This deeply interesting and weird book by China Miéville is a mystery within a mystery. Who is this young woman who has been murdered - and what strange power separates these two cities that somehow occupy the same physical space?
Published in 2009; won the Hugo and Locus awards.
Brent: 4 stars. The resolution to the mystery is absolutely perfect - it lands such a big, unexpected message in such an interesting way!
Cody: 4 stars. City is a challenging socio-political commentary in the wrapper of a police procedural that delivers masterfully on both fronts.
Here's the setup:
Inspector Borlu is a smart, likeable, no-nonsense detective who is assigned to investigate the murder of a young woman in the city of Beszel. However, the case quickly proves to have interested parties in the city of Ul Qoma - the city that is somehow laid overtop of Beszel. Despite existing in the same physical space, passage between the cities is forbidden and enforced by the shadowy, all-powerful agents of Breach.
Miéville never tells us how the system works, instead he lets the story itself show us the truth, slowly giving you the pieces you need to put together the puzzle, which makes it so fun to read and feels like you’re solving a mystery of your own.
How do these two cities work? Is it magic or technology, or something else entirely? And who or what are the agents of Breach that arrest, expel, or even execute people who ‘breach’ and pass from one city to the other?
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