It follows one scientist's 'impossible dream' to fulfillment, and although the ending is bittersweet, it is full of optimism: of the belief that innovation will truly make our world and our lives better, and that one brilliant person can, at the end, make a difference.
In this story, Miéville chucks that optimism out and gives us a probably-more-realistic vision of what might happen, both technologically and socially, after a few hundred years, when decrepit space elevators become wastelands or no-mans-lands, isolated from Earth and possibly forming their own, new societies. It's a fascinating response, though I hesitate to call it a story - there's no plot at all here.
I still remember Clarke kindly. ( )