The City & the City

Hardcover, 312 pages

English language

Published May 26, 2009 by Del Rey/Ballantine Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-345-49751-2
OCLC Number:: 251203637
Goodreads:: 4703581

(3 reviews)

When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.

Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into …

When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.

Borlú must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel’s equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlú is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman’s secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.

What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.

4 editions

william_1844 reviewed The City & the City by China Miéville

One of the most thought-provoking books that I have read

5 stars

This is a darn good detective story but also seriously gets you thinking (it’s also a totally different thing to the TV series once you get into it).

Minor – Chapter 1 style - spoilers ahead

The basic plot revolves around two seemingly normal cities existing in the same space somewhere in Europe. One city, Besźel, really reminds me of Bratislava when I first moved there. Lots of beautiful old architecture showing past wealth, but currently crumbling away from neglect. The other city, Ul Qoma is surging ahead economically and is full of glass and steel new construction.

The story follows Inspector Tyador Borlú, of the Besźel Extreme Crime Squad (who strikes me as if Inspector Frost grew up in Bratislava) who stumbles upon a crime that forces him to confront this very complex situation.

This is very much our world with Google and Microsoft Word and without any magic …

This is a darn good detective story but also seriously gets you thinking (it’s also a totally different thing to the TV series once you get into it).

Minor – Chapter 1 style - spoilers ahead

The basic plot revolves around two seemingly normal cities existing in the same space somewhere in Europe. One city, Besźel, really reminds me of Bratislava when I first moved there. Lots of beautiful old architecture showing past wealth, but currently crumbling away from neglect. The other city, Ul Qoma is surging ahead economically and is full of glass and steel new construction.

The story follows Inspector Tyador Borlú, of the Besźel Extreme Crime Squad (who strikes me as if Inspector Frost grew up in Bratislava) who stumbles upon a crime that forces him to confront this very complex situation.

This is very much our world with Google and Microsoft Word and without any magic or fantastical elements. Everything is as it is today – if Besźel and Ul Qoma existed somewhere in Europe.

The two cities are physically intermingled. One building might be “in” Besźel the next might be “in” Ul Qoma. This isn’t magic, it’s just that the inhabitants of each city are trained to actively ignore the other, even though the physical evidence of both cities is present. From birth they are trained to see their city and to “unsee the Other”.

Making sure that the system is enforced is Breach. Breach is referred to as “a power” that is “invoked”. The agents of Breach seem to be human, however they seemingly materialise whenever someone “commits an act of breach” by interacting or visibly noticing the other city. These agents are hard to look at and usually simply make the one who committed breach simply disappear. No one understands or knows anything about Breach except that they are there in the same way as gravity. You may not understand it, but it works and there’s no point in arguing with it. If you don’t treat it with respect, it will have you.

If you want a good old fashioned detective story but also want to really explore a setting with a ton of mysteries – this is an excellent read.

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