Author: China Mieville

I really enjoyed this book because I have never read anything like it. In the story we experience a world through the character of Tyador Borlu that is unlike any place in the sci-fi universe of storytelling. China transforms a simple murder mystery into a journey through two very different cities located in the same place. We have two Siamese cities that occupy the same place in certain neighborhoods and the two different peoples of these cities have a peculiar set of laws to live by.

Our protagonist is from a city in Eastern Europe named Beszel . The story is set off by the murder of a young woman named Mahalia Geary. As Tyador investigates the murder we learn of another city named Ul Qoma. Both cities are very different with one that is run down and the other that is more modern and wealthy. The people of both cities each have their own cultures and fashion. Interestingly enough, parts of both cities occupy the same space and therein lies the problem. As it turns out, the people of both cities are not allowed to interact or acknowledge each other. So you might have a ball roll from one city to the next and the people of the second city would just have to ignore it. Or someone might get hit by a car from one city and the Breach would have to clean it up. You also had instances when criminals from one city would jump into the other city to escape only to be captured by the mysterious and ubiquitous police force known as the Breach.

The length to which both cities ignore each other because they fear the Breach is symbolic of some of the barriers we accept in our society such as social class and social hierarchy. It is ultimately a criticism of those barriers between people.

I have to wonder what would happen if both cities were assimilated and started to recognize each other? The wealthier city would fear losing some wealth and both cities might have a cultural war. Whose fashion and culture would dominate?

These are important questions to ask because the people in both cities live in fear of the Breach and their sister city.

I think a good question to ask ourselves after having read the book is what glaring truths in our everyday lives do we feel forced to ignore? It seems that we have a lot in common with the people of both cities of Beszel / Ul Qoma after all.

This is a fantastic book and I highly recommend it.

 I2Q

(commentary by  www.ink2quill.com)

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