Book review: The City and the City by China Mieville
Print date: 2009 (20s: 1, 50s: 2, 60s: 4, 70s: 9, 80s: 8, 90s: 9, 00s: 27, 10s: 2)
Verdict: Return to owner and get own Kindle copy. (42/100)
First aside: I'm very glad I played Nobilis, since this book is set in a Chancel-- almost in the Cityback itself. It's a very particular kind of weird that I imagine some people have a hard time wrapping their heads around, but I was totally comfortable in the cities. I giggled every time I saw the word "topolganger." The book works exactly like good speculative fiction should; it takes one fantastic idea and extrapolates everything else logically from there. It's a believable picture of how humans would handle the cities, how we'd turn their essential weirdness into something almost mundane.
Second aside: I was commenting to the friend that loaned me the book that most noir is structured as a bunch of confusing stuff that happens until the end of the book when someone gets shot and you pretend everything was connected all along. She refused to tell me anything, but I was essentially right-- this one's noir through and through, gritty and corrupt. Post-modern urban fantasy noir set in eastern Europe, but noir nonetheless. The very fabric of the plot is based on misdirection, which is perfectly in keeping with the attributes of the setting. Things are murky and people behave badly.
Really, combine those two asides and you have a review. The book's a true synthesis of those elements; it can't exist without the fantasy or the noir, and to appreciate it you need to be able to handle both. That probably sounds like I'm trying to be clever given the theme of the book, but it happened naturally, I swear. It's also true.
In my case: I enjoyed it more at the end than at the beginning, and more for the noir than for the fantasy. It's an immaculate example of the form and one of a very few I've read where the explanation and resolution is satisfying without seeming like a cop-out. I'm glad I read it. I won't be making a bunch of references to it anytime soon, but I'll happily tuck a copy away on my Kindle for later-- when I decide it's time to come back.
Page count: 312 (21962 total)
Completed: 62 (27 female authors, 30 male authors, 5 anthology)
Rejected: 38 (23 male authors, 15 female authors)
Next book due: Thursday, October 27th
This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/378560.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Verdict: Return to owner and get own Kindle copy. (42/100)
First aside: I'm very glad I played Nobilis, since this book is set in a Chancel-- almost in the Cityback itself. It's a very particular kind of weird that I imagine some people have a hard time wrapping their heads around, but I was totally comfortable in the cities. I giggled every time I saw the word "topolganger." The book works exactly like good speculative fiction should; it takes one fantastic idea and extrapolates everything else logically from there. It's a believable picture of how humans would handle the cities, how we'd turn their essential weirdness into something almost mundane.
Second aside: I was commenting to the friend that loaned me the book that most noir is structured as a bunch of confusing stuff that happens until the end of the book when someone gets shot and you pretend everything was connected all along. She refused to tell me anything, but I was essentially right-- this one's noir through and through, gritty and corrupt. Post-modern urban fantasy noir set in eastern Europe, but noir nonetheless. The very fabric of the plot is based on misdirection, which is perfectly in keeping with the attributes of the setting. Things are murky and people behave badly.
Really, combine those two asides and you have a review. The book's a true synthesis of those elements; it can't exist without the fantasy or the noir, and to appreciate it you need to be able to handle both. That probably sounds like I'm trying to be clever given the theme of the book, but it happened naturally, I swear. It's also true.
In my case: I enjoyed it more at the end than at the beginning, and more for the noir than for the fantasy. It's an immaculate example of the form and one of a very few I've read where the explanation and resolution is satisfying without seeming like a cop-out. I'm glad I read it. I won't be making a bunch of references to it anytime soon, but I'll happily tuck a copy away on my Kindle for later-- when I decide it's time to come back.
Page count: 312 (21962 total)
Completed: 62 (27 female authors, 30 male authors, 5 anthology)
Rejected: 38 (23 male authors, 15 female authors)
Next book due: Thursday, October 27th
This entry was originally posted at http://kilroy.dreamwidth.org/378560.html. Please comment there using OpenID.