From the Bookshelf of Beyond Reality…

The City & the City

China Miéville

Start date: February 1, 2018

Finish date: February 28, 2018

Discussion: Previous BotM--DISCUSSIONS

Why we're reading this: The group previously read this book in Sept. 2009.
[close] The group previously read this book in Sept. 2009.

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Previous BotM--DISCUSSIONS

Mockingbird (6/25): Finished Reading (Spoilers OK)
By Kathi , Moderator & Book Lover · 8 posts · 13 views

last updated Jun 28, 2025 02:11PM

Mockingbird (6/25): Roll Call *No Spoilers*
By Kathi , Moderator & Book Lover · 3 posts · 14 views

last updated Jun 14, 2025 05:06PM

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What Members Thought

Dec 04, 2010 Jeffrey Paris [was Infinite Tasks] rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is the book of China Mieville I have enjoyed most, to date. The creative tension brought about by the heavily metaphorical divide between the two cities (unseeing, unhearing, cross-hatching, breaching) is both thoughtful and mind-bending. Mieville carried off the ambiguity between a "real" and a "psycho-social" divide with panache, never failing to challenge the reader to observe these divides in our own urban spaces. But far from heavy-handed, the book is carried by a moderately plausible ...more

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Mar 20, 2011 Craig Brown rated it it was amazing

Truly fantastic book. It took me awhile to figure it out, the first 30 or so pages are VERY confusing, the reviews which explain the duality of the cities helped and as the book continues it starts to make sense, if it can make sense. Two cities, coexisting in the same space, yet now overlapping, but overlapping. You have to read the book to understand that sentence. I highly recommend this book. It is really a who done it that can only be written in this make believe alter reality world.

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Oct 10, 2010 Abigail rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: hugo-award-winners, nebula

I was a bit disappointed with this book. It is the fourth China Mieville book I've read. I really want to like Mieville. He has an excellent way of making his stories dark, grim and amazingly vivid. However, the setting of this story with the two cities was very confusing. I had to ask a friend what was going on and she only knew because she looked it up on the internet. I liked the idea but it was hard for me to get into. I also felt that the story was rushed and there wasn't enough attention t ...more

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Nov 23, 2010 Allan Fisher rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

SCORE 9+

All I can say is what a mind blowing idea...What an imagination...I loved the way the concept behind this book was explored and continually expanded upon...and when you factor in the fact that it is also a worthy detective story it is not hard to see why it won so many awards...Brilliant!!

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Jan 20, 2011 Lyle Kimo Valdez rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, mystery

This book impressed the hell out of me. I do find Mieville's prose to be a little tough to chew on at times, but that never deterred me from enjoying his imagination. The hard boiled detective writing style was refreshing. The City & The City just seemed less like fantasy and more like a logical extension of what we already see taking place in our own neighborhoods--and maybe this was what Mieville intended. ...more

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