Search - The City & The City

Love Mieville's Bas-Lag trilogy, but this book didn't capture me as much; the writing was good but sparser than his others(probably necessarily due to the subject matter), and while the concept was really interesting I felt it just didn't really live up to its own ideas. I'm not usually a big fan of crime fiction, however, so readers with more of an interest in the genre may enjoy this book more than I did. The story was readable and interesting, I in no way mean to suggest that it wasn't a good book, but I didn't find it captured my imagination in the way the Bas-Lag books did and don't think it merits a second read. The paperback version does contain a very interesting interview with Mieville following the story. I'll be interested to see where he goes with Kraken, his newest release.

Such an interesting concept that never really comes to fruition (in terms of offering any kind of social or political analysis) perhaps because the differences between the two cities and the reason for their existence are never elaborated. As a police procedural it makes for a great story despite the fact that there's no climactic feel to the climax...Even with these disappointments, I still rate it "3.5" stars because the writing is very good and the story is engaging.

Disjointed and a little hard to follow. Weak on technology despite lots of opportunities.