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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
While I struggled to get into this one, I enjoy where it ended up. Wild world-building as expected.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
The start of The City and The City is rough. It might have some classic component of your standard noir mystery; aka you are thrown into the midst of a murder case featuring a dead woman found underneath a mattress in a city skatepark with a hard-boiled detective taking the lead on the case. It quickly becomes apparent that the world or more specifically the cities that this tale takes place in are not exactly aligned with our reality. There are still cars, internet, mobile phones, etc., all the trappings of the modern human existence but for some largely unexplained reason there are two cities named Besźel and Ul Qoma “grostopically” on top of each other aka occupying the same space but unable to interact with each other. It takes a while to adjust to this reality as a reader and China Miéville does not hold the readers hand as he rattles off funky terms and concepts and factions related to this reality. As the twisty story develops, I slowly acclimatized to the world, taking in its odd quirks and was able to more fully focus on everything else going on. The book feels like sci-fi or fantasy but in reality, there is almost nothing here that could not theoretically happen in our world, it is a fascinating take on what could otherwise be a rather straightforward thriller.
China Miéville is a very political person, active in UK politics, and as a writer you do not have to dive deep into his works to try and pick out some sort of message. For The City and the City it is all pretty much right there on the surface, the idea of having two separated cities that have to co-exist with each other but never acknowledge them longer than it takes to “unsee” or “unhear” or maneuver yourself out of the way, it is what we do as humans daily. The conspiracy behind the mystery in the book ties together all the apparent metaphors and ideas abound into a rather nice package by the end. I was never really sure where the story was going at any point, I was just doing my best to keep up, so I did not really have an inkling who the killer could be or have a care if I could rightly solve the mystery before the final reveals because the rest of the book just worked. I can see why others might find it needlessly dense or frustrating to read but the complication of the setting added just enough zest to the story to keep me invested and alert and that is what I am looking for in a good mystery.
China Miéville is a very political person, active in UK politics, and as a writer you do not have to dive deep into his works to try and pick out some sort of message. For The City and the City it is all pretty much right there on the surface, the idea of having two separated cities that have to co-exist with each other but never acknowledge them longer than it takes to “unsee” or “unhear” or maneuver yourself out of the way, it is what we do as humans daily. The conspiracy behind the mystery in the book ties together all the apparent metaphors and ideas abound into a rather nice package by the end. I was never really sure where the story was going at any point, I was just doing my best to keep up, so I did not really have an inkling who the killer could be or have a care if I could rightly solve the mystery before the final reveals because the rest of the book just worked. I can see why others might find it needlessly dense or frustrating to read but the complication of the setting added just enough zest to the story to keep me invested and alert and that is what I am looking for in a good mystery.
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-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
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Surprisingly hard boiled! Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I’ve found that most mysteries that cross into the speculative or fantasy realm acknowledge as much with at least one character who treats the premise with less than complete seriousness. Not so, The City - it’s an interesting premise, executed skillfully and with fidelity: two cities, geographically concurrent, but politically split such that citizens of one are forbidden from acknowledging the other, and the code enforced ruthlessly, so everyone becomes expert at the art of “unseeing” their counterparts.
Ultimately fell flat for me because the characters are pretty pat, the ending pretty rushed, and the central metaphor kind of limited in scope. Yes, we all become practiced in unseeing what it is more dangerous, less expedient, more troublesome to see and grapple with, and somehow in cities this is even easier, despite the density and proximity. And? It’s bad? The systems all rely on it? Idk exactly what I wanted, but it’s “more.”
Ultimately fell flat for me because the characters are pretty pat, the ending pretty rushed, and the central metaphor kind of limited in scope. Yes, we all become practiced in unseeing what it is more dangerous, less expedient, more troublesome to see and grapple with, and somehow in cities this is even easier, despite the density and proximity. And? It’s bad? The systems all rely on it? Idk exactly what I wanted, but it’s “more.”
4.5
At first look, this is a classic crime mystery dealing with the murder of a woman whose body is found in the eastern European city of Beszel. Inspector Borlu is put on the case and the narration follows his investigation. Very early on however it becomes clear that there is something peculiar with the setting - two cities (Beszrel and Ul Qoma), with very different rules and governments, share the same geographical location - adding an element of the surreal to the novel. All of a sudden, the mystery becomes two-folded: that of the crime and that of the nature of the cities and their inhabitants.
I personally loved it, both sides of the narrative, reading at speed to find out more about these overlapping worlds, and how the two strands are in fact closely connected. It is a crazy notion and yet the author pulls it off and ends up with a thought-provoking read that can be read on different levels: for instance, the plot driven one focusing on the crime, or the socio-political one questioning our own world. It becomes clear that ‘unseeing’ does indeed exist around us in the ‘real world’...
Mieville has a reputation for not only writing genre bending novels but also dense text, which is probably what worried me for so long. Yes, The City & The City could be placed on many different shelves, whether crime, scifi, urban fantasy, magic realism, sociology, etc., depending on which element the reader values first, but that is not the important factor. No book should be restricted to a label anyway. As for the writing style, I found it engaging and gripping.
I can see I'll need to re-read this book as I’m sure I went probably too fast, but in the meantime I cannot wait to discover another Mieville :O)
At first look, this is a classic crime mystery dealing with the murder of a woman whose body is found in the eastern European city of Beszel. Inspector Borlu is put on the case and the narration follows his investigation. Very early on however it becomes clear that there is something peculiar with the setting - two cities (Beszrel and Ul Qoma), with very different rules and governments, share the same geographical location - adding an element of the surreal to the novel. All of a sudden, the mystery becomes two-folded: that of the crime and that of the nature of the cities and their inhabitants.
I personally loved it, both sides of the narrative, reading at speed to find out more about these overlapping worlds, and how the two strands are in fact closely connected. It is a crazy notion and yet the author pulls it off and ends up with a thought-provoking read that can be read on different levels: for instance, the plot driven one focusing on the crime, or the socio-political one questioning our own world. It becomes clear that ‘unseeing’ does indeed exist around us in the ‘real world’...
Mieville has a reputation for not only writing genre bending novels but also dense text, which is probably what worried me for so long. Yes, The City & The City could be placed on many different shelves, whether crime, scifi, urban fantasy, magic realism, sociology, etc., depending on which element the reader values first, but that is not the important factor. No book should be restricted to a label anyway. As for the writing style, I found it engaging and gripping.
I can see I'll need to re-read this book as I’m sure I went probably too fast, but in the meantime I cannot wait to discover another Mieville :O)
Shit.
Finished this like a month ago.
Meant to write some stuff about it but forgot.
Leaving this here now to try and guilt myself into writing more about it soon before anything I remember about it completely evaporates from my dumb brain.
Finished this like a month ago.
Meant to write some stuff about it but forgot.
Leaving this here now to try and guilt myself into writing more about it soon before anything I remember about it completely evaporates from my dumb brain.
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No