I have recently finished "The City and The City" which is a book I had been meaning to read for ages. It's quite frankly an astonishing piece of writing. Not because of any literary aspirations - it is, at heart, a police thriller - but because of the layers and the creativity and impressiveness of the achievement. It's set in a city which is divided - the blurb and the intro in the copy I read compared this to Jerusalem or Berlin - but neither of those comparisons do it justice (I certainly enjoyed it more once I had stopped trying to mentally fit it into Jerusalem). The two cities exist in the same space, with some streets being part of one, some part of the other and others "cross hatched" in which both cities exist simultaneously, and in which residents become trained from an early age to "unsee" the other. Into this fascinating world a murder investigation starts, spanning both cities. It manages to be a murder mystery, a sci fi novel and and a thought provoking discussion on otherness all at once. I heartily recommend it.
The only other Mieville novel I've read is Perdido Street Station, which was good, and did a good job of examining a certain moral question (which I can't reveal without spoilering it really) , but it was a bit too sci fi for my personal taste. Not sure where I should go next with him. Anyone else a fan?
The only other Mieville novel I've read is Perdido Street Station, which was good, and did a good job of examining a certain moral question (which I can't reveal without spoilering it really) , but it was a bit too sci fi for my personal taste. Not sure where I should go next with him. Anyone else a fan?
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