Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The City & the City by China Miéville

12 reviews

fermentedsorcerer's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Incredibly elegant and exciting plot with a mystery that makes it hard to put down. There’s nothing else like this book, it’s perfect. Easily in my top 10.
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hfrancesh's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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beanusminimus's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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hauban's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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sapphicbookdragon's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

This is a somewhat-good book which I deeply disliked. It's about power and control over people in a very bizarre Orwellian way: just call "Breach" a "Big Brother [Is] Watching You." (I started rooting for the unificationists and "breaching" foreigners and locals.) It's well-written, but the main themes are depressing. Without spoiling the ending with specifics, I will say the ending is unsatisfying and frustrating (to me, personally). There's little to no character development, and the protagonist stays in his box. Seeing and "unseeing" are large-scale brainwashing upon the population(s) and any visitors (who must complete "trainings" before being allowed entry to either city-state). I couldn't believe the level of acceptance and adherence to their rules or understand why it all matters, other than to control and isolate people - and, possibly, to get away with murder.
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evakonic's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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lynxpardinus's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious

4.0

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runefactories's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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chalkletters's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

I’ve had a daunting tome of a novel by China Miéville sitting on my literal to-be-read shelf for a number of years. The City & the City is not that book, though I read an ebook edition so can’t really comment on its thickness, intimidating or otherwise. Going in, I knew almost nothing about The City & The City or China Miéville, but another bookclub member had praised the introduction for helping elucidate what on earth is actually going on.

China Miéville’s fantasy concept is certainly unique. While there’s little to no actual magic involved to stop it, Beszél and Ul Qoma don’t feel like places that could exist in the real world. At the same time, The City & the City is a relatively straight-forward police procedural, with familiar detective characters and quibbles over jurisdiction.

Even after the introduction making things explicit right off the bat, The City & the City is a dense read. There’s no skipping merrily along, eating up entire chapters at one gulp. There’s a lot going on, multiple characters and factions to follow, strange rules and customs which have no equivalent in the real world. As a murder mystery, it never really feels like the reader is being invited to attempt to solve the crime. Indeed, it would be difficult for anyone not a native of Beszél or Ul Qoma to do so.

The satisfaction of the ending, then, doesn’t come from the revelation of the murderer. Instead, watching Taylor Borlú walk into a whole new life is bittersweet, but hopeful. China Miéville conveys the sense that this world will continue to live and breathe and grow, even after the reader has closed the book.
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byrdies's review

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adventurous challenging tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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