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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Excellent world building and loved the environmental and political commentary. Struck a very good balance between explaining how and leaving it a mystery / to be picked up from context. Pacing was a little bit off on places, but still a great read!
EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED!!! DNF-ed at 30%
I had great hopes for this one.
I'll start with the pros: excellent worldbuilding, poetic writing and great concepts (Breaks, nano-bonding, harvesting energy from geothermal vents). That's just about it.
The author spits his politics in your face. While there is nothing wrong with couching a story in politics, Miller's style is crude.
The characters are some of the worst in all the literature I've read. No personality, very 'robotic' (not literally) and the dialogues are shitty.
There's a passage where pedophilia is, more or less, endorsed! I'm Indian and a so-called 'person of color'. The author takes this bullshit to a higher level where white people are the enemies and Western culture is out to get you. If there was a proper story, it could've tolerable. Unfortunately, the story has given way for a vicious agenda. I could've just read a non-fiction book on the subject.
The book had great potential. I'm still in love with the world of Blackfish City and the concepts were great. The author could've used it to build a proper story!
I had great hopes for this one.
I'll start with the pros: excellent worldbuilding, poetic writing and great concepts (Breaks, nano-bonding, harvesting energy from geothermal vents). That's just about it.
The author spits his politics in your face. While there is nothing wrong with couching a story in politics, Miller's style is crude.
The characters are some of the worst in all the literature I've read. No personality, very 'robotic' (not literally) and the dialogues are shitty.
There's a passage where pedophilia is, more or less, endorsed! I'm Indian and a so-called 'person of color'. The author takes this bullshit to a higher level where white people are the enemies and Western culture is out to get you. If there was a proper story, it could've tolerable. Unfortunately, the story has given way for a vicious agenda. I could've just read a non-fiction book on the subject.
The book had great potential. I'm still in love with the world of Blackfish City and the concepts were great. The author could've used it to build a proper story!
Though the start was a little confusing with multiple characters and their PoVs introduced with a rather dizzying set of life circumstances, I found that once past that, the story flowed. The worldbuilding was terrific; horribly grim but with so much texture: the AIs running the political system; the desperation of people living crammed in on top of each other; the wonderful descriptions in the "City Without a Map", the recording that weaves its way throughout Qaanaaq and the characters' lives; the nanobonded and their animals; the huge diversity of everyone living on Qaanaq; the super rich shareholders of Qaanaaq and the criminals constantly dancing around each other; the breaks, a disease wending its way through the poor, leaving them muttering gibberish, and Qaanaaq itself and its shape and construction.
The characters are diverse, with such different backgrounds, and initially their stories seem to revolve around each of their own difficult and frankly hopeless-seeming lives, until a mysterious stranger arrives on Qaanaaq and sets off all sorts of actions, eventually bringing everyone together.
This book is not the easiest read, but I enjoyed it, even with an end where the characters are left without a lot of resolution. And I loved the book's beautiful cover.
The characters are diverse, with such different backgrounds, and initially their stories seem to revolve around each of their own difficult and frankly hopeless-seeming lives, until a mysterious stranger arrives on Qaanaaq and sets off all sorts of actions, eventually bringing everyone together.
This book is not the easiest read, but I enjoyed it, even with an end where the characters are left without a lot of resolution. And I loved the book's beautiful cover.
Really interesting book. Solid world building, well drawn characters and thoroughly enjoyable.
adventurous
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
Thoroughly enjoyable. The whole concept of animal bonding was a cool premise, and even if it’s not super unique on the surface, I think it was written in a unique way. I enjoyed the way everything came together slowly, then all at once. I thought 30 pages from the end would have made a satisfying ending as I was reading it, but I’m glad the book went on for a little longer- the last few chapters were important and I’m glad they were there.
Incredible speculative future
It isn’t a good future, exactly, but the one posited and explored in Blackfish City is a realistic one, and the people even more so.
It isn’t a good future, exactly, but the one posited and explored in Blackfish City is a realistic one, and the people even more so.
Loses one star because of weak character-building - the characters are essentially interchangeable - but otherwise perfect.
I really couldn't get into Blackfish City. There was too much going on, one too many characters, the author had too many points to make without really digging deep on any of them. At around the halfway point I had mentally checked out but my stubbornness couldn't stop me from finishing the book even though it was a huge drag. I like the concept, I like some of the ideas the author presents, but none of it stuck with me, which is a real shame.