Blackfish City

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.