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| | Excessive Candour |
 | | But New Crobuzon, a great boiling metropolis in the heart of the world of Bas-Lag, is, in the end, an astonishing creation. |
 | | And because New Crobuzon is a nightmare parody of London or Paris. |
 | | In attempting to fulfill this commission, Isaac acquires one of five pupae of what turn out to be slake-moths, imported into New Crobuzon by a Remade criminal named Motley (Remades are humans who have been surgically transformed into cyborg-like creatures, usually as a punishment) because they exude a potent narcotic. |
| www.scifi.com /sfw/issue161/excess.html (894 words) |
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