I actually really liked this book. There are definitely moments of ‘overwriting’ and somewhat florid descriptions, but it kind of fits the fantastical nature of the book as a whole. Meiville writes what he calls “weird fiction” vs. science fiction, I guess, and this is definitely and apt description. The story is set in some other world, in the city of New Crobuzon - a run down, steampunk city inhabited by different sorts of beings: humans, reptile people, cactus people, beetle people, bird people and ‘remades’ - generally humans that have been surgically refashioned in sometimes horrible ways either to serve some sort of purpose or as punishment for a crime.
As with (apparently) many of his other books, the city of New Crobuzon is one of the main characters in this book - he spends many pages throughout describing the different neighborhoods, the buildings, the state of decay or beauty of what seems like a barely functioning post-industrial city powered by steam and old-fashioned sounding machinery. Dials, gears, pipes: Steampunk. This sort of ‘world building’ is one thing that not only makes reading something like this worthwhile, but it makes me feel like since I’ve invested time getting to know this place, I’ll definitely consider reading two of his other novels “Scar” and “Iron Council” which are also set in New Crobuzon. He’s spent a lot of time and imagination creating the city, and I look forward to reading the other stories set there.
There are several plots within the book, but the main one involves the growth and escape of five huge killer moths. Killer moths that hypnotize people with the designs on the inside of their wings and then suck out their souls/intelligence, leaving behind comatose but technically still alive victims. Killer moths. One of the things I really liked about “City & the City” was that there was some philosophical exploration of more theoretical ideas about reality, conception and how the government controls this. There is much less of that sort of idea exploration in this book which I missed.
