Ed Prior

This is a review I wrote to put with my application to be a reviewer for The Bookbag (http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/) This didn’t actually run on the site, but did get me the job, so I thought I’d record it for posterity.

Summary: Original, surprising and refreshingly weird, The City & the Citywill keep you hooked while making you think about the nature of fantasy and its impact on our real lives.

Main review textTwo cities, one cop: the twist being that these two cities, Besźel and Ul Qoma, both occupy the same geographical space. The cities are separated by an act of will on the part of their citizens. They ‘‘unsee’’ the opposing city, a shared delusion reinforced by the threat of a mysterious force, known as Breach, which makes dissidents vanish instantly. Inspector Tyador Borlú of Besźel’s Extreme Crime Squad finds himself investigating the death of a young woman. Although her body was found in his city, she appears to have come from Ul Qomo, bringing Borlú into conflict with the other city’s police, nationalists on both sides of the border and even a group of foreign archaeologists some of whom may be more than they seem.

‘‘The City & the City’’ is fantasy at its best. A simple, but elegant central conceit is established that informs, but never overpowers, the narrative. This is, at its heart, a detective story and works effectively as such. Borlú is a solid, if perhaps slightly underwritten, protagonist navigating a murky world of conflicting loyalties in pursuit of his investigation, which inevitably leads higher up the food chain that he initially expected. The plotting is brisk and compelling, leading to an unexpected but satisfying conclusion. If there was one criticism I would level at Miéville, it is that his characters are perhaps not quite as gripping as his ideas. But when the ideas are this strong, and weaved into the story with such subtle power, it feels churlish to pick fault.This is easily the cleverest book I’ve read in a long time. Although at first seeming to be a simple police procedural with a fantastical setting, Miéville has in fact constructed a cunning metaphor for the social fantasies – money, politics, nationalism – that inform our real lives. The peoples of Besźel and Ul Qoma distinguish themselves by their languages, modes of dress and the very way they walk, but, at several points in the novel, Borlú and others show confusion about exactly who and what is in which city, showing how superficial these differences are. Crucially it is never made explicitly clear whether there is any supernatural divide between Ul Qoma and Besźel, meaning the difference may very well exist entirely in the minds of their citizens.This is a novel which is original, surprising and refreshingly weird in a genre packed full of ‘‘Lord of the Rings’’ copycats rehashing the faux middle-ages setting again and again ad nauseam. The modern timeframe and casual intersection with our own real world (the Besźel/Ul Qoma conurbation seems to have been dropped somewhere into Eastern Europe) gives ‘‘The City & the City’’ a fresh feel. However the most impressive thing about this story is how Miéville made me question the very nature of what fantasy is and the extent to which it shapes our everyday lives. He has created a subtle parable for the way we allow those above us (here represented by the agency of Breach) to divide us from others by a series of imposed fictions with no inherent meaning or value. Whether you want to compare this to religion, racism or socio-economic status is irrelevant, Miéville has given us a metaphor so simple and elegant as to be endlessly applicable.A powerful novel that will entertain you while (hopefully) making you think ‘‘The City & the City’’ may not be for everyone. But if you are looking for something a little bit different and with greater depth than the usual run-of-the-mill fantasy, then this is definitely the book for you.