The City & the City [Hardcover]

Mieville China (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Tor; 1st edition
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1405000171
• ISBN-13: 978-1405000178
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 9.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,549,177 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

China Miéville is the author of King Rat; Perdido Street Station, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award; The Scar, winner of the Locus Award and the British Fantasy Award; Iron Council, winner of the Locus Award and the Arthur C. Clarke Award; Looking for Jake, a collection of short stories; and Un Lun Dun, his New York Times bestselling book for younger readers. He lives and works in London.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Different Beach Read! Recommended for mystery fans, sci-fi fans, alternative history fans even, April 20, 2010

By 

J. Zeh "Survivor Fan" (Richmond VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The City & The City (Paperback)

I read this book last year in hardback, and have recently read it a second time. It really was my beach read last year, the first book I read laying by on the beach on vacation. It was different, and more of a mystery story than I expected. The premise is unique - two cities existing in the same physical space that overlaps somehow. And that exist in our modern world. You are left wondering about how the separation happened, how it is maintained, and what is the complete story behind it. THAT is what demands a sequel, that I hope China will write one day. I am giving the story four stars instead of five because I really wanted more back story of the city, and the story could have been longer. However, it was the perfect size for a beach read, it does wrap up the mystery, and there are lots of directions the author can take if he wants to do another book with the same detective character.

Reading this book, you are plunged into this very strange concept of the two cites occuping same space right away. As the story develops, you learn how people living there deal with their unusual reality. The reader follows the main character, a police detective, as he investigates a murder. As he finds out more about the murder, the clues may lead to a bigger mystery and conspiracy. Finding out all the pieces of the puzzle as the detective does is part of the fun.

I adore China Mieville, his prose, his writing style and his unique concepts. I love most everything he has written. His books set in Bas-Lag are very intricate and complex and long. This book is NOT set in Bas-Lag, it is shorter than those novels, and a satisfying read by itself. Highly recommended.

One more recommendation: If you ever have the chance to hear the author in person, go see him. He is very gracious in person. He has a wonderful voice and I enjoyed hearing him read from one of his works when I had the chance to see him at a signing event.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A nice change of pace for Mieville., June 23, 2011

By 

plot hound (Dublin, Ireland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The City & The City (Kindle Edition)

This is very different from Mieville's other books, it is a simply detective story with a twist.

The detective story part is fairly straight forward, a woman is found dead and Borlú has to find out why with added political complications.

Where it gets weird is that there are 2 cities overlapping, certain sections of ground claimed by each and some shared and everyone trained to pretend they don't overlap.

This is a very odd idea and adds some unexpected twists to plot.

Borlú is the only character given any depth and in many ways he is the standard city detective character desperate to solve the crime, likeable and interesting. The other characters are all pretty standard background, forgettable.

The pace is good and we follow the case things get quicker and quicker and we are gradually given more information on the set-up in the cities and how they work.

The plot is convoluted and keeps you guessing, there are plenty of twists and turns.

The ending is good, not too clean but resolves all the main issues.

This doesn't have the same depth as some of his other books but it is a much easier read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Alternative Reality Crime Thriller from China Mieville, January 17, 2012

By 

John Kwok (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The City & the City (Paperback)

Drawing upon concepts from string theory in physics as well as from science fiction, fantasy and crime thriller, China Mieville's "The City & The City" is yet another exceptional literary achievement from him; one worthy of its 2010 Hugo Award for best novel (An honor shared with Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl".). It is especially noteworthy for being far less baroque in its writing than in Mieville's "Perdido Street Station". It is also a challenging, potentially difficult, read, simply for forcing readers to understand all the nuances with regards to reality that Mieville throws at them. But it is also a challenge worth taking since a writer of lesser literary talent than Mieville would be unable to concoct such a riveting blend of alternative reality science fiction, crime thriller, and even fantasy, whose literary antecedents include work by the likes of Philip K. Dick and Franz Kafka. "The City & The City" is not just a most compelling work of fiction by a writer whose superlative literary craft rises with the publication of each new novel, it also reaffirms his status as one of the most important writers of our time.

In some remote corner of Europe, the cities of Beszel and Ul Quoma exist uneasily side by side; two adjoining cities divided by language, culture, and their perceptions of reality. Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Beszel police Extreme Crime Squad confronts his most vexing criminal case, the murder of young American archaeology graduate student Mahalia Geary. A seemingly routine case that will introduce him to conspiracy theories and conspiracies that threaten to shatter forever, the uneasy coexistence of these two cities. Taking him on an arduous psychological and physical trek from his decrepit Beszel to the more vibrant, more cosmopolitan Ul Quoma, where, as a guest of Ul Quoman detective Qussim Dhatt, Borlu will search for clues from a decades-old archaeological dig to nightclubs and restaurants frequented by rabid nationalists intent on destroying the other city and by zealous advocates seeking unification of both cities. What he uncovers will have profound implications for the futures of both adjoining cities and for his own, testing severely, his preconceived notions of reality.