The City & The City

by China Mieville

When the body of a murdered woman is found in the extraordinary, decaying city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks like a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he probes, the evidence begins to point to conspiracies far stranger, and more deadly, than anything he could have imagined. Soon his work puts him and those he cares for in danger. Borlu must travel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own, across a border like no other. With 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.

• ISBN10: 0330493108
• ISBN13: 9780330493109
• Publish Date: 1 January 2010 (first published 1 January 2009)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 16 May 2011
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Pan Books
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

If [a:Raymond Chandler|1377|Raymond Chandler|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1206535318p2/1377.jpg] and [a:Philip K Dick|5178267|Philip K Dick|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] wrote a book together it would be very similar to [b:The City & the City|4703581|The City & the City|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266894982s/4703581.jpg|4767909] (if you throw a little [a:George Orwell|3706|George Orwell|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1175614486p2/3706.jpg] into the mix). [a:China Miéville|33918|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1243988363p2/33918.jpg] calls his novels fantasy/weird fiction and this is no different, though I think I would consider it more Science Fiction. There is a complex plot full of twists and turns in an even more complex couple of cities. These cities are confusing and very hard to navigate, you feel like a complete alien in them and China doesn’t help you along with this part of the journey; in this aspect it can be a very hard book to read.

But stick to it! The City & The City has a lot to offer; a complex mystery in a homage to Chandler, a foreign country with strike rules (Orwell) and the science fiction style that leaves you pondering about life and our world (Philip K Dick). This book is brilliant and I would recommend it to anyone that is a fan of mysteries or fantasy or sci-fi. You won’t be disappointed; if you can make it past the first few chapters, which is the hardest part of the book to read.