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wmehle 's review for:
The City & the City
by China Miéville
China Mieville does a wonderful job with this book. He creates a vibrant, well-realized cityscape that is split (but not exactly) into two. An engrossing mystery takes us between the city(ies) of Beszel and Ul Qoma. They're two distinct cultures but where the walls between them aren't literal. Instead, citizens of Beszel and Ul Qoma self-regulate their perceptions and thoughts as to not even see the other city, even though the two are often overlapping. Detective Tyador Borlu is a compelling main character, someone who doesn't really want to be investigating the central mystery but is compelled to anyway. His eventual partners, Corwi and Dhatt, both add a lot to their portions of the book. But where Mieville shines the brightest here is in the worldbuilding of Beszel/Ul Qoma and the construction of their people, cultures, politics, and how they interact with the rest of the world (one fun bit is that Ul Qoma is sanctioned by the US but Beszel isn't despite being highly intertwined). I would recommend.