The City and The City

Hello Gentle

I have had the greatest pleasure of reading a nice entertaining novel by the charming and handsome China Mieville (see a picture to a link below). The novel's title and name "The City & The City," was a detective/noir and thriller novel that at first moved slow, but gradually picked up in speed and hitting a large climatic max, and does not slow down from there.

A lovely and fun read, but also there was great fun in thinking whose doing this, or doing that, and i must say i did enjoy this novel very much for it was fun, and entertaining, and not once kept me bored.

One thing i did notice Mr. China Mieville is that he has a ear for dialogue, and is able to make every conversation run and go smoothly, and flow natural. its not wooden, or stiff. What makes dialogue so important in this tale is its a detective/noir fiction, and our narrator and protagonist Tyador Borlu, is not what someone would say a "lone wolf," of a detective but rather is a modern detective relying on his friends, resources, and colleagues to help him as much as they can. That's what makes dialogue in such a tale so important is that, is that one character is working with another character and communication is key in society and with any relationship. The dialogue itself, gives this entire tale a real nice touch, and that it works so smoothly and not just the following:

"Hello?"
"Hi."
"How are you?"
"good, you?"
"I am good. How was your day?"

Instead of asking question after question, after question, which can get very boring very fast, Mr. China Mieville, makes the conversations flow as if these are real people, working on a real case. That's what makes it so special.

One thing i did notice with the "The City & The City," is that some details are missing, that does keep the reader in the dark, as on how the two cities can co-exist, their past, the past turmoils, when the formation of "Breach," was made, and a lot about the legend of Orciny (hopefully i spelt that right) or rather the "the third," city that exists between the two others (Beszel and Ul Qoma).

However this small lack of detail does not actually hinder the novels plot, or the story telling that China Mieville is capable of and gifted of, but rather just only linger as small gaps. China Mieville makes up for these small gaps in his excellent talent of weaving a plot, creating memorable and liking characters, for having his characters speak like normal people -- curse words and all. However i did notice that one of the characters used the term "Bollocks," a few times which i think is strictly English slang. Though this is tow eastern European countries/cities (the setting) and they may evidently have English influences in language (most of the characters are highly educated and can speak English).

In all this was a wonderful novel to read, which kept me entertained, and enjoyed the read, very much. I praise China Mieville for his great use of prose, and his excellent story telling skills.

I had just also, seen that this novel: "The City & The City," by China Mieville, has been nominated in April 2010 as a Hugo Award Nominee in the Best Novel Category. This novel has also won the BFSA (British Science Fiction Association) Award as well as the Arthur C. Clarke Award.

This has been my first novel I had the pleasure of reading by China Mieville, and i am sure it will not be my last. For my expectations, were proved right and even surpassed in this novel. I greatly enjoyed China Mieville's novel and i look forward to reading more of his novels. The one i have my eyes set on right now is his new novel come out May 7th 2010 called "Kraken." However i will have to roughly wait until June 15 2010 to read this novel, but i am certainly looking forward to watching China Mieville's career grow, and to read the novels that he will continue to put out.

Thank-you for reading Gentle Reader
and
as always: stay well read.

Yours truly

M.Mary

P.S.

The Promised picture of the handsome devil cannot be posted for whatever reason. but if you are curious to see what he looks like i encourage you to check "google images."