Blackfish City
Ratings21
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings21
Average rating3.6
***SHORTLISTED FOR THE NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL*** ***A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF 2018*** ***A KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF 2018*** ***A WASHINGTON POST BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF 2018*** 'A remarkable work of dystopian imagination' - Starburst 'Incisive and beautifully written . . . Blackfish City simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder' - Ann Leckie, Hugo, Nebula and Clarke Award-winning author ***** After the climate wars, a floating city was constructed in the Arctic Circle. Once a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering it is now rife with corruption and the population simmers with unrest. Into this turmoil comes a strange new visitor - a woman accompanied by an orca and a chained polar bear. She disappears into the crowds looking for someone she lost thirty years ago, followed by whispers of a vanished people who could bond with animals. Her arrival draws together four people and sparks a chain of events that will change Blackfish City forever. DISTURBING, POWERFUL AND FEARLESSLY IMAGINED, BLACKFISH CITY IS A MESMERISING NOVEL FROM A REMARKABLE NEW VOICE IN SCIENCE FICTION ***** 'A compelling dystopian thriller' Guardian 'Sam Miller is a fiercely strong writer, and this book is a blast' - Daryl Gregory, World Fantasy Award-winning author 'I haven't been this swept away by imagination and worldbuilding since Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials' - Carmen Maria Machado, National Book Award-nominated author of Her Body and other Parties 'Damn near perfect' - The Book Smugglers 'An ambitious, imaginative and big-hearted dystopian ensemble story that's by turns elegiac and angry' - Publisher's Weekly 'This is the kind of swirling, original sci-fi we live for' - B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog
Reviews with the most likes.
You have to have some patience with this story; around 40% in did the plot begin to make any sense. Intriguing concepts around animal and human connections and viral infections.
3.25 out of 5 stars
My thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Blackfish City is an imaginative and richly rendered novel about a floating city and its diverse inhabitants. I was immediately intrigued by the setting, which author Sam J. Miller builds from the ground (or seafloor) up by illustrating the physical makeup of the city, how people navigate its socioeconomically segregated divisions, and even down to invented sports that have flourished in the metal beam laden metropolis.
The chapters rotate between the POVs of five-ish characters who are all distinct and compelling in their own ways. Once the character storylines converge, though, their unique narratives are abandoned in service of the main storyline that feels significantly less captivating than what came before it. I had been invested in the individual stories, but tying them so tidily together does a disservice to the unique threads that had been crafted in the first part of the novel.
Overall, this is a well-written novel, with a cool setting, and while it hooked me in the earlygoing it never quite reeled me in.
See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.
This book reminds me a Lot of Snow Crash, which is one of my favorite books ever. It has a great beginning and middle, and a very weak end. Also, its characters are effortlessly LGBT, and yes, I mean all of those; there is a woman searching for her wife, a gay man, and a gender-neutral bisexual character. None of these things are ever forced, and none of these things are the “point” of the story; they're not plot points, they just Are. I would recommend this book.
Overall, not a bad novel. I liked the premise (a post-climate-change world in a city run by AIs) and the characters, but the plot was disjoint and, at times, uninteresting. Also, it was somewhat difficult to get started with the novel because there are so many characters and the POV is always changing. I also had some trouble visualizing the floating city of Qaanaaq based on the author's descriptions.
