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    <name><![CDATA[Tim]]></name>
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  <id type="integer">4703581</id>
  <isbn>0345497511</isbn>
  <isbn13>9780345497512</isbn13>
  <ratings_count type="integer">543</ratings_count>
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  <title>The City &amp; The City</title>
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  <link>http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4703581.The_City_The_City</link>
<author>
  <id type="integer">33918</id>
  <name>China Mi&#233;ville</name>
  <ratings_count type="integer">10473</ratings_count>
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    <rating>3</rating>
  <votes>0</votes>
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  <read_at>Mon Jun 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009</read_at>
  <date_added>Thu Jul 02 13:37:04 -0700 2009</date_added>
  <date_updated>Thu Jul 02 13:37:32 -0700 2009</date_updated>
  <read_count></read_count>
    <body><![CDATA[Mieville’s urban fantasies are complex and thought provoking, and this is one of his most challenging stories. In southern Europe, the cities of Ul Qoma and Bezel occupy nearly the same physical space, but the Orwellian caveat is that residents of neither city are allowed to acknowledge the existence of the other under threat of severe punishment from an organization called Breach, which is charged with keeping the cities apart. Bezel police detective Tyador Borlu is called to a homicide case that he thinks will be open and shut. A young woman is found dead in a vacant lot, and as the story unravels the plot thickens as it becomes know that she had ties to radical groups in both cities. Borlu has to team up with a rival detective in Ul Qoma in order to try and solve the case and keep the precarious balance between to two cities from falling apart. This was a thought provoking story (as all Mieville’s stories are) but the thing that keeps it from being truly successful is the lack of context for much of the jargon in the novel. The reader is kept in the dark for much of the story about the nature of the cities and the problems and restrictions they face. This book also marks a radical departure from Mieville’s previous books with its clipped style and lack of detailed descriptions. So in the end it is a mixed bag, an interesting premise that ultimately sags under the weight of the author’s stylistic choices.]]></body>
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