The City & The City by China Mieville
Published by Macmillan and out on the 15th May 2009
When the body of a murdered woman is found in the extraordinary, decaying city of Bes el, 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.
Last year I read and enjoyed, Un Lun Dun, which I said, ‘Miéville’s fertile and playful imagination along with a strong storytelling skills has created a modern fairy tale for young adults’ I have bought and loaded the Sony Reader with Perdido Street Station, though at 880 pages it’s a big task for me so I’ve not started it, yet.
The City & The City though is lighter in pages but I have no doubt that it won’t be lighter in ideas. Some early reviews are a little mixed:
Since the book reads like a murder mystery, expect to stay up past your usual bedtime on more than one occasion, promising yourself just another chapter. The City & The City grabs hold of you from the very start and won’t let go.
All in all I have no problem at all with the general premise of The City and The City, but the execution of the story failed to get me going at the start. I felt the slow build up took too long and when it did get going it never quite hit the right note.
I’ve got this set right after I finish Nights of Villjamur so I guess I’ll find out soon enough where I fall!
