Book Review: The City & The City by China Miéville

Title: The City & The City
Author: China Miéville
Published: New York: Del Rey, 2009
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 312
Total Page Count: 84,114
Text Number: 241
Read Because: reviewed by yuki_onna, purchased from Borders
Short Review: The cities Besźel and Ul Qoma share the same geographical location, forcing residents of each city to carefully see and unsee the cities in turn. But when Detective Borlú investigates the murder of a young foreign woman, he must roam between the cities to discover if her murder is linked to the boundary that divides them. The City & The City is an uninspired but competent police procedural offering little special in the way of plot, characterization, or writing style. But its setting is unique, brilliant, and pushes a merely mediocre book to be worthwhile. I hoped for better and the premise could have been taken further, but still I recommend The City & The City because there's nothing else like it—and the originality it offers is fascinating.

( Long review. )

Review posted here on Amazon.com.

(Oh thank goodness, I can read Lost Souls now. I was waiting on it until I finished this review. The City & The City is good and all, but it didn't devour me whole. Lost Souls will. I look forward to it.)

On Lost Souls: Literal blood, and similarities between Brite's Ghost and mine own

There is something deeply appropriate in taking a break from reading Lost Souls, standing up, and immediately stepping on a piece of broken glass. There are fewer reading experiences more visceral than literal blood. (This is all even more relevant when you keep in mind my other visceral experiences with Lost Souls.)

(My foot is fine—I only pricked my toe. Mostly I'm curious as to where the glass came from.)

Speaking of Lost Souls: I just started my reread, but already I'm amazed at how similar this Ghost is to my Ghost—of, you know, Aaron and Ghost. My Ghost takes his name from Lost Souls, but was never intended to be the same character or even an homage. Indeed, it's rare that I get attached to characters, especially book characters, enough that I'd want to create an homage; Lost Souls is an exception to that, but my fond memories are of Zillah and Nothing. Except subconsciously, it would seem—because some of my brain certainly latched onto Brite's Ghost. Pale hair, pale blue eyes, but that's nothing remarkable—comes with the name, I guess. But they're both plagued by strange dreams (potentially supernatural for mine, distinctly supernatural for hers); they're both a little quiet, a little too calm, and distinctly weird; they're both social misfits as a result of their oddities. Like I said I've just begun my reread, and I don't yet have a total grasp on Lost Souls's Ghost—but the initial similarities are striking mostly because I wasn't aware they were there.

In conclusion, I smell fantastic. BPAL's Intrigue (black palm, with cocoa, fig and shadowy wooded notes): dark shadowed palm and cocoa spiked with a slightly sharp, slightly sweet, dark purple fig. I've been wearing it a lot lately. What? I didn't say this would be in any way related.