The City & The City [Paperback]

It's not unheard-of to set a mystery against the backdrop of two closely-related cities. Many post-WWII espionage stories play out in East and West Berlin, for example. Cold war spy stories often switch between Washington and Moscow. The two cities in this book take this a step further.

Bes'el and Ul Qoma are... superimposed on each other. In the distant past they were one city--nobody remembers which one. Sometime during a hundred-year gap in the cities' historical record an event called The Cleavage occurred and two cities emerged. Some areas in the "grosstopical" or geographical landscape are in Bes'el and others are in Ul Qoma. Some "crosshatched" areas are in both cities and some of these areas are disputed territory claimed by both as their own. Citizens in each city must go about their business while ignoring the buildings and people in the other city that may be grosstopically close by. The simply unsee them.

Tyador Borlú is a police inspector in Bes'el tasked to investigate the murder of a young woman. The case becomes complicated when it becomes clear that she was murdered in Ul Qoma and left in his city to be discovered. The complications increase when Borlú is convinced that the murderer is also guilty of Breach--seeing both cities simultaneously and moving directly between them. He travels officially to Ul Qoma and begins working with their police force. If Breach has occurred, both cities will surrender jurisdiction to a powerful, shadowy enforcement agency known only as Breach. Their avitars make Breach offenders disappear, never to me mentioned again. When Breach becomes involved, things become even stranger.

China Miéville has done it again. The underlying strangeness of the two cities is thoroughly-explored by the readers and the book's characters. It is presented consistently and with sensical implications. The book has an enjoyably grimy feel to it that is consistent with a murder mystery and with the shadowing machinations of Breach. This book his highly recommended, in both audio and text formats. Miéville junkies like myself will also enjoy the well-crafted strangeness of Embassytown.

"The City & The City" is an unusual novel from China Miéville, one which as far as I can tell is rather unique in the fantasy environment in which it takes place. I suppose that most people, if not all, at times become so focused on their own lives that they become less aware of other people who are right in front of us. Certainly people who live in areas where there are a lot of homeless people almost by necessity become blind to the daily condition. Now imagine two cities in different countries, but which use the same space, with the inhabitants of each having learned to ignore the inhabitants and buildings of the other.

Miéville puts together a clever and intriguing crime story in just that type of environment. Inspector Tyador Borlú of the Extreme Crime Squad in BesYel is assigned to investigate the murder of Mahalia Geary, a foreign student who is found dead in BesYel, but he soon learns that she was involved in events in Ul Qoma, the city which shares its space with BesYel. The investigation also leads to theories involving the theoretical third city, Orciny, which was thought to be legendary, but was hypothesized to be in areas between BesYel and Ul Qoma, i.e. the inhabitants of both have been taught to ignore those areas as being part of their twin city.

"The City & The City" was published on May 15th of 2009, and was nominated for as well as won some major awards. It won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the World Fantasy Award, the British Science Fiction Association Award, it also won the Red Tentacle (best novel) Kitschie award and tied for the Hugo Award. In addition it was nominated for the Nebula and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

Drawing upon concepts from string theory in physics as well as from science fiction, fantasy and crime thriller, China Mieville's "The City & The City" is yet another exceptional literary achievement from him; one worthy of its 2010 Hugo Award for best novel (An honor shared with Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl".). It is especially noteworthy for being far less baroque in its writing than in Mieville's "Perdido Street Station". It is also a challenging, potentially difficult, read, simply for forcing readers to understand all the nuances with regards to reality that Mieville throws at them. But it is also a challenge worth taking since a writer of lesser literary talent than Mieville would be unable to concoct such a riveting blend of alternative reality science fiction, crime thriller, and even fantasy, whose literary antecedents include work by the likes of Philip K. Dick and Franz Kafka. "The City & The City" is not just a most compelling work of fiction by a writer whose superlative literary craft rises with the publication of each new novel, it also reaffirms his status as one of the most important writers of our time.

In some remote corner of Europe, the cities of Beszel and Ul Quoma exist uneasily side by side; two adjoining cities divided by language, culture, and their perceptions of reality. Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Beszel police Extreme Crime Squad confronts his most vexing criminal case, the murder of young American archaeology graduate student Mahalia Geary. A seemingly routine case that will introduce him to conspiracy theories and conspiracies that threaten to shatter forever, the uneasy coexistence of these two cities. Taking him on an arduous psychological and physical trek from his decrepit Beszel to the more vibrant, more cosmopolitan Ul Quoma, where, as a guest of Ul Quoman detective Qussim Dhatt, Borlu will search for clues from a decades-old archaeological dig to nightclubs and restaurants frequented by rabid nationalists intent on destroying the other city and by zealous advocates seeking unification of both cities. What he uncovers will have profound implications for the futures of both adjoining cities and for his own, testing severely, his preconceived notions of reality.