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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
A classic cyberpunk novel set in a Waterworld scenario. Tackles many of present day challenges such as class differences, immigration, refugees, pollution. The characters are intriguing and the story quickly traps the reader in a world of mystery, crime and action. It is some time since I read such a good science fiction novel. A page turner.
3 and a half stars.
I am not sure what to make of this one. It was full of amazing ideas, but I feel like they were not explored deeply enough to be fully satisfying.
In the not too far future, a lot of the world has flooded and many people live in the floating city of Qaanaaq, near Iceland. This city is home to refugees from all over the world, but the true power in a place like this is in the hands of the landlords who own the living spaces and the shareholders who helped finance the creation of the city. Everyone else, in their own way, struggles. A strange disease is making is turning into an epidemic: known simply as “the breaks”, the disease seems to be sexually transmitted, but affects mostly the poor and destitute of Qaanaaq. The breaks causes a sort of confusion, what seems to be hallucinations and visions of memories that don’t belong to the sick person. It’s in this world that Ankit, Kaev, Soq and Fill scrape a living. Their lives are very different, and they do not seem to be connected in any way, but the arrival of a strange woman, riding an orca and followed by a polar bear, will change everything, and reveal the bonds that unite them just below the surface.
At first, I thought that the breaks might have been a metaphor for AIDS, but I now think it’s more about interconnectedness – but you’ll have to read the book to see what changed my mind about it. I really loved the idea of the floating city, the grit and strange politics of such a place being richly imagined by Miller, but as mentioned earlier, I wish we had explored it a little bit more. We only got enough information and description to place the characters in their settings and better understand their lives, and I craved a broader view of Qaanaaq. A lot of emphasis was put on making the cast of characters very diverse, and it was wonderful to read about those people who felt real and not stereotypical.
I read that Sam Miller’s work was mostly YA, and maybe that’s why I found “Blackfish City” to be just shy of fully satisfying; I wanted the envelope to be pushed just a little further. Nevertheless, the ideas explored in this book are brilliant, the pacing and the compassionate writing make this a lovely work of post-apocalyptic fiction.
I am not sure what to make of this one. It was full of amazing ideas, but I feel like they were not explored deeply enough to be fully satisfying.
In the not too far future, a lot of the world has flooded and many people live in the floating city of Qaanaaq, near Iceland. This city is home to refugees from all over the world, but the true power in a place like this is in the hands of the landlords who own the living spaces and the shareholders who helped finance the creation of the city. Everyone else, in their own way, struggles. A strange disease is making is turning into an epidemic: known simply as “the breaks”, the disease seems to be sexually transmitted, but affects mostly the poor and destitute of Qaanaaq. The breaks causes a sort of confusion, what seems to be hallucinations and visions of memories that don’t belong to the sick person. It’s in this world that Ankit, Kaev, Soq and Fill scrape a living. Their lives are very different, and they do not seem to be connected in any way, but the arrival of a strange woman, riding an orca and followed by a polar bear, will change everything, and reveal the bonds that unite them just below the surface.
At first, I thought that the breaks might have been a metaphor for AIDS, but I now think it’s more about interconnectedness – but you’ll have to read the book to see what changed my mind about it. I really loved the idea of the floating city, the grit and strange politics of such a place being richly imagined by Miller, but as mentioned earlier, I wish we had explored it a little bit more. We only got enough information and description to place the characters in their settings and better understand their lives, and I craved a broader view of Qaanaaq. A lot of emphasis was put on making the cast of characters very diverse, and it was wonderful to read about those people who felt real and not stereotypical.
I read that Sam Miller’s work was mostly YA, and maybe that’s why I found “Blackfish City” to be just shy of fully satisfying; I wanted the envelope to be pushed just a little further. Nevertheless, the ideas explored in this book are brilliant, the pacing and the compassionate writing make this a lovely work of post-apocalyptic fiction.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I loved this story. It's the first audiobook I've ever completed and I couldn't have picked something better. The world was painted so realistically. I intend on buying a physical copy and I know this is one I will reread and discover different things every time.
It has a dystopian yet contemporary (and believable) setting which is just as important of a character as the people we follow. I laughed and cried listening to this. It's just, beautiful.
It has a dystopian yet contemporary (and believable) setting which is just as important of a character as the people we follow. I laughed and cried listening to this. It's just, beautiful.
As I note above I struggled to engage with Blackfish City’s cast of characters. Unlike a novel like The Sky Is Yours, where I despised the protagonists, I didn’t loathe Fill, Kaev, Ankit and Soq. I just never cared about their collective fates. It’s a shame because I like that they represent different economic segments of Qaanaaq society. Fill is the privileged rich boy, Ankit is the middle-class office drone, Kaev is the blue-collar fighter, and Soq is the hand-to-mouth courier. It’s also rare for a science fiction novel to deal with both class and identity. While I find it frustrating that gender fluidity has yet to be fully accepted in this near-future society, it’s pleasing to see them represented. But as smart and diverse as this novel is, as much as Miller comments on the rapacious nature of capitalism – a common enemy in climate change fiction – I found his character work clumsy and forced.
For one, Miller falls back on Stephen King’s old friend italics to tell us what the characters are thinking. To be fair, he doesn’t use it all the time, but when he does trot out those slanty letters, it’s generally to emphasise a protagonist’s intentions or make clear their state of mind. Nothing is left to chance, to subtext, to reading between the lines. Also, while I don’t have an issue with separate narrative threads twining together, having three of the characters discover later in the novel that they’re related, and, in particular, are central to the power struggles occurring on the floating city, not only comes off as coincidental and lazy but also undercuts the idea that Qaanaaq is a city of a million people where space is precious. Finally, there’s the prose. It’s not terrible by any stretch, but it’s dry and workman-like. I know Qaanaaq, as a place, is not a barrel of laughs, what with the class division, a disease running rampant, the flood of refugees from flooded parts of the world, but the novel is so earnest and grim, utterly devoid of any humour or personality. Soq comes the closest to being the story’s bright spark, but it’s not sustained throughout the book.
I haven’t said much about the worldbuilding or the ideas because I believe a story has to be more than just the shiny new concepts. It has to be about the characters that populate the world and in the case of Blackfish City they never really come alive.
For one, Miller falls back on Stephen King’s old friend italics to tell us what the characters are thinking. To be fair, he doesn’t use it all the time, but when he does trot out those slanty letters, it’s generally to emphasise a protagonist’s intentions or make clear their state of mind. Nothing is left to chance, to subtext, to reading between the lines. Also, while I don’t have an issue with separate narrative threads twining together, having three of the characters discover later in the novel that they’re related, and, in particular, are central to the power struggles occurring on the floating city, not only comes off as coincidental and lazy but also undercuts the idea that Qaanaaq is a city of a million people where space is precious. Finally, there’s the prose. It’s not terrible by any stretch, but it’s dry and workman-like. I know Qaanaaq, as a place, is not a barrel of laughs, what with the class division, a disease running rampant, the flood of refugees from flooded parts of the world, but the novel is so earnest and grim, utterly devoid of any humour or personality. Soq comes the closest to being the story’s bright spark, but it’s not sustained throughout the book.
I haven’t said much about the worldbuilding or the ideas because I believe a story has to be more than just the shiny new concepts. It has to be about the characters that populate the world and in the case of Blackfish City they never really come alive.
The premise: In a post-climate change world, a floating city is visited by a mysterious woman riding an orca and accompanied by a polar bear, seeking someone she lost decades ago, .
How I’d (cynically) sell it: Blade Runner meets Philip Pullman.
The good bits: Lots of gender diversity, including a non-binary teenage main character. Extremely atmospheric. Wears its influences elegantly.
The bad bits: Somewhat awkwardly written, particularly in the dialogue. Plot uneven: front-loaded with contextless information, conflict resolved in haste and without giving this reader a strong sense of emotional connection to the characters.
Verdict: Three stars (worth reading, but won’t keep a hard copy).
How I’d (cynically) sell it: Blade Runner meets Philip Pullman.
The good bits: Lots of gender diversity, including a non-binary teenage main character. Extremely atmospheric. Wears its influences elegantly.
The bad bits: Somewhat awkwardly written, particularly in the dialogue. Plot uneven: front-loaded with contextless information, conflict resolved in haste and without giving this reader a strong sense of emotional connection to the characters.
Verdict: Three stars (worth reading, but won’t keep a hard copy).
Not my cup of tea. I appreciated the world building, the diverse POVs, and the interesting merging of cultures, but I couldn't get into it, and the end did nothing for me.
This is a post-apocalyptic, dystopian science fiction novel set in a future in which global warming did not turn out to be "fake news." The story takes place in a man-made city, Qaanaaq, that is located in the Arctic Ocean close to the top of the world. The story is told from the points of view of Fill, a rich gay man who has just contracted a sexually transmitted disease called "the Breaks," Kaev, a somewhat brain-damaged, almost-washed-up fighter who takes dives for a living, Ankit, a woman who is a reformed "scaler" (law-breaking building climbers) who is settling into a career as a bureaucrat, a non-gender-binary person named Soq who has worked as a messenger and is trying to work her way up to a position of responsibility within a local crime syndicate, Masaaraq, a kind of female, orca-bonded Ahab on a one-woman mission to do -- what?, and finally, the City without a Map, an underground running commentary on life in Qaanaaq. Their stories weave together into an adventurous tale, a quest and the liberation of the downtrodden citizenry of Qaanaaq. All in all, it's a very uplifting dystopian novel, and who can slight a story that weaves in an angry polar bear, a blue-striped monkey, a buzzard eagle, and an orca whale?
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
