The City & the City - new book coming May 2009!

[Hedrigall]

THE CITY & THE CITY by China Miéville​

UK - 15 May 2009, Tor books, hardcover, 500pp.
US - 26 May 2009, Del Rey books, hardcover, 416pp.

Blurb:
When the body of a murdered woman is found in the extraordinary, decaying city of Bes el, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks like a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he probes, the evidence begins to point to conspiracies far stranger, and more deadly, than anything he could have imagined. Soon his work puts him and those he cares for in danger. Borlu must travel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own, across a border like no other. With shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984 , "The City & The City" is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.

Source: Amazon.co.uk

 

[Thadlerian]

Sounds promising. Very promising indeed. Miéville knows his cities.

 

[Coolhand]

Cool! Okay, I've still got to get round to reading Iron Council, but cool nevertheless!

 

[Allegra]

Yes it sounds very promising. Thanks for the good news, Hedrigall.

 

[Ice fyre]

This does sound good, do like a murder mystery now and again. I think China's writing style will suit it well.

 

[UltraCulture]

Roll on May.

 

[Ursa major]

Two strange cities?

It looks as if China Miéville is planning on spoiling us this time.

 

[Nesacat]

He does have a knack for putting his finger on the pulse of the city. Am very much looking forward to May.

 

[GOLLUM]

Ditto....

 

[neutrino]

The cover art reminds me of the short story "The Tain", this idea of parallel worlds. I'm looking forward to it, he's an amazing author.

 

[Dagny]

i want it!!!

 

[Free Man]

Just before he whizzes off to the States, China Mieville is doing a reading for the 'The City and the City' at Waterstone's Gower Street , by University College London.

 

[Bikewer]

I've just ordered it from the Sci-Fi book club. Let you know....

 

[Ice fyre]

I have read the City and the City. After which I had to go lie down in a darkened room. Brilliant book, great pace lovley prose, but flamin confusing. It took me about half the book to get the feel of it, once I did It made sense but it took a while to get there.

Did enjoy it though.

 

[neutrino]

I liked it, although it was completely different in style to his other books. Perdido Street Station seemed to be full of extravagant descriptions whereas this was a lot tighter and more controlled.
Seemed to me like the two cities willful blindness was an extreme form of the attitude you see in most cities in Britain, like people avoiding each others gazes, walking with their heads down, that kind of thing.

 

[AE35Unit]

Just been reading about this author in Deathray magazine. Sounds interesting but man the books are big!

 

[GOLLUM]

Just been reading about this author in Deathray magazine. Sounds interesting but man the books are big!

Well actually he also has a collection short stories called Looking For Jake. I'm a China fan and have all of his stuff. He is definitely "weird" fiction so it depends upon whether or not you like the more traditional style of fantasy or the more challenging way China goes about his work. Think bodies grafted onto pieces of machinery, bugs and humans having UMM... "close" relations etc...

Perdido Street station is generally regarded as his masterpiece and therefore best work. It's part of a loosely based trilogy, well actually the three books take place in a similar setting/city but all 3 books can be read as stand alones. The other 2 are Iron Council and The Scar. General order of preference is Perdido, Scar, Iron Council.

Then there's King Rat an earlier book I quite enjoyed and fairly short in length and his "children" book Un Lun Dun, another stand alone novel. His more recent noir thriller City and The City I have but am yet to read but by all accounts is superb. Here's a blurb:

New York Times bestselling author China Miéville delivers his most accomplished novel yet, an existential thriller set in a city unlike any other-real or imagined

When a murdered woman is found in the city of Beszel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlu of the Extreme Crime Squad. But as he investigates, the evidence points to conspiracies far stranger and more deadly than anything he could have imagined.


Borlu must travel from the decaying Beszel to the only metropolis on Earth as strange as his own. This is a border crossing like no other, a journey as psychic as it is physical, a shift in perception, a seeing of the unseen. His destination is Beszel's equal, rival, and intimate neighbor, the rich and vibrant city of Ul Qoma. With Ul Qoman detective Qussim Dhatt, and struggling with his own transition, Borlu is enmeshed in a sordid underworld of rabid nationalists intent on destroying their neighboring city, and unificationists who dream of dissolving the two into one. As the detectives uncover the dead woman's secrets, they begin to suspect a truth that could cost them and those they care about more than their lives.
What stands against them are murderous powers in Beszel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities

Casting shades of Kafka and Philip K. Dick, Raymond Chandler and 1984, The City & the City is a murder mystery taken to dazzling metaphysical and artistic heights.


Hope this help.

 

[AE35Unit]

Yea a lot of that was in the interview in Deathray mag. Sounds good!

 

[Connavar]

I will try his novel lenght works in with this book, it sounds too interesting and simpler for book than his huge Perdido Street Station.

As a fan of crime and SFF i like it extra much if an author blends them together well.

 

[GOLLUM]

I will try his novel lenght works in with this book, it sounds too interesting and simpler for book than his huge Perdido Street Station.

As a fan of crime and SFF i like it extra much if an author blends them together well.

Well he is supposed to have done a particularly good job with this one. I have the HB but am yet to read it...so many other books to get through!

I didn't think PSS was that large a volume but it is along with what I'm hearing about City and the City perhaps his 2 best works to date.

I like his writing very much.