Blackfish City
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Average rating3
15
Ratings1
Average rating3
'Incisive and beautifully written . . . Blackfish City simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder' - Ann Leckie, Hugo, Nebula and Clarke Award-winning author 'Sam Miller is a fiercely strong writer, and this book is a blast' - Daryl Gregory, World Fantasy Award-winning author 'This is the kind of swirling, original sci-fi we live for' - B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog 'A compelling dystopian thriller' Guardian 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
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A dystopian thriller set in a world that has collapsed through a combination of climate change, war and natural disaster, Blackfish City is set on the floating city of Qaanaaq, built over a geothermal cone off the coast of Greenland. Told through the viewpoint of several characters, from a damaged fighter to a political aide, to a gender fluid messenger, this is fast paced, stuffed full of new technologies and fleshed out in an intricately built world.
So when a woman arrives on a killer whale accompanied by a Polar bear on some unknown mission, the rumour mill goes into overdrive. What does she want? Revenge? The reasons are complicated and involve everyone in ways nobody expects. It's a story of loss, family, the end of the world and a city like no other.
Told in bite-sized chapters, Miller keeps the story, which at times is convoluted and weighed down by its own world building, moving at a pace. There is violence and action, but there is also heart. But maybe because the chapters are so short, and we switch from character to character so rapidly, it's hard to build a rapport with any of them. We watch rather than empathise.
Blackfish City is worth reading, especially for fans of speculative, dystopian science fiction, but it's somewhat less than the sum of its parts.
