The City and the City - A Mystery in a Mystery!

Hugonauts: The Best Sci-Fi Books of All Time

In this episode we review The City and The City, talk about the things that make it so interesting and fun to read, how 'weird fiction' fits into sci fi, and who makes the rules of society.

As always, we also recommend and discuss some similar stories if you're looking for more great books to read. This week, we recommend The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin, LA Confidential by Elmore Leonard, and Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari.

YouTube link if you prefer to watch

NO SPOILERS BOOK SUMMARY: The City and the City (2010) by China Miéville is a murder mystery set in two cities at the same time. Inspector Borlu is a smart, likeable, no-nonsense detective from Beszel, a city that exists in the same geographic space as the foreign city of Ul Qoma. Despite sitting in the same place, with many streets and even some buildings existing in both cities, the two are fierce rivals with harsh penalties for those who ‘breach’, or cross between the two cities.

Inspector Borlu is assigned to investigate the murder of a young woman that quickly proves to have interested parties across both cities. As Inspector Borlu digs deeper into the case, it also exposes the workings of the two cities, and shadowy, all-powerful agents of Breach that patrol the border and arrest, expel, or execute interlopers. Who killed this young woman? And what exactly is Breach?