Grammath
7th October 2011, 12:23 PM
Tyador Borlu is an Inspector with the Extreme Crimes Squad in the rundown city of Beszel, possibly somewhere in post-Soviet eastern Europe. He is called upon to investigate the murder of a female student.
Beszel is, however, no ordinary city. It co-exists in the same physical space as the wealthier Ul Qoma. However, the citizens of each city are trained from an early age to "unsee" manifestations of the other, to erase it from their minds. In some areas, the barriers between the two cities is "cross-hatched" and weak and it is here that citizens are at risk of unauthorised crossings or breaches, as they are known.
As Borlu and sidekick Corwi investigate, it seems the student has been working on both sides of the border on an archaelogical dig and her theories, along with those of her mentor Professor David Bowden, have also attracted the interest of nationalist and unificationist politicians on the Oversight Committee which governs relations between the cities. As the case becomes increasingly sensitive and complex, Borlu is teamed up with an Ul Qoman detective, Qusim Dhatt, to continue the investigation.
The divide is policed by a force simply known as Breach, which citizens of both cities live in fear of since those who make unauthorized crossings have a tendency to disappear.
The student, Mahalia Geary, and Bowden have posited a theory that Breach is part of a third city, Orciny, often dismissed as a myth. But is there something to their ideas, and is Mahalia's death and the disappearance of fellow student Yolanda Rodriguez connected to it? To solve the murder, might Borlu have to put himself at the mercy of Breach?
Mieville skillfully combines the tropes of a police procedural novel with his extraordinary, surreal creation. Unlike the cliched sword and sorcery fantasy writers who invoke the rural and the medieval in their worlds, Mielville's work is fiercely urban both here and in his other novels making him, to my mind, a much more interesting writer than George R.R. Martin and his ilk.
There is more to Mieville's creation, however, than simply fantastical story telling. The author is a committed socialist and often uses his fiction to make political points. Here, the message is about how easy we find it to ignore the ills of our societies in the same way as the two cities are trained to ignore one another.
This is certainly a fantastic novel in one sense of the word, and its sheer inventiveness and the force of its central conceit are undeniable and I was drawn into this richly imagined world. I guess how much you like this novel (and I liked it very much) will depend on how much you can buy into it.
The City and the City did have some flaws to my mind. Borlu is not a reflective man and we get little insight into how the denizens of the two cities feel about the strange arrangement in which they live; more might have been interesting although perhaps would not have moved the story along. The thriller elements could perhaps be tighter too. These are quibbles really, though. This is a good novel but I liked the two others of his I've read Perdido Street Station and his criminally underrated debut King Rat more.
Mieville belongs to a distinguished tradition; Wells, Peake, Dick, Kafka, Orwell, Atwood, Borges and Ballard are obvious influences and I believe he is worthy of mention in the same breath. If there was more sci-fi/fantasy writing like this around then perhaps the genre would not be so maligned.
4/5
Beszel is, however, no ordinary city. It co-exists in the same physical space as the wealthier Ul Qoma. However, the citizens of each city are trained from an early age to "unsee" manifestations of the other, to erase it from their minds. In some areas, the barriers between the two cities is "cross-hatched" and weak and it is here that citizens are at risk of unauthorised crossings or breaches, as they are known.
As Borlu and sidekick Corwi investigate, it seems the student has been working on both sides of the border on an archaelogical dig and her theories, along with those of her mentor Professor David Bowden, have also attracted the interest of nationalist and unificationist politicians on the Oversight Committee which governs relations between the cities. As the case becomes increasingly sensitive and complex, Borlu is teamed up with an Ul Qoman detective, Qusim Dhatt, to continue the investigation.
The divide is policed by a force simply known as Breach, which citizens of both cities live in fear of since those who make unauthorized crossings have a tendency to disappear.
The student, Mahalia Geary, and Bowden have posited a theory that Breach is part of a third city, Orciny, often dismissed as a myth. But is there something to their ideas, and is Mahalia's death and the disappearance of fellow student Yolanda Rodriguez connected to it? To solve the murder, might Borlu have to put himself at the mercy of Breach?
Mieville skillfully combines the tropes of a police procedural novel with his extraordinary, surreal creation. Unlike the cliched sword and sorcery fantasy writers who invoke the rural and the medieval in their worlds, Mielville's work is fiercely urban both here and in his other novels making him, to my mind, a much more interesting writer than George R.R. Martin and his ilk.
There is more to Mieville's creation, however, than simply fantastical story telling. The author is a committed socialist and often uses his fiction to make political points. Here, the message is about how easy we find it to ignore the ills of our societies in the same way as the two cities are trained to ignore one another.
This is certainly a fantastic novel in one sense of the word, and its sheer inventiveness and the force of its central conceit are undeniable and I was drawn into this richly imagined world. I guess how much you like this novel (and I liked it very much) will depend on how much you can buy into it.
The City and the City did have some flaws to my mind. Borlu is not a reflective man and we get little insight into how the denizens of the two cities feel about the strange arrangement in which they live; more might have been interesting although perhaps would not have moved the story along. The thriller elements could perhaps be tighter too. These are quibbles really, though. This is a good novel but I liked the two others of his I've read Perdido Street Station and his criminally underrated debut King Rat more.
Mieville belongs to a distinguished tradition; Wells, Peake, Dick, Kafka, Orwell, Atwood, Borges and Ballard are obvious influences and I believe he is worthy of mention in the same breath. If there was more sci-fi/fantasy writing like this around then perhaps the genre would not be so maligned.
4/5