william_1844 reviewed The City & the City by China Miéville
One of the most thought-provoking books that I have read
5 stars
This is a darn good detective story but also seriously gets you thinking (it’s also a totally different thing to the TV series once you get into it).
Minor – Chapter 1 style - spoilers ahead
The basic plot revolves around two seemingly normal cities existing in the same space somewhere in Europe. One city, Besźel, really reminds me of Bratislava when I first moved there. Lots of beautiful old architecture showing past wealth, but currently crumbling away from neglect. The other city, Ul Qoma is surging ahead economically and is full of glass and steel new construction.
The story follows Inspector Tyador Borlú, of the Besźel Extreme Crime Squad (who strikes me as if Inspector Frost grew up in Bratislava) who stumbles upon a crime that forces him to confront this very complex situation.
This is very much our world with Google and Microsoft Word and without any magic …
This is a darn good detective story but also seriously gets you thinking (it’s also a totally different thing to the TV series once you get into it).
Minor – Chapter 1 style - spoilers ahead
The basic plot revolves around two seemingly normal cities existing in the same space somewhere in Europe. One city, Besźel, really reminds me of Bratislava when I first moved there. Lots of beautiful old architecture showing past wealth, but currently crumbling away from neglect. The other city, Ul Qoma is surging ahead economically and is full of glass and steel new construction.
The story follows Inspector Tyador Borlú, of the Besźel Extreme Crime Squad (who strikes me as if Inspector Frost grew up in Bratislava) who stumbles upon a crime that forces him to confront this very complex situation.
This is very much our world with Google and Microsoft Word and without any magic or fantastical elements. Everything is as it is today – if Besźel and Ul Qoma existed somewhere in Europe.
The two cities are physically intermingled. One building might be “in” Besźel the next might be “in” Ul Qoma. This isn’t magic, it’s just that the inhabitants of each city are trained to actively ignore the other, even though the physical evidence of both cities is present. From birth they are trained to see their city and to “unsee the Other”.
Making sure that the system is enforced is Breach. Breach is referred to as “a power” that is “invoked”. The agents of Breach seem to be human, however they seemingly materialise whenever someone “commits an act of breach” by interacting or visibly noticing the other city. These agents are hard to look at and usually simply make the one who committed breach simply disappear. No one understands or knows anything about Breach except that they are there in the same way as gravity. You may not understand it, but it works and there’s no point in arguing with it. If you don’t treat it with respect, it will have you.
If you want a good old fashioned detective story but also want to really explore a setting with a ton of mysteries – this is an excellent read.