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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A good and tense crime story paired Mievilles endless spring of ideas and tightly packed worldbuilding, that never loses itself and expertly keeps the tenstion the whole time, while takeing you along on the investigation.
It's a perfectly good, intelligent investigation story that never hold their reader for stupid but I would loved to read so much more about the cities and their machinations itself.
It's a perfectly good, intelligent investigation story that never hold their reader for stupid but I would loved to read so much more about the cities and their machinations itself.
mysterious
medium-paced
Is sci-fi noir a genre? If so, China Mieville is its exemplar.
Had fun with this.
Discounting the unique setting, the police procedural aspect of the story was quite generic. Young woman dead; many names but a cold case; a big fat lie at the centre of it all and it turns out the real villain is Multinational Capital. Nothing groundbreaking.
But its definitely unfair to discount the setting here, where the setting is absolutely the standout feature. I liked how the cultures of the two cities were established in contrast to each other. Beszel in particular felt very well realised. I liked the variety and interrelation of the many political factions, and there was enough historical detail peppered throughout to suspend disbelief and insert the city states into more familiar geopolitics.
I found the supernatural element of Breach to be pretty dissatisfying, both as a component of the history of The Cities and also as a narrative element. I felt that the start of the book promised me an interesting revelation with Breach at the centre of the tale, but really they just existed as an isolated cleanup crew without any significant culture or politics of their own. Why exactly do they enforce Breach? Given how much influence Breach has on which actions are within possibility for Borlú, I'd hoped for more substance there.
Trivialy, the scan which I was reading had interpreted al double "l" characters as a single "l", so I was reading a lot about this girl who was kiled and how we al need to pul together and ensure justice wil be served. In my head thats just a quirk of the Besz accent.
Discounting the unique setting, the police procedural aspect of the story was quite generic. Young woman dead; many names but a cold case; a big fat lie at the centre of it all and it turns out the real villain is Multinational Capital. Nothing groundbreaking.
But its definitely unfair to discount the setting here, where the setting is absolutely the standout feature. I liked how the cultures of the two cities were established in contrast to each other. Beszel in particular felt very well realised. I liked the variety and interrelation of the many political factions, and there was enough historical detail peppered throughout to suspend disbelief and insert the city states into more familiar geopolitics.
I found the supernatural element of Breach to be pretty dissatisfying, both as a component of the history of The Cities and also as a narrative element. I felt that the start of the book promised me an interesting revelation with Breach at the centre of the tale, but really they just existed as an isolated cleanup crew without any significant culture or politics of their own. Why exactly do they enforce Breach? Given how much influence Breach has on which actions are within possibility for Borlú, I'd hoped for more substance there.
Trivialy, the scan which I was reading had interpreted al double "l" characters as a single "l", so I was reading a lot about this girl who was kiled and how we al need to pul together and ensure justice wil be served. In my head thats just a quirk of the Besz accent.
mysterious
medium-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
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Really enjoyed this book. A little crunchier than my ususal mystery fare, which was a welcome change. The strange dogma of the cities, the mysterious power and purpose of Breach, the sometimes outlandish knots the characters find themselves forced to tie, it all kept me guessing and quite interested all the way to the end. It still leaves a lot of questions unanswered, but not in an unsatisfying way.