![]() ![]() They are inhospitable neighbors separated since "the Cleavage," places of Orwellian paranoia heavily policed on both sides. Though the occasional Renault or iPod is to be seen in one or the other of the cities, Beszel and Ul Quoma are isolated places (albeit ones served by BeszAir and Illitania). He has even invented languages (Besz and Illitan), and Borlu's non-native English allows Mieville to craft an idiosyncratic, hugely interesting narrative voice. ![]() While drawing the reader into Inspector Taydor Borlu's investigation of the murder, Mieville deftly sketches in the details of these two cities, divided and united by a shared border. Though decidedly Eastern European-ish, the cities do not, in fact, exist however, by novel's end, the reader would swear they do. ![]() The titular cities are Beszel and Ul Quoma. For Mieville's genius here stems from his telling a seemingly familiar story set in a wholly unfamiliar world. But not long after these staples of the procedural are provided, we realize that we are on unfamiliar terrain, literally. Now, in The City & the City, he sets out to bend yet another genre, that of the police procedural, and he succeeds brilliantly. China Mieville has made his name via award-winning, genre-bending titles such as King Rat, Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council. ![]()
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