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adhduck's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Very enjoyable, gritty and interesting and I like how all the mysteries and things unfolded. Also the complexity of the characters was good. Less of a fan of Go’s sudden vibe switch with Kaev, though I guess it was meant to partly be a front or her pretending to him/herself she wasn’t like Podlove? Also, how is Kaev old enough to be Soq’s dad, I thought he was like 33. And Ora’s like 50. Did they just have kids as teenagers and the book didn’t address it?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Classism, Death, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal death, Ableism, Medical trauma, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual content
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
Involves a disease that gives you neurological symptoms, the way it’s passed and is treated by the government has some parallels to HIV/AIDS.nodogsonthemoon's review
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Terminal illness, Mental illness, and Gore
Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Genocide, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
bookbrig's review
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This is so weird and wonderful and very much my taste. It's about found family and actual family and enemies all tied up with climate change and capitalism and being MENTALLY BONDED TO AN ORCA. The world building is super great, and all that kept it from a 5 star read for me was that I wanted the ending to spool out a bit slower or longer or something. It was super interesting, and I would have liked a little more time with the characters.
Also I would totally give this to fans of The Golden Compass who want something a little more grown up.
Also I would totally give this to fans of The Golden Compass who want something a little more grown up.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content and Death
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
BLACKFISH CITY feels like post-apocalyptic cyberpunk (or maybe seapunk?), where it's been long enough after the destruction of significant portions of civilization that people have had time to rebuild, but nothing is as it was, and even less is as people would wish it to be.
The worldbuilding is great, with a backstory for the place itself which is told gradually throughout the narrative. There's an A.I. running everything, actually there are a lot of A.I.'s running things, and things are going about as well as they can when somebody a while ago built a nearly unaccountable system, put it on autopilot, and stopped claiming any active responsibility (i.e. badly). There are housing issues, xenophobia, immigration, and an illness spreading through the city that the authorities will neither acknowledge nor treat, but it's definitely present. Suddenly a woman shows up with an orca and a polar bear and her presence consumes the city in totally believable way. All of this is told through a rotation of protagonists from different circumstances who are seemingly unconnected. It's an interesting idea fleshed out into an excellent setting in which to place the characters. That's where it starts getting strange for me. The mysterious orcamancer woman was fascinating... until we actually meet her. Soq was really cool and made a ton of sense, with clear goals and understandable motivations... until they find out some of their personal history and start having unexplained goals that seemed to come out of nowhere. I'm not upset that the seemingly unconnected narrators turned out to actually be connected, that's a common trope which helps the narrative hang together so that they interact with the plot. That being said, I wasn't expecting them to be quite so connected. It took something that felt big and epic, people coming together as strangers to do something for the city and each other, and turned it into something much more dense and coincidental. Neither is bad, necessarily, but it meant I spent 70%-80% of the time thinking I was reading one kind of story before it suddenly changed to the other. Rather than feeling intimate it suddenly felt petty, at least for me.
There’s a moment where Soq, the nonbinary character, is implied to be intersex, but it’s conveyed briefly in a scene where a sexual partner is confused by their genitals (not described). Up until that scene they’d been pretty effortlessly and adeptly handled as a nonbinary character (with little explanatory moments but nothing that took me out of a scene), and then this encounter happens. Being intersex, if that’s what was meant, is distinct from being nonbinary. While it’s more than possible for someone to be both, it felt like their evidently intersex anatomy was offered as an explanation for their nonbinary identity in a way that was frustrating to read. They push back against the comment and correct the person, but it didn’t need to be in the story, just a bit of pointless interphobia.
The worldbuilding is great, with a backstory for the place itself which is told gradually throughout the narrative. There's an A.I. running everything, actually there are a lot of A.I.'s running things, and things are going about as well as they can when somebody a while ago built a nearly unaccountable system, put it on autopilot, and stopped claiming any active responsibility (i.e. badly). There are housing issues, xenophobia, immigration, and an illness spreading through the city that the authorities will neither acknowledge nor treat, but it's definitely present. Suddenly a woman shows up with an orca and a polar bear and her presence consumes the city in totally believable way. All of this is told through a rotation of protagonists from different circumstances who are seemingly unconnected. It's an interesting idea fleshed out into an excellent setting in which to place the characters. That's where it starts getting strange for me. The mysterious orcamancer woman was fascinating... until we actually meet her. Soq was really cool and made a ton of sense, with clear goals and understandable motivations... until they find out some of their personal history and start having unexplained goals that seemed to come out of nowhere. I'm not upset that the seemingly unconnected narrators turned out to actually be connected, that's a common trope which helps the narrative hang together so that they interact with the plot. That being said, I wasn't expecting them to be quite so connected. It took something that felt big and epic, people coming together as strangers to do something for the city and each other, and turned it into something much more dense and coincidental. Neither is bad, necessarily, but it meant I spent 70%-80% of the time thinking I was reading one kind of story before it suddenly changed to the other. Rather than feeling intimate it suddenly felt petty, at least for me.
There’s a moment where Soq, the nonbinary character, is implied to be intersex, but it’s conveyed briefly in a scene where a sexual partner is confused by their genitals (not described). Up until that scene they’d been pretty effortlessly and adeptly handled as a nonbinary character (with little explanatory moments but nothing that took me out of a scene), and then this encounter happens. Being intersex, if that’s what was meant, is distinct from being nonbinary. While it’s more than possible for someone to be both, it felt like their evidently intersex anatomy was offered as an explanation for their nonbinary identity in a way that was frustrating to read. They push back against the comment and correct the person, but it didn’t need to be in the story, just a bit of pointless interphobia.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Violence, Torture, and Animal death
Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, and Death
Minor: Sexism, Misogyny, Genocide, and Self harm
aardwyrm's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Climate change dystopia in which horrible things happen endlessly, but the ultimate choice is hope. The world of Blackfish City is a world that has ended and is beginning to make itself again. The book rejects all easy answers but still loops back to the possibility of a better future. Its patchwork of viewpoints and intertwined themes of family and choice are powerfully executed and throw the reader into the City Without a Map.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Trafficking, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Murder, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Gore, Grief, Genocide, Chronic illness, Blood, and Animal death
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