Lollygagging my few minutes to myself away, my thoughts are set in the future rather than the task of this post. Abaddon's Gate is out, available and people are reading it. People being not me, as I for some reason not only have not read but worse do not a copy of my very own. At what point in my life did I lose sight of what matters? Sigh....
And so I sit, wishing I was reviewing THAT book rather than THIS book: The City and The City . For a book that has received quite a bit of buzz, The City and The City doesn't deserve such a poor intro. Weirdly enough, I am not too sure how I would rate this book. Have you have ever been excited to read something but the timing of it did not sync with your life? Timing seemed to doom my first few attempts, I never could get into it. And "getting into it" is the key, because the success of the book requires the reader to accept the codes and laws that dictate this world reality without too much up-front information.
At it's basest descriptive level, The City and The City is a SF Detective novel. Chapter One opens to a murder scene with the plot then expanding rapidly around the actions of the police properly identifying the young women and her killer. The lead character, Inspector Tyador Borlu from the Extreme Crime Squad of the European city-state of Beszel is like most detectives you meet in fiction: moral with a hint of shady to him. You know, a good guy with a past who, while having seen it all is still attempting to keep things right in the world. Maybe I exaggerate him slightly, being a policeman's daughter, but overall he is likable and complex enough to want to follow from page to page as the intrigue develops and darkens. This is a job well-done by Mieville; a good novel is marked by it's character development.
While the characters are vivid, and the plot multi-layered, the real star is the city, times two. Inspector Borlu, a Beszel citizen lives in two worlds, or more poignantly, lives in one world while actively ignoring the other. Beszel shares its geographical space with the city-state of Ul Qoma. Sharing is misleading as these two city-states have an entwined tumultuous past, present and in all probability, future. They exist out of defiance of the other; holding true to their perceived uniqueness, to the extreme of unseeing each other. Citizens of both are raised to be culturally unaware, taught to un-see, un-smell, un-react to the vibrancy of the other city. Fascinating concept and it was this that first intrigued me and subsequently forced me to actually sit down and work through the book. Work it was, but in a good way. You need to be present in this book, actively aware of each word because the stories of the The City and The City is revealed not by page by page but by word by word.
So why does my frustration linger? There is nothing inherently wrong with the book, Mievelle is clearly a masterful writer able to pull together unique ideas, to the point of legitimising them in the context of this world reality. The detective story is as creative as P.D. James has ever penned, so why do I not like it as much as I know I should. It all comes back to timing; I am sure if I read this during my apocalyptic world's colliding stage, rather than my fantastical, space opera stage this review would be very different. As the knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade said, "You must choose, but choose wisely".
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| Holy shit balls |
At it's basest descriptive level, The City and The City is a SF Detective novel. Chapter One opens to a murder scene with the plot then expanding rapidly around the actions of the police properly identifying the young women and her killer. The lead character, Inspector Tyador Borlu from the Extreme Crime Squad of the European city-state of Beszel is like most detectives you meet in fiction: moral with a hint of shady to him. You know, a good guy with a past who, while having seen it all is still attempting to keep things right in the world. Maybe I exaggerate him slightly, being a policeman's daughter, but overall he is likable and complex enough to want to follow from page to page as the intrigue develops and darkens. This is a job well-done by Mieville; a good novel is marked by it's character development.
While the characters are vivid, and the plot multi-layered, the real star is the city, times two. Inspector Borlu, a Beszel citizen lives in two worlds, or more poignantly, lives in one world while actively ignoring the other. Beszel shares its geographical space with the city-state of Ul Qoma. Sharing is misleading as these two city-states have an entwined tumultuous past, present and in all probability, future. They exist out of defiance of the other; holding true to their perceived uniqueness, to the extreme of unseeing each other. Citizens of both are raised to be culturally unaware, taught to un-see, un-smell, un-react to the vibrancy of the other city. Fascinating concept and it was this that first intrigued me and subsequently forced me to actually sit down and work through the book. Work it was, but in a good way. You need to be present in this book, actively aware of each word because the stories of the The City and The City is revealed not by page by page but by word by word.
So why does my frustration linger? There is nothing inherently wrong with the book, Mievelle is clearly a masterful writer able to pull together unique ideas, to the point of legitimising them in the context of this world reality. The detective story is as creative as P.D. James has ever penned, so why do I not like it as much as I know I should. It all comes back to timing; I am sure if I read this during my apocalyptic world's colliding stage, rather than my fantastical, space opera stage this review would be very different. As the knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade said, "You must choose, but choose wisely".
Hi Holly. Followed you here from Goodreads. I liked The City & The City well enough to read it twice, but I know where you're coming from. My suspicion is that Borlu didn't grab you as a character. I have that problem with most of Mieville's books; he's a master of setting, but his characters lack complexity. But I'm a sucker for SF detective novels (consider reading Jonathan Lethem's Gun, with Occasional Music and Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union) so I reread The City & The City for the pleasure of watching Mieville world-build and construct a mystery. BTW, if you want a book that comes close to pulling it off altogether -- good plot, characterization, world-building -- then do look at The Yiddish Policeman's Union. It's alternate history SF, which some folks don't regard as "true" SF, but it's still a fine read.
ReplyDeleteHi Doug, thank you for the referral, I had always meant to pick up The Yiddish Policeman's Union, thanks for reminding me. Looking forward to reading more detective/SF in the future, love the referrals for more reads!
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