First, this was a hard read.  I had to work for it.  Maybe that’s partly because I have been pretty stressed by family stuff, but it took me two full weeks to read this, about 12 days to get through the first half and then not much time to finish.

But I loved it.

I’ve read so much science fiction and fantasy that I seldom come across an idea or a world that feels entirely new.  New twists.  New combinations of ideas.  But not just “wow.” And that’s what China delivered to me in “The City and the City.”

Oh – it’s also a rather noir detective novel, and just as weird as anything China has ever done, but it’s also damned good.  At the end of it, my passing thought was that he’s brave and skilled. Really brave and really skilled.