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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
fast-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
Loved this!! Would read a whole series if he wrote it
adventurous
challenging
fast-paced
Look I had decided I was gonna love this before starting because I’m just gonna love everything Sam J Miller writes. So I’ll forgive its flaws and bask in the world building and cool nuggets and genuine feels that carried me through the story.
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
slow-paced
The first third of the book is a very slow building, that took me a while to get hooked. It was only when the characters started to converge that I truly began to enjoy the story.
How will life be after societal breakdown, after the climate wars? In “Blackfish City” by Sam J. Miller we read about the extreme poverty and extreme richness, the gang leaders and shareholders plotting their way upwards, the fighters trying to survive, gay sex and a fascinating woman from a peoples killed, sailing with an orca towards a floating city in the Arctic Circle. There’s a mysterious disease affecting many people - the Breaks - and unknown software running the city, inequality and a dire housing crisis.
“Fine line between good business and a fucking war crime,” he said.
“Ain’t that the goddamn epitaph of capitalism.” /306
“Blackfish City” is certainly one of the contemporary science-fiction books to read on the housing issue. Housing becomes the core and center of the novel’s plot, besides many other strands being picked up - of science gone rogue, ethnic cleansing, immigrant worker exploitation, and a strange “nanobonding” between human and non-human animals. It’s a world exploding with today’s issues, all crowded in the city of Qaanaaq, tall and rowdy, full of crime, protest and delicious noodle stalls. It’s not surprising to read in the author’s description that he’s a community organizer because honestly, the novel is built on the attention to detail he gives to the social issue of housing.
Jumping from one point of view to another, we’ve got Fill - a young gay man who’s economically privileged and kind of sex-obsessed; Kaev - a beam fighter who has trouble communicating; Ankit - an ex-scaler (parkour climber sort of), council-worker and Kaev’s sister, Masaaraq - the orca woman, following an unknown, dangerous purpose, ready to kill for it, and Soq - a nonbinary youth who had to fend for themselves, trying to climb upwards by getting in Go’s, a gang leader, favors (“Soq was beyond gender. They put it on like most people put on clothes. Some days butch and some days queen, but always Soq, always the same and always uncircumscribable underneath it all.” /42). Interestingly, the chapters are often separated by a “City Without a Map” broadcast, a sort of podcast for whoever listens - the rags and the riches, as it is enjoyed and hated by people of all kinds - whose Author is unknown and whose importance to the plot grows as one reads on.
“Villains can be stopped. But villains are oversimplifications.” /309
With jaw implants that translate all languages, buildings that change shape for security reasons, and humans who (kinda) control the animals they are nano-bonded to, with desire to conquer and lust for revenge, this novel is packed full and feels a bit too much, just as Qaanaaq probably feels like. I won’t spoil it, but safe to say the action keeps raising and gathering speed towards the end as more keeps happening - revelations on the arrival of the orca woman, the connection between the characters, the cause and cure of the Breaks (which initially seems similar to the AIDS epidemic) and most importantly, the way to save one’s family while fighting landlords (though kind of requiring an orca ally… well, one is reminded of the killer whale’s attack on yachts, isn’t it?).
My main criticism is that I wish more thought had been given to the human-nonhuman relationships, as the nanobonding peoples are quite central to the story. The non-human animals (the orca whose name we learn far too late, the polar bear Liam, the monkey Chim) don’t get to have much depth and although they do influence their human bonders, it seems like the whole point of the relationship is for it to work in favor of the human, foremost. Besides, bonding to an unknown animal for life kind-of-seems like (forced) marriage to a stranger, but 100% times worse, because you always feel what they feel, never a moment’s respite (from both sides). Unfortunately, it’s a missed opportunity to truly explore what bonding beyond species might mean.
All in all, it’s a wild ride, a bit rocky at the start and speedy at the end, but certainly interesting. Blackfish City’s world feels raw and cold and very true, a mash-up of different real and imagined cities, a gritty place to return to imaginatively and be wary of when organizing for a different future.
“Stories are where we find ourselves, where we find the others who are like us. Gather enough stories and soon you’re not alone, you’re an army.” /224
“Fine line between good business and a fucking war crime,” he said.
“Ain’t that the goddamn epitaph of capitalism.” /306
“Blackfish City” is certainly one of the contemporary science-fiction books to read on the housing issue. Housing becomes the core and center of the novel’s plot, besides many other strands being picked up - of science gone rogue, ethnic cleansing, immigrant worker exploitation, and a strange “nanobonding” between human and non-human animals. It’s a world exploding with today’s issues, all crowded in the city of Qaanaaq, tall and rowdy, full of crime, protest and delicious noodle stalls. It’s not surprising to read in the author’s description that he’s a community organizer because honestly, the novel is built on the attention to detail he gives to the social issue of housing.
Jumping from one point of view to another, we’ve got Fill - a young gay man who’s economically privileged and kind of sex-obsessed; Kaev - a beam fighter who has trouble communicating; Ankit - an ex-scaler (parkour climber sort of), council-worker and Kaev’s sister, Masaaraq - the orca woman, following an unknown, dangerous purpose, ready to kill for it, and Soq - a nonbinary youth who had to fend for themselves, trying to climb upwards by getting in Go’s, a gang leader, favors (“Soq was beyond gender. They put it on like most people put on clothes. Some days butch and some days queen, but always Soq, always the same and always uncircumscribable underneath it all.” /42). Interestingly, the chapters are often separated by a “City Without a Map” broadcast, a sort of podcast for whoever listens - the rags and the riches, as it is enjoyed and hated by people of all kinds - whose Author is unknown and whose importance to the plot grows as one reads on.
“Villains can be stopped. But villains are oversimplifications.” /309
With jaw implants that translate all languages, buildings that change shape for security reasons, and humans who (kinda) control the animals they are nano-bonded to, with desire to conquer and lust for revenge, this novel is packed full and feels a bit too much, just as Qaanaaq probably feels like. I won’t spoil it, but safe to say the action keeps raising and gathering speed towards the end as more keeps happening - revelations on the arrival of the orca woman, the connection between the characters, the cause and cure of the Breaks (which initially seems similar to the AIDS epidemic) and most importantly, the way to save one’s family while fighting landlords (though kind of requiring an orca ally… well, one is reminded of the killer whale’s attack on yachts, isn’t it?).
My main criticism is that I wish more thought had been given to the human-nonhuman relationships, as the nanobonding peoples are quite central to the story. The non-human animals (the orca whose name we learn far too late, the polar bear Liam, the monkey Chim) don’t get to have much depth and although they do influence their human bonders, it seems like the whole point of the relationship is for it to work in favor of the human, foremost. Besides, bonding to an unknown animal for life kind-of-seems like (forced) marriage to a stranger, but 100% times worse, because you always feel what they feel, never a moment’s respite (from both sides). Unfortunately, it’s a missed opportunity to truly explore what bonding beyond species might mean.
All in all, it’s a wild ride, a bit rocky at the start and speedy at the end, but certainly interesting. Blackfish City’s world feels raw and cold and very true, a mash-up of different real and imagined cities, a gritty place to return to imaginatively and be wary of when organizing for a different future.
“Stories are where we find ourselves, where we find the others who are like us. Gather enough stories and soon you’re not alone, you’re an army.” /224
I think I would have liked it more if I had read it instead of listened. The characters were a little too connected
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, Classism, Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Blood
Really enjoyed this novel.
Not the biggest reader here (but trying to change that) and wanted to dip my toes into another genre for a chance. Wasn't too heavy on the science fiction (which is perfect for me).
Had fantastic characters, I felt like they were all believable and with the help of some other video game characters they all had small related traits of, I could easily imagine them. Enjoyed the world building too, as usually I'm not the best at imagining these worlds in my mind, but here I got a real sense of the environment. This huge, metallic city with wafting scents of ramen, structured above the cold, silent ocean.
Not the biggest reader here (but trying to change that) and wanted to dip my toes into another genre for a chance. Wasn't too heavy on the science fiction (which is perfect for me).
Had fantastic characters, I felt like they were all believable and with the help of some other video game characters they all had small related traits of, I could easily imagine them. Enjoyed the world building too, as usually I'm not the best at imagining these worlds in my mind, but here I got a real sense of the environment. This huge, metallic city with wafting scents of ramen, structured above the cold, silent ocean.