∎ [PDF] Gratis City the City China Mieville 9780330513517 Books

City the City China Mieville 9780330513517 Books

Download As PDF : City the City China Mieville 9780330513517 Books

City the City China Mieville 9780330513517 Books

I found this book absolutely unreadable. It's very rare for me not to finish a book, and I've been reading all sorts of sci-fi and fantasy for years. But I really didn't like this one. The style is unimpressive and the story is trivial.


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City the City China Mieville 9780330513517 Books Reviews

Mieville's writing, whether in an attempt to align with the "language" of his protagonist or to suggest a differing syntax in the fictional setting of the story, is somewhat herky-jerky ... gangly, you might say. The story follows many of the norms of a police procedural but is set in one-inside-the-other cities that occupy the same geography yet contain two distinct cultures, each forbidden to interact with or even see the other. Trained from birth in the acts of "unseeing" and "unhearing" with compliance enforced by a nearly absolute power referred to as Breach, the book certainly could have been a more vigorous examination of our willingness to adhere to imposed -- and absurd -- societal and/or religious convention. While the implications are unavoidable, the story still wraps up with a rather conventionally-satisfying ending. The book is thought provoking, though more in terms of understanding the uniqueness of the setting rather than in exploring the foibles of power and adherence.
I guess I was expecting a lot more from this book. It wasn't bad but as not exciting until almost the end. I can see how a lot of people would give up or be bored by this book though. There are a lot of descriptions of the cities and of the people from each one. I think though he had to do that or I don't think anyone would really be able to understand how a city can be in a city and the people who live there can tell the difference between the two. Anyways it was a very interesting premise but the story just wasn't fast paced or interesting enough for me. I think it could have been better. For a type of detective novel with a bit of a weirdness of the city thrown in it was just ok. I think it may have been better if the third place. existed and there was a more hinting story there.
After finishing Mieville's "The Kraken," I wanted to read something else by an author who is quickly becoming one of my favorites. A friend recommended "The City & The City" and I was not disappointed.

"The City & The City" is, at it's heart, a gumshoe murder mystery that takes place in the most incredible place on earth. The cities of Beszel and Ul Qoma share "grosstopically" a similar space. That is to say, the streets of the two cities run together, but due to quirks of history and international politics, the streets are in two separate and somewhat antagonistic countries.

Mieville's cities remind me of the two Berlins during the cold war but instead of in linguistically homogeneous Germany, they are located in architecturally and linguistically diverse Balkans. The cities residents' most curious practice is that of "unseeing" people and events that transpire in the neighboring country (even if "grosstopically" it may only be a few feet away).

The cities separateness is enforced by a powerful and rather mysterious organization called Breach. In true Cold War fashion, citizens who violate the separateness of the cities by crossing subtle boundaries sometimes simply disappear.

Enter the case of a Jane Doe, murdered in one city and disposed of in the other. The politics and particulars of the place make the detective work Mieville's characters have to perform simply fascinating. The novel explores being in a political versus geographic space.

There was enough mystery and intrigue to keep me turning the pages and continually guessing "who done it"! I'd recommend the novel to any who enjoys a murder-mystery with a new twist.
I first found out about this book after listening to a lecture hosted by Keith Mitnick (Taubman College). He introduced the topic by discussing the general theme of this book and the idea of "seeing and unseeing" as a means of understanding space as well as neighboring architectural forms from different eras or topologies. Just from his description of the book's premise, I knew I wanted to read it.

To start, this book is BONKERS. But in the best way possible. Admittedly, I found the beginning to be tough to get through simply because Mieville's writing is something I wasn't used to reading; at times it feels very sporadic and seems to "jump around" a lot without much exposition, but after a while I realized that I actually enjoy it that way, things seem more "fast-paced" which fits well with the story itself. It gets really interesting once he starts to describe "Breach" and the way the characters "unsee" the neighboring city. [MILD SPOILER] these details don't get "explained" until some chapters into the book, but I felt that this helped set the tone earlier on by making the character's actions that more intriguing; I kept reading because I wanted to better understand their strange behaviors and "see" the picture that Mieville was creating.

I love the concept (I haven't seen or read other stories like it), and the characters are believable and entertaining. If anyone has other suggestions for books like this please let me know, but in the meantime I would recommend this to anyone interested in more speculative fiction.
I found this book absolutely unreadable. It's very rare for me not to finish a book, and I've been reading all sorts of sci-fi and fantasy for years. But I really didn't like this one. The style is unimpressive and the story is trivial.