Reviews

The City & The City by China Miéville

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thesholmes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious medium-paced

4.5

City city bang bang

soph_e_c's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

jarvvis's review

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adventurous 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

3.25

(Important note: it took me forever to read this and so I did not have the best experience. I was very busy, forgot and skimmed portions of this, so that was a big contributor to my feelings on this book. Take this with a grain of salt, I was incredibly distracted.)

Too coy with information in the beginning, drags in the middle, good ending.
The cultural differences between Besźel and Ul Qoma never really landed with me, they’re very vague about what the whole this person “looks like they’re from this city” or this guy “looks like they’re from neither city. I didn’t get a sense for what that actually meant, in reality
“Unseeing” is likely a metaphor for something, presumably the uncomfortable facts of our society that we all ignore and live with, but it’s so metaphorical that it loses all meaning and becomes untethered from itself.
The reasons for a city/two cities deciding to live this way are easily the most interesting part of this pitch and the answer is “because we’ve just always done it this way no one knows why??”

Probably a better novel if you’re not mid exam prep.

draackje's review

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challenging mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

gageofthegoats's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A fascinating idea, told with aplomb. The story started rather boring, but as the conceit of the setting begins to take greater hold, the story also ratcheted up. My biggest complaint is the dialogue, which feels like it's been translated, but that might also be a tool of this particular book, and that will become clear when I read more of Miéville's work.

peterkeep's review against another edition

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5.0

I loved it. This was my first Mieville book, but I've got [b: Embassytown|9265453|Embassytown|China Miéville|http://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320470326s/9265453.jpg|14146240] sitting on my shelf as well. I've heard that The City & The City is pretty different from his other stuff, so we'll see how I like it I guess.

But I'm getting off topic. THIS BOOK. I don't know how "fantasy" it is but it's awesome. It's the perfect mix of a crime novel with the weird dystopian feel of 1984. It was familiar enough to pick up but unpredictable. Every time I thought I knew where it was going, which characters were doing what, and the true nature of Orciny or Breach, something else would happen and I'd be wrong. Maybe I'm just new at this genre mashup, and so the twists were predictable for other people, but either way I loved it.

Tyador was a great protagonist as well. He's written as a perfect way to lead the reader along. He was a half step in front of me the whole time...not too far too be unbelievable, but enough to build lots of intrigue. And the setting. Wow. I live the idea of layering the cities like that and it was fleshed out so well. The world-building and everything that went into designing the backdrop was amazing. It was a great idea and it was executed really well, so the immersion by the end of it was really amazing. Perception shaping reality is a theme of the book, and it kind of infiltrates to the reader as well.