Reviews

• Interesting take. Great concept and faultlessly handled. Without wanting to give to much away, I'd say while the police procedural bit was good, the setting made this something special. Believable take on a unique idea.

• This novel is a departure from the overt fantasy of his Bas-Lag series and his recent young adult book, Un Lun Dun. The closest approximation to his previous work would be to King Rat, which, for all its fantastic elements, was essentially a modern urban thriller. The review that follows is phenomenally vague, but The City & The City is an exceptionally clever piece of fiction, and I don't want to spoil it. The protagonist is Inspector Tyador Borlu, of the Extreme Crime Squad. Mieville sets the book up like a murder mystery - the slightly-jaded Borlu must deal with incompetent superiors (and juniors), awkward bureaucratic processes and an aging, under-staffed department. If anything, it is a conscious replication of the vaguely-existential non-Western mysteries that are currently quite trendy (and rightfully so). The existence of a mystery, however, is the ultimate red herring. Although the plot - with its many twists and turns - is the sort of well-crafted, exceptionally-detailed masterpiece that we can now safely expect from Mieville, this book is not about the plot. Nor, for all Mieville's work in capturing the tone and the style of Albert Camus or Milan Kundera, is this a piece of existential literature. Borlu is an engaging, empathetic character- but, again, that's almost incidental. Instead, the closest approximation to The City & The City is actually vintage science fiction - the days of Bradbury and Asimov. The book is old-fashioned pulp - basic one-engine, two-twist science fiction. Mieville has a fantastic, mind-bending concept. By following the mystery, the story teases it and then introduces it fully. We're then introduced, bit by bit, to the logical extensions of the story's core conceit - including its negative repercussions. We get a final twist at the end that resolves the conflict gives the reader a final, holistic view of the concept. Stepping back from the distractions of the mystery and the characters, the progression of The City & The City is almost obvious. Of course Borlu goes where he does and winds up where he does - it is (again) only due to Mieville's immense skill as a story-teller that I never stepped back and thought about it. Despite a core conceit that's wildly impossible, Mieville never breaks the suspension of disbelief - when it comes to combining pulp story-telling and impeccable writing, he has his cake and eats it too. To put an end to the vagueness, here's something specific. The City & The City is easily the best book I've read this summer, and possibly this year. It's genre-bending classification will invariably frustrate booksellers and award lists alike, but this is a new classic of any... every... classification. What Mieville has done is simply this: take a simple creative idea - the stuff of any magazine story or Creative Writing 101 - and make it into a mind-bogglingly delicious novel. And the intricate plot? The empathetic character? The philosophical progression? He does those as extras - Mieville casually includes what most authors strive - and fail - to achieve. That's crossing the line from skill to genius.

• Buen libro

• Mind-blowing. It starts as a strange crime novel and evolves into a profound look at borders, culture, and perception. It takes a few chapters to get your bearings in the "overlapping" cities, but once you do, it’s impossible to put down. This is speculative fiction at its absolute finest.

• Inspektor Borlú vom Extreme Crime Squad hat mal wieder einen neuen Fall. Eine junge Frau wurde grausam ermordet. Doch der Fall birgt mehr in sich, als es zuerst den Anschein hat. Denn die junge Frau wurde nicht in seiner leicht heruntergekommenen Heimatstadt Beszel ermordet, wo ihre Leiche gefunden wurde, sondern in ihrer boomenden Schwester Ul Quoma - und damit fangen die Probleme erst richtig an. Denn Ul Quoma und Beszel sind nicht nur stark rivalisierende Nachbarstädte, sondern sie teilen sich denselben geographischen Ort. Ineinander verwoben existieren sie gleichzeitig, teilen sich Straßen, Gebäude, Flüsse, Parks - aber es ist bei strengster Strafe verboten, dies wahrzunehmen. Sieht ein Bürger absichtlich oder unabsichtlich einen Bürger der anderen Stadt und nimmt ihn danach nicht sofort aktiv _nicht_ wahr, hat er mit drastischen Konsequenzen zu rechnen. Und so lernen die Bewohner von Kindesbeinen an, die Hälfte ihrer Wahrnehmung gezielt zu blockieren. Während der Fall immer düsterer, verworrener und vor allem politischer wird, muss Inspektor Borlú nach Ul Quoma reisen, um mit Hilfe der dortigen Polizei etwas mehr Licht ins Dunkel zu bringen. Doch sie haben nicht mit der mysteriösen dritten Stadt gerechnet - Orciny, die Stadt zwischen den Städten. Mieville hat hier ein echtes Meisterwerk abgeliefert. Das Buch ist ein bis zur letzten Seite spannender Thriller, gleichzeitig beste Fantasy/Mystery in einem kontemporären Setting, darüber hinaus aber auch eine gelungene Parabel über die Wahrnehmung (oder besser Nicht-Wahrnehmung) der Menschheit. Denn was nicht sein darf, kann auch nicht sein, oder? Der Schreibstil Mievilles hat noch dazu ein sehr hohes literarisches Niveau, selbst wenn seine Charaktere wie die Kesselflicker fluchen. Dieser brilliante Umgang mit der Sprache macht zusätzlich Freude, die Geschichte weiter zu lesen. Eine 100%ige Leseempfehlung von mir - glatte ***** Sterne.

Purchase links