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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
Interesting concepts and world. Just couldn't get into the characters. I think the story had too many outlandish elements to be able to connect.
This was a solid "meh" for me. I never felt invested, and actively disliked most of the characters.
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
I would probably rate this book 3.5 stars. I enjoyed most of the elements of this book. The intertwining of characters, the general premise of the floating city, the idea of politics being simplified down to software. I also enjoyed the way the backstory was set up to familiarize you with how society ended up there. What I didn’t love was the speed at which the book was paced. It felt like it took forever to get going and then it started sprinting. There were definitely questions left unanswered, and the back half of the book felt a little shallow. I don’t feel like this warrants a sequel because I don’t feel like the plot line would be strong enough. I did enjoy the read overall, though and would recommend it.
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Stories are valuable here. They are what we brought when we came here; they are what cannot be taken away from us.”
Blackfish City takes us into the not so distant future where climate change has left large swaths of the world either flooded or burned to rubble. The rich have fled, constructing massive floating cities in the Arctic, to which refugees flock from all over the fallen world. This story takes us into the heart of Qaanaaq, one such city constructed with eight arms like a giant asterisk. And truth be told, Qaanaaq might not be as idyllic for some as the settlement is bustling with corruption; strife between classes, organized crime, amazingly advanced technology that sometimes has a mind of its own, and a new disease ravaging the city’s population. But “when a strange new visitor arrives—a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side—the city is entranced.”
Why has she come to Qaanaaq, and how will she affect the lives of the people there?
That central mystery keeps the pages turning as we follow four main characters, each with distinct voices and perspectives, all living seemingly unconnected lives in different sectors of the city along different points on the wealth and status spectrum. Through this and City Without A Map, a mysterious and anonymous news service, we are given a panoramic view of the city through individual experiences.
Because of this the story is a little slow to start but bit by bit things start coming together and just as I started to suspect certain things, the connections are made and BAM! Everything starts falling into place piece by piece as these characters lives come crashing together. The pages began to absolutely fly by. Like being caught in a brutal, dizzying whirlwind that culminated in a story of human connections, resilience and resistance.
In the end, I loved everything about this book. And even though it was a bit bittersweet, it left me feeling hopeful for the City and these people that I had come to fall in love with, faults and all.
“We are stories. We are the stories of not only our lives but also those that came before us, those of the lives that have touched ours, the loved ones we carry with us.”
Sam Miller continues to surprise me in the breadth of what he is capable of writing, and the simple book to book differences in what he puts out. Here we’ve got a hard sci fi book balancing five separate POVs, in a future world devastated by climate change and a hellish future city run by algorithms and software, all coming together as a found family (and something more), and decades long grudges. Honestly, the one thing that doesn’t get explored as much as I like to is the nature of the AIDS-esque disease that seems to genetically pass down the memories of those infected with it, but that’s honestly a pretty minor quibble. If you’re looking for something new, influenced by climate change, and something you haven’t seen before, I’d definitely recommend picking this up.
Well written, thoughtful, and creative commercial sci fi.
The world-building here is intricate and exciting, and the characters are intriguing. But man is the story a slow burn. The last 30 pages are exciting, but I really had to buckle down and work my way through everything that came before it. But I must say there’s a pretty expert weaving of an ensemble of characters here. Miller really knows how to tie things together.