The City & the City in The Alternative Worlds

Mar 12, 2009 Brad rated it it was amazing

Shelves: urban-fantasy, weird, fantasy, speculative, sci-fantasy

I see why so many people are underwhelmed by The City and The City, China Miéville's strange and wonderful homage to the mystery genre and his mother.

It is because while The City and The City is both of those things, it is also -- and more powerfully -- a love letter to his fans and an act of oeuvre snobbery of the first order.

What Miéville has done is to build a story upon his favourite themes, and to require that his audience is familiar with other occurrences of these themes in his work to fu ...more

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Nov 05, 2011 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, speculative, mieville, sci-fi, exceeded-my-expectations, goodreads-author, better-every-time, cities

My first reread of The City The City was an experience as convoluted as the grosstopography of Beszel and Ul Qoma. A chapter read, four chapters listened to; three chapters read, two chapters listened to; and on. Teaching this book in a town in a different province than the town I live in, across a straight, over a bridge (my adopted country's longest, the adopted country that plays such an important role in the piece, which is itself a nation sandwiched between nations in our always); a soccer ...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: mieville, detective, police-procedural, audio-book, hyperreality, read-in-2018, for-class

John Lee, the narrator of many of the more famous Miéville books on audio, has a voice made for very specific kinds of stories. The City and the City is one of those stories wherein his voice works, as it also does with Miéville's Kraken. He has the kind of voice that perfectly suits the cynical world of our now. Hard without being harsh (and without the gravelly phlegm of smoking too much), almost combative in his delivery and mostly humourless (which worked oddly well in the very funny Kraken) ...more

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Feb 21, 2009 Sandi rated it really liked it

Shelves: library-books-read, 2009, cross-genre, hugo-nominees-2010

The City & the City is a book that defies explanation. On the surface, it's a murder mystery about an archeology student whose body is found in one city, Beszel, but she was murdered in the city that borders it, Ul Qoma. The two cities are very different from each other and it's very difficult to get permission to cross the border. Those who cross illegally are subject to Breach.

As the story starts, the relationship between the two cities seems kind of like the relationship between West and Eas ...more

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May 28, 2009 Sarah rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery, speculative-fiction

This is the first Mieville that I have finished, and I think the people who guessed that this would be the one I would enjoy were correct. The visceral descriptions of the city in Perdido Street Station (which I have been dragging myself through on my iPod for two years now) give way to descriptions of decrepit Eastern European grandeur. The cities of the title are by far my favorite characters in the book; they are alive and filled with history. Sadly, I can't say the same for the narrator, a p ...more

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Oct 24, 2008 Terence rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries-noir, speculative-fiction

I find myself with a case of writer’s block regarding the writing of this review. I’m not sure what I want to say about The City & The City.

I suppose my blockage results from a feeling of anticlimax more than anything else – I was expecting more based on the hype and rave reviews surrounding the book. But I’ve seen the theme before – we’re seeing and unseeing, sensing and unsensing things all the time. For example, consider this article at TomDispatch.com about U.S. prisons. Or consider that I l ...more

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May 04, 2009 Kara Babcock rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2010-read, fantasy, urban-fantasy, owned, mystery, nebula-nominee, hugo-winner

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I don't judge books by their covers, but sometimes covers do say a lot about the book they contain. The cover of my edition of The City & The City is in washed out blue, with a stylized title and the skylines of two different Eastern European cityscapes—presumably, the modernized Ul Qoma, and its neighbour, Besźel. It's a very nice cover. Alone, it is aesthetically pleasing. Yet it also captures the atmosphere of the story with pinpoint accuracy. There's a washed out quality to The City & The Ci ...more

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Sep 19, 2010 Nicky rated it really liked it

Shelves: mystery

I read this one in bits. The last half or so was all in one go, on a long train journey, but for the most part, I just read it in bits, a few pages at a time, and didn't really get involved with it. I didn't really care how it ended, for most of the time. I did get tense during the last parts, and I was sad for the main character about the ending, but I didn't really care, for the most part. I wanted to care more about Corwi and Dhatt, but I didn't really see enough of them, or enough positive a ...more

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Aug 04, 2011 Kevin Xu rated it liked it

I first discovered him through looking up James Clavell's book, King Rat, discovering his book at the same time. I love that every book that he writes is so different from each other, while still writing fantasy and science. This book was not really for me. ...more

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Mar 14, 2011 Simon rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, sf, crime

I've been meaning to get back to Mieville for a while now after a good introductory, experience reading Perdido Street Station. I had considered going on to read The Scar next but this, being a kind of fantasy/crime hybrid sounded interesting.

Based around a fascinating concept, that of two completely culturally and socially distinct cities that occupy the same physical location and yet are completely seperate, and kept seperate by the rigid conditioning of their respective citizens to "unsee" an ...more

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Feb 19, 2012 Lori rated it it was amazing

I've been wandering between 4 and 5 stars but the sense of hallucination of another reality just out of the corner of my eye stays. ...more

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Jul 24, 2018 Sherrie Cronin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Summary: I’m in awe of this book, and I like to think that I don’t awe easily. It has stuck with me since I finished it; the surest sign of an effective story. I give it a 4.8/5, the highest rating I’ve given since I started this decimal point thing.
What I liked least:
1. The quotes and reviews on the cover and at the front. That may seem an odd complaint, but this book was given to me as a gift a couple of years ago and I put off reading it because everyone made it sound so depressing. Anything Summary: I’m in awe of this book, and I like to think that I don’t awe easily. It has stuck with me since I finished it; the surest sign of an effective story. I give it a 4.8/5, the highest rating I’ve given since I started this decimal point thing.
What I liked least:
1. The quotes and reviews on the cover and at the front. That may seem an odd complaint, but this book was given to me as a gift a couple of years ago and I put off reading it because everyone made it sound so depressing. Anything billed as a Kafka-meets-noir-crime-novel doesn’t go to the beach with me, yet this book could have and should have. I wish I’d read it years ago.
2. The end. I might as well get it out here at the start. I’ll say no more about it, but there were so many ways for this story to go and while I can think of much worse endings, the one that happened wasn’t one of the possibilities I wanted. So it goes.
What I liked best:
1. Everything else, but I’ll try to be more specific.
2. The author takes an absolutely ridiculous premise, answers your every objection to it while telling the story, and leaves you accepting an alternate history wherein two independent city states exist in the same geographical place, each refusing to see the other.
3. Once you make that leap, you start to realize how believable the premise is because it touches on ways real humans behave. Then you start to find examples of unseeing all around you and I don’t know how long that goes on for because it’s been a week now and I’m still doing it. I may never stop.
4. The book is not depressing, at least to me. The reason is that many if not most of the characters have a shred of human decency in them and the main ones hide kind hearts under their tough and expletive laden exteriors. Yes, the overall style is crime novel noir, with a touch of cold war spy and splashes of absurdity, but any time we actually get good guys and gals trying to do what’s right, I’m willing to stand up and cheer.
5. Main characters are well fleshed out given the author’s sparse strokes. Inspector Tyador Borlu of the City of Beszel’s Extreme Crime Squad, the book’s protagonist and narrator, won my sympathy during the opening scene as he looks out for the young drug dealers who come forward when they find a body. He cemented my high regard when he met the dead girl’s parents and noted how “Grief made them look stupid. It was cruel.”
6. When Borlu is forced to meet and work with his counterpart, senior detective Qussim Dhatt of the ignored city Ul Qoma, one sees through Borlu’s eyes and is lead to think the man is a jerk. We discover, along with Borlu, how much the two detectives have in common.
7. I’m female, and I judge how a writer handles his or her women characters. Mr. Mieville treats them all as people, a refreshing delight. In particular, constable Lizbyet Corwi is a tough capable detective, no less female for not being some man's love interest.
8. The book is a mix of ingredients one would never expect to work as well together as they do. There is humor, as residents of each city joke about how their weather is better and visit their local Starbucks, which of course has shops in both cities. There is mystery and suspense, some of which surrounds a 2000 year old archaeological dig that may hold the secret to the origin of this bizarre arrangement. Some things are never solved or explained, others reach a satisfying conclusion.
9. Finally, this author won me over with his dedication. It’s to his mother, which is common enough, but he adds that he “wanted to write a book that my mother would have loved.” Wow. I wish I could have met his mother.
I often get asked to name the writers who inspired me as an author, and I have trouble coming up with a list. Part of the reason is I tend to be inspired by specific books, rather than bodies of work, and the other is the degree to which the list has morphed as I've aged.
My approach is to keep a short list of books I can point to and say "I'm trying to write that well." The City and the City has placed itself at the top of my list.
...more

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Feb 08, 2011 Suz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: gentext, book-club, mystery, alternate, science-fiction, kindle, award-winner, world-fantasy-challenge

The City and The City, is an amazingly rich and detailed book, when it is describing its two main characters: Besźel and Ul Qoma. The human characters in the book are largely flat and two dimensional. I never got into them or got emotionally attached. The same cannot be said for the cities (Besźel and Ul Qoma).

The novel begins with a crime committed in Besźel and the detective there is eventually lead to Ul Qoma (and eventually Breach, but that's another story).

(view spoiler) ...more

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Sep 21, 2009 Jed rated it it was ok

Shelves: public-library

No hate mail please. I loved Perdido Street Station and The Scar even more. Iron Council fell to 3 stars and this book, sorry, I barely gave it 2 and I'm so glad I didn't buy it.

Generally speaking, I have trouble with fantastical situations that occur in the modern world I am living in right now. That's why I don't do vampires. There ARE NO vampires. And no such city and no such city.

Sorry. ...more

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Feb 10, 2011 Michelle rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book_club, mystery, award_winner, ebook

a truly amazing bit of worldbuilding, so much so that it's almost ok that the plot is entirely incidental. since it's the sort of book where the reader's engagement to figure anything out is what is so enjoyable about it, I'll leave it at that. ...more

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Sep 05, 2010 This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ebooks, hugo-award, fantasy, mystery, fiction, arthur-c-clarke-award, locus-award, world-fantasy-award

Although well written, I've found some of Miéville's earlier, renowned works (Perdido Street Station and The Scar) to be extremely frustrating reads. In contrast, The City & The City is excellent and gripping with a fabulous "City" construct (virtually Miéville's signature at this point) that explores a number of interesting themes all in the context of what is otherwise essentially a murder mystery. ...more

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