China Mieville's "The City & The City"

Sophia

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From this article:

When China Miéville delivered the manuscript to his newest novel, entitled The City & The City, I was much more than a little surprised. In fact, I was flabbergasted. First of all, I had no idea that he had been writing it. And secondly, he had just delivered a different manuscript—the one I had been expecting—the day before.

His reasons for doing so were simple, and they had nothing to do with proving that he was superhuman. China’s mother, who was terminally ill at the time, had always loved police procedurals—so China set out to write one as a kind of gift to her. But knowing that his reputation is as a fantasy writer, he wasn’t sure what his publishers or his audience would make of his attempt. He studied up by reading as much as he could in the mystery and thriller genre, and then he wrote the book during breaks from writing the fantasy that I was expecting from him. It’s an amazing feat by anyone’s standards.

And what's equally amazing is the job he did. As soon as I started reading it, I knew The City & The City would be the next book we published by China.​

There is a short clip on that page where Mieville talks about the book. CM is a writer whose interviews I bookmark and refer to repeatedly, because I find the way he talks about ideas and stories to be very inspiring. I'm looking forward to this new book very much.
 

ElsaM

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I'll keep my eye out for "The City and The City", it sounds really interesting. So far I've only read Scar by Mieville and I came away with mixed feelings. I think his world building is really impressive. Despite some of the characters being (basically) cactii, I was able to maintain my disbelief with no problems. None of the elements across as ridiculous, depite the fact that vampire pirates aren't necessarily associated with quality fiction.
However, I had difficulty connecting with the characters. I wanted them to equal the plot and the world, but they didn't. At least not for me.

I'd be interested to see what he's done with the police procedural genre.
 

Tweet The Meat

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I'm really looking forward to this. China's biggest strength as a writer is making a community live and breathe. I would love to read is style in a more contemporary setting.
 

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I finished this a couple of weeks ago and I'm still thinking about it.

How he manages to carry the idea of the twin city without explicitly describing it. The way that he leaves room for less mundane interpretations of 'Breach' (It's hard to talk about without introducing spoilers).
 

bsolah

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I'm seeing Mieville speak twice at the Melbourne Writers Festival at the end of August. I can't wait to hear him speak, like Elara, I love his interviews especially because he's actually a socialist and involved in politics.

His views on racism in fantasy and such are spot on, in my opinion.

And I can't wait to pick up this book when I see him in like less than a month!
 

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I finished this a couple of weeks ago and I'm still thinking about it.

Has he... turned the wordiness down a notch? Please say he has.
I like what he writes, but his style gets so obnoxiously ruminating at times I just want to throw the book into a corner.
 

Abizern

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Has he... turned the wordiness down a notch? Please say he has.
I like what he writes, but his style gets so obnoxiously ruminating at times I just want to throw the book into a corner.

I know what you mean, and I think that he has.

That gothic tone has been replaced with a tighter noirish one. And this is a smaller book than Perdido Street Station and The Scar.
 
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Cranky

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I've been thinking about buying this for a couple of weeks now. Sounds very interesting, even without the backstory of how it came to be. :)
 

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I know what you mean, and I think that he has.

That gothic tone has been replaced with a tighter noirish one. And this is a smaller book than Perdido Street Station and The Scar.

Haha, excellent. I'll have to look into this then.
Might have to sample-read extensively at the bookstore before deciding on a purchase though. :p