4 part miniseries on the BBC, starting tonight! David Morrisey is Borlu.
Wait, you can’t just leave us hanging like that. This is one thing called “The City and The City” or two things called “The City”? Also what’s it about? I’m guessing it’s the sequel to Babe: Pig in the City, just with less pig.
Seriously?
It’s an amazing and I had assumed until now unfilmable novel by China Mieville. Read it now!
Dude, I have a massive backlog of games and books already, not to mention two small kids who are pretty much constantly tugging at my attention. You’re going to have to sell it a little harder than that.
It’s the best sci-fi novel of the last 20 years?
I thought that was Blindsight! You guys are making everything confusing.
Hey, I’m all for advocating for stuff you love, but might this be the slightest exaggeration? I read a fair amount of sci-fi and I’ve never heard of it.
I mean, it won the Hugo when it came out. It’s not exactly obscure.
Nope, superb book, being around a while, very popular in literary circles as well. Certainly not an unknown novel by any means.
OK, Wikipedia tells me the genre for this novel is “Crime, Weird Fiction” and that’s edging me towards making a purchase. Still, I want to get through the Southern Reach books before I start up anything else.
and I have never heard of it. Not that I am an expert or anything.
It’s a procedural crime story about two cops in two parallel universes (so kinda like Counterpart but with cops not spies) except the twist is the parallel universes aren’t actually parallel universes; people are just trained to ignore “the other.”
Its by China Mieville, poster boy of the New Weird scifi/literary movement, and his most accessible (and arguably best) novel. He’s also a fantastic stylist of the English language.
His mother loves murder mysteries - so he wrote a murder mystery for her as a gift - his way. Weirdly.
The short version - a crime has happened - a murder. A local cop goes to investigate, and finds a wrinkle. She was murdered - but not in his run down post-soviet city. No - it was across the street, in the thriving Turkish city that overlays with his.
Part of the joy of the book may be discovery for some - so lemme spoiler this slightly longer explanation…
Overlays? Basically both cities coexist in the same space - with both cities mutually ignoring each other. They only share the streets and sidewalks. Buildings next to each other may be in two different cities. The seperation is strictly enforced by a secret police. Locals know who is a resident of each, and which part is in each city by social cues, acceptable colors, styles etc. Foreigners are very confused and half to take a special class just to visit and not disrupt their social order.
Its just a fantastic read - but so odd, I never thought it was filmable. Guess we’ll find out (it was also turned into a very well received play in Chicago a few years ago - I keep hoping someone will remake the production in NYC).
Well that would get my vote, for what it’s worth.
Not just a Hugo…it won like 8 different SF awards, IIRC. It’s a fantastic book…probably Mieville’s best, and that’s saying something.
Hmmmmm.
Pros:
Borlu and Corwi are great
They’ve done the hard part, the unseeable other, quite well, and really captured the technological disparity between Beszel and Ul Qoma with a relatively light touch. I’m vey curious how they handle the crossing next episode. That will be the real test.
Cons:
The exposition is pretty heavy handed at times. Necessary for TV to some extent, perhaps, but not quite so much. Every time Morrisey’s voiceover kicks in I cringe.
They’ve given him a wife, who was apparently taken by Breach. It just feels so TV. It’s not enough for him to have professional stake, it has to be revenge. FFS.
Bleak House is arguably the second-best English-language novel of the 19th century!
Read it now!
The City and The City is very atmospheric, but it did not stick the ending. Ermergerd, it’s the damned Capitalists!
In the time it took you to post that gif you could have read half a paragraph!
!!