China Mieville is an author that I have heard mentioned and recommended in comparison to many writers I like — Borges, Calvino, Jemisin — and yet had never really considered reading, perhaps because I didn't quite understand his ouevre.

Well, I loved this book. What I think Mieville does so well is take a a relatively interesting but low-rent premise (that easily could be fashioned as a Borges short story) and, rather than beat it to death with the size and heft of a novel, use it as the background for an otherwise well-executed and satisfying crime novel.

★★★★