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The City & the City
Book Discussion: The City and the City by China Mieville
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I'm a little fuzzy on the details at this point, but that's never stopped me from chiming in before ...

To those people, I debate you: There is much more besides the plot!

As typical with China Mieville's stuff, the initial concept kind of does your head in, but it's remarkably self-consistent and his writing really brings it to life while never really making the weirdness go away.
The denouement of this book is one of the most memorable scenes of any murder mystery: (big spoiler, gives away the identity of the murderer) (view spoiler)
One of my all time favorite books.
It's one of the three Mieville books I've read (I just started my fourth, The Scar) and I have trouble picking a favorite. They are all so different that it's hard to even make apples-to-apples comparisons. Anyway, this one was as at least as good for me as Perdido or Embassytown.

I've enjoyed every one of his books that I have read, but I often find that I end up having a strong dislike for the people in them. That wasn't the case with this book. I actually liked the main character.



It also lacks a lot of the grotesquery and over-the-top weirdness of the Bas-Lag books, which might make it a little more accessible, brain-bendy though it is.
(Although I hasten to add that I'm a huge fan of the over-the-top weirdness and grotesquery of the Bas-Lag books.)

Kraken would be a next step, and then Bas-Lag, which are excellent but certainly weirder.

The world-building in this book is also great, and I don't mind the ending. Closure isn't that central to hard-boiled noir stories anyway. (There's an infamous story of the writers of the film adaptation of The Big Sleep asking Raymond Chandler who killed a minor character found murdered early on, and he said he had no idea.)

I agree with Kenneth that this is a great novel to recommend to people who have not previously read Miéville.


Do you think that a non-sf reader would be able to do well with this book?


Out of the six books in these threads this was hands down my favourite with The Steel Remains coming in second.
The one book I absolutely never would have thought of ever reading if it weren't for these recommendations was Shadowshow. I am not a fan of horror and I still find it hard to believe that I actually read that one...
I really want to thank those who paid for the privilege to recommend books to the group like this, it has been a lot of fun seeing what different kind of books they have chosen.

And as an architect, I loved the descriptions of the two cities.
Really loved the book.
Books mentioned in this topic
The Big Sleep (other topics)Perdido Street Station (other topics)
Shadowshow (other topics)
The Steel Remains (other topics)
The City & the City (other topics)
This is the last of our threads to discuss books on the show nominated by Kickstarter backers! Thanks to everyone who made season 2 possible last year and thanks to these backers for sharing their book picks with us.
Andrew recommends The City & the City
He wrote:
"I would love for you to discuss one of my favorite books, The City and The City by China Mieville. I don't believe it's been discussed on Sword and Laser yet."
Anybody read it? Anybody want to? let us know below.