Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

THE CITY & THE CITY
by
CHINA MIÉVILLE
The City & the City hardback cover The City & the City (2009)
2010 Arthur C. Clarke Award winner
2010 Hugo Award nominee

Del Rey USA hardcover
cover art by FWIS
312 pages (left)

Del Rey trade paperback
includes author interview
includes reading group questions
312 pages (right) 		The City & The City trade paperback cover
From the inside cover of the hardcover:
       When a murdered woman is found in the city of Besźel, somewhere at the edge of Europe, it looks to be a routine case for Inspector Tyador Borlú 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.
       Borlú must travel from the decaying Besźel 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 Besźel'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, Borlú 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 Besźel and in Ul Qoma: and, most terrifying of all, that which lies between these two cities.

Read for group discussion on June 9, 2010
RATINGS:
How we each rated this book
Dan - Amy - stack of books 10   Wow! Don't miss it
8-9  Highly recommended
7    Recommended
5-6  Mild recommendation
3-4  Take your chances
1-2  Below average; skip it
0    Get out the flamethrower!
U    Unfinishable or unreadable
-    Skipped or no rating given
Cheri 8.5 Barb -
Aaron 9 Cynthia 8
Jackie - Ron -
Bob 7.5 Molly 7
Stephanie 8.5    
Our book group has also read the following books by China Miéville
-- Perdido Street Station   in May 2003
-- The Scar   in January 2005 (includes summary)
Bibliography:
China Miéville (1972-    ) is a UK fantasy writer living in England.   He has written in the New Weird subgenre.

Awards:
2001 August Derleth Award (British Fantasy) for Perdido Street Station
2001 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Perdido Street Station
2003 August Derleth Award (British Fantasy) for The Scar
2005 Arthur C. Clarke Award for Iron Council
2010 Arthur C. Clarke Award for The City & The City

Bas-Lag universe books
-- Perdido Street Station (2000)
-- The Scar (2002)
-- Iron Council (2004)

Other novels
-- King Rat (1998), his first novel, dark fantasy or horror
-- The City & The City (2009), mystery science fantasy
-- Kraken (2010), a dark comedy fantasy

Novellas or short novels
--The Tain (2002), post-apocalypse story reprinted in the anthology Cities (2004)

Young Adult books
-- Un Lun Dun (2007), fantasy

Short story collections
-- Looking for Jake (2005), fourteen stories including The Tain

Links:
Aaron's review of The Tain on Fantastic Reviews
Our book club's page for Perdido Street Station by China Miéville
Our book club's page for The Scar by China Miéville
China Miéville - Wikipedia
Locus Online: China Miéville interview excerpts (2002)
China Miéville interviewed - infinity plus non-fiction (2001)
China Mieville interviewed - infinity plus non-fiction (2003)
Review: The City and the City by China Miéville | Books | The Guardian
The City and the City by China Mieville - Official sffworld.com review
The SF Site Featured Review: The City & The City

Return to Home Page - Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

E-mail: SFandFBookclub@aol.com
 This page was last updated September 30, 2010