Product Description

'An extremely ambitious work with a grand finale which won't disappoint fans of either genre.'

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #45975 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 312 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Certain writers absolutely defy categorisation – and China Miéville is most definitely of that rarefied company. His prose is exhilarating, poetic, coruscating with ideas and atmosphere – and it has enhanced a body of work that has almost no parallels in modern writing. Heretofore, if Miéville has brushed shoulders with any identifiable genres, they are those of fantasy and science fiction – which makes his remarkable new book, The City and The City, such a surprise. The author’s publishers compare this novel to Philip K Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984 – which at least gives a series of corollaries for this book, however tentative. There are elements here of the crime thriller, but very much refracted through Miéville’s highly individual imagination.

The body of a murdered woman is discovered in the remarkable, crumbling European city of Besźel. Such a crime is par for the course for Inspector Tyador Borlú, who is the premier talent of the Extreme Crime Squad – until his investigations uncover evidence that bizarre and terrifying forces are at work – and soon both he and those around him will be in considerable peril. He must undertake an odyssey, a journey across borders both physical and psychical, to the city which is both a complement and rival to his own, that of Ul Qoma.

Like all of China Miéville’s work, The City and The City will not be to everyone’s taste – the very individuality of the prose and the surrealistic inventiveness will not attract those preferring more prosaic fare. But for readers who hanker after untrammelled imagination – and look for literary fare unlike anything they have read before (even, it has to be said, by Miéville himself), then this is a journey to be undertaken. But with caution, perhaps… --Barry Forshaw

Review
'A book that constitutes an SF event... Kafka-meets-noir mystery.' --SFX Magazine

'One of the most enjoyable and original novels of the decade.' --Morning Star

'A satisfying crime procedural novel loaded with parallels to pre-unification Berlin and Orwellian dread.'
--Totalscifi.com

'Beautifully, seamlessly, effortlessly created.'
--American crime writer Laurie R King

'One of the most fascinating literary creations of the new century so far.'
--Icon

`The City & The City works enormously well both as a post-Soviet murder mystery in the Olen Steinhauer vein, and as an innovative study of urban dislocation, segregation and Orwellian mind control. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a refreshing change from more conventional police procedurals.'
--Eurocrime.co.uk

Review
'The names of Kafka and Orwell tend to be invoked too easily for anything a bit out of the ordinary, but in this case they are worthy comparisons...a gripping and thought-provoking read.'

Customer Reviews

A disappointing book from one of my favourite authors.
OK, so every review I read said that this would not be a typical China Mieville book. An existentialist murder mystery? OK. I like a good murder and I like a bit of existentialism, in moderation. I also like China Mieville books, and variety is a good thing, right?

As a premise for a book it was promising - a murder to be solved in two cities which geographically overlap but whose seperateness is ensured by some vast, abstract entity called Breach. The inhabitants of one city, though they can be walking down the same street, must not notice or interact with the inhabitants of the other. So far so good.

But the book itself was a bit dissatisfying. It was never really explained why so much time and effort was expended on solving the possible murder of one girl, when it was clear that the police resources were overstreched and in demand. The protagonist's motivation was a little unclear. But more importantly the thing with the two-cities-for-the-price-of-one started as quite a clever premise but quickly became irritating as it was never really fully developed. My favourite thing about Mieville's writing is the way that the cities take on a life of their own, whether it's the London of 'King Rat' or the, uh, un London of 'Un Lun Dun', or the New Crobuzon of 'Perdido Street Station' and the rest. This city had very little description devoted to it, which was kind of a shame because it made the two different cities difficult to visualise. Maybe I'm thick, here, but I needed some sort of pronunciation guide too.

There was alienation aplenty, and lots of interesting subtext which I'm not going to analyse because I'm not an Eng Lit student any more. Philosophically it was probably quite an interesting book. It lacks the overt politicism of most of Mieville's other stuff (I think that's a bad thing, but I guess it depends on your preferences). I just didn't think much to the actual story.

Now I'm going to sit and re-read 'The Scar', and hope that China Mieville writes another good book soon.

Excellent prose and concept, but a distinct lack of soul
China Miéville, with his novel The Scar, single-handedly changed the way I viewed the fantasy genre. The sheer innovation and refusal to adhere to the norm made me realise just how much potential lies in the genre, while the superb prose meant the novel transcended the usual middle-of-the-road writing that characterises many of the genre's more popular novels. In short, I was massively impressed. Subsequently, I expected great things of his new novel The City and the City.

As some other reviews have noted, Miéville actually requested an embargo on revealing the key premise that underpins The City and the City, to avoid ruining the reading experience. Given that the book has now been released, I've no idea whether this embargo is still in place. In any case, I don't really have the patience to try and explain the premise (it's certainly not something you come across every day - some will see it as ridiculous, others as brilliant). It will suffice to say that one of the main themes of the novel is borders and identity, and this plays a crucial role in proceedings.

Intriguing premise aside, the actual plot boils down to a reasonably typical crime storyline: Inspector Tyador Borlú is called on to investigate the murder of a young woman in the fictional eastern European city of BesYel. It soon becomes apparent that sinister forces are at work, and that to follow the murder trail Borlú will have to cross physical and psychological borders, as his investigation leads him to the more exotic city of Ul Qoma, BesYel's neighbour and political rival.

Miéville has already proven himself immensely skilled at portraying urban environments (Perdido Street Station is probably the novel that springs to most fans' minds, but check out his short story The Tain as well). His talent for bringing cities to life and understanding of what gives them their characteristics - their soul - is on display here in full force. The cities of BesYel and Ul Qoma - so close together, yet so distant in their respective personalities - are well drawn and developed. Miéville's prose and dialogue (excellent, as always) is largely responsible, creating two distinct atmospheres - BesYel is wonderfully bleak and almost desolate at times, while Ul Qoma is beguilingly exotic.

With a typically innovative premise that offers so much potential, two detailed, atmospheric settings, and noir-soaked, stylish prose, the stage is set for a fantastic novel. Unfortunately (perhaps even surprisingly), it doesn't happen. Two main issues hampered my enjoyment of the book, and ultimately cancel out the fine work that Miéville's done with the premise and setting.

The first is the characters - they're shallow. Disappointingly so. Take the protagonist, Tyador Borlú. At the end of novel, we know precious little more about him than we do at the start. In terms of background, there's just not enough to flesh him out - he lives alone, sees two different woman that are not aware of each other. That's it. Sure, we see his various qualities, but for me he just wasn't a character that interested me, he had no vices or obvious flaws. There was no real personal struggle or sacrifice involved in the resolution of the plot. The same problem arises with the other major characters - they're fleshed out just enough to give them some sort of personality, but again there's no depth and no real connection between any of them. Perhaps this was deliberate, to further the isolated, paranoid nature of the setting, but it didn't work for me - I just didn't really care about any of them. Compared to the various personalities encountered in The Scar, the characterisation in The City and the City comes across as bland.

The other bone of contention I have is with the plot. While it kept me guessing, events unfolded so slowly that I struggled to maintain my interest. Events did eventually come to a head late on, but I would have liked more urgency throughout the novel, a bit more action, a bit more tension. Too much of the time Borlú just seemed to plod around talking to members of various political groups, with precious little of interest happening. Perhaps this is a realistic take on a police investigation, but it doesn't make for exciting reading. I was also rather underwhelmed by the eventual revelations as to who was behind the murder. While there was one good twist, I couldn't even remember who one of the main villains was - I think he appeared in one scene about 200 pages before, a fleeting appearance, and then disappeared again until the end.

You can level other criticisms at The City and the City - some of my fellow bloggers, for example, remained unconvinced by the behaviour of the citizens and the actual practicalities involved in maintaining the boundaries between the cities and their separate identities. While I did find it hard to suspend my belief at times, this wasn't really a problem for me - at least, not nearly as much as the lack of characterisation and the slow plot.

Verdict: The City and the City hasn't changed my opinion of China Miéville - I still believe he's hugely important to the genre, and that as an innovator he's without peer. It has made me realise, however, that perhaps he's better off sticking to secondary world fiction, where he's able to draw upon the full force of his imagination. The City and the City, while far from a bad novel, is ultimately just a pale imitation of the brilliance that can be found in the likes of The Scar. Perhaps it's unfair to compare the two, given their differences, but ultimately a novel - whatever genre its in - needs to have strong characters to succeed, and in my view this is where The City and the City falls short.

Worlds apart
China Mieville earned himself a reputation for being edgy and unconventional with the outstanding novel 'Perdido street station'. The other worldliness of that novel was then reproduced in 'The scar' but unfortunately it all went horribly wrong with the turgid & very boring 'The iron council'.
Since then,(2005), he has not released another adult novel and so it is with some hope & no little trepidation that his latest is received.
Set in the city of Beszel we are quickly introduced to a murder victim & the inspector investigating the crime. At the same time we learn that Beszel shares its space with another city called Ul Quoma. The two seem to somehow share the same space but have a long standing hatred of one another and so have invented a whole litany of rules and regulations to ensure the other is ignored by it's residents & anyone who fails to follow the rules is rapidly dealt with by the all seeing & deadly 'Breach'.
Confused? You will be as Mieville refuses to let out much information at any one time and keeps his characters under tight wraps. Just how did the girl die & why? Why does no one want to deal with the problem? For every answer given another question arises and this is where the author really finds himself without any modern day peers. He is able to confuse & disorient his reader while at the same time weaving an increasingly powerful aura of exotic mystery and suspense. The two cities are placed, not into some new fictional world or even Mievilles already existing one from his previous novels, rather they exist in our world with the beauty of mundane everyday actions like tourism given a fascinating slant for those wishing to visit Beszel. It's our history but with the 2 cities histories blended and subtly distorting what we know.
This author excels when lending an air of menace and strangeness to his work. The sense of foreboding is always there, you struggle in vain to see why, but it's ever present and drives the reader on to the next page and chapter.
This really is a return to form for this writer and that means this is a riveting and slightly confusing & scary ride with barely a moment to pause. You won't necessarily follow everything all the time but then you're not meant to. Instead this is best enjoyed as a sort of hypnagogic experience where what you see seems so real but in fact reality is just out of reach. The ending is no let down and offers an explanation most will not have considered.
If you enjoyed his previous novels then this will definitely not disappoint. If you are new to his work then this is a great introduction to an author whose ability to paint new worlds and alternate realities is of the very highest order.
An excellent book that bears repeated reading.