Reviews

The City & the City by China Miéville

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noel_b's review

dark funny mysterious reflective tense

5.0

Incredible premise that, in the hands of any other author, would have collapsed into an unreadable mess about halfway through.

This was an extremely competent crime novel. Set in a weird set of overlapping cities. Mieville's pride is more sparse than his usual style, which serves the detective narrator just fine. As always, this book is surprising down to the end. There's always another secret, another question to ask, another unexpected answer.

katieinca's review against another edition

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4.0

I do recommend this book. What I don't recommend is reading 80% of it, then having the ebook you checked out from the library expire, and then not getting ahold of another copy to finish it until months later. So. Yeah. Good book. More realism than I expected from my prior Mieville experience. I think the review I read that said "shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick" sums it up nicely.

rumblybug's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

4.25

A real joy to read. Once you become accustomed to the complexities of the setting, the pace of the plot begins to compound, drawing you into its complexities. A take on the dystopian genre which delves into a whole range of current peculiarities of modern society. In moments I found the writing was over stylised, but it never was completely perfunctory. A fantastic book to casually read at bedtime until you become invested and have to read it asap.

albauve's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

awwcripes's review against another edition

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5.0

I give it five stars. not because it was the best book I've ever read. but the central tenet of the story, that two cities could co-exist in such a bizarre fashion...kind of blew my mind. Only Mieville could have written this in a way that didn't self destruct half way through.