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3.61 AVERAGE
3.61 AVERAGE
medium-paced
I couldn’t remember why I was hesitant about this book until I was holding it in my hand. The neon-rendered cover was beautiful, the title intriguing, but as I read the summary all I could think was “this book may have bitten off more than it can chew.”
I should have gone with my gut.
In the post eco-disaster future, most nations have collapsed. Humanity survives in floating cities anchored to geothermal vents, where everything is carefully regulated by omnipresent software. In the arctic city of Qaanaaq, a woman arrives, riding an Orca and accompanied by a polar bear. Her arrival sparks rumor and controversy, driving several individuals from different walks of life together. Gradually, it becomes clear that these people are more closely connected than they seem, and the resulting connections cause a chain reaction of events that heave against the order of Qaanaaq.
Miller tries to cram so-darn-much into his book (Family, gender, future!AIDS, politics, capitalism, environmentalism, oppression, technocrats, ResistanceTM, and more!!!) that he fails to successfully interrogate any of it. It’s grim, and harsh, and I can see what he was going for, but instead of being insightful and subversive, it just feels tired. For the last five days since I started this book I have been unable to muster much response beyond ambivalence.
From the alternating PoV, to the AIDS-analogue “Breaks”, this book did not work for me.
At the end of the day, Blackfish City is a perfectly fine, but forgettable, piece of fiction.
I should have gone with my gut.
In the post eco-disaster future, most nations have collapsed. Humanity survives in floating cities anchored to geothermal vents, where everything is carefully regulated by omnipresent software. In the arctic city of Qaanaaq, a woman arrives, riding an Orca and accompanied by a polar bear. Her arrival sparks rumor and controversy, driving several individuals from different walks of life together. Gradually, it becomes clear that these people are more closely connected than they seem, and the resulting connections cause a chain reaction of events that heave against the order of Qaanaaq.
Miller tries to cram so-darn-much into his book (Family, gender, future!AIDS, politics, capitalism, environmentalism, oppression, technocrats, ResistanceTM, and more!!!) that he fails to successfully interrogate any of it. It’s grim, and harsh, and I can see what he was going for, but instead of being insightful and subversive, it just feels tired. For the last five days since I started this book I have been unable to muster much response beyond ambivalence.
From the alternating PoV, to the AIDS-analogue “Breaks”, this book did not work for me.
At the end of the day, Blackfish City is a perfectly fine, but forgettable, piece of fiction.
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
On a technical level, this book is very well constructed. The themes were good and it had a lot of interesting things to say politically.
In practice… I found it difficult to really *get* this book. Part of that is just that it’s a high-level book that requires a lot of thought when reading, so you really need to give it all your focus. But a large part of my problem with this book is that there was just so much going on. So many characters, worldbuilding details, plot lines, etc that it all became very hard to keep track of.
Especially in the first half of the book, the amount of POV characters was a huge issue for me. There were like 6 or 7 POV characters to know and keep track of, each with separate (and, in the first half of the novel, rarely connecting) plot lines. I would have loved to read about any one of them (except maybe Fill… not a huge fan of Fill), but with so many to keep track of, it became very difficult to care about any of them. I would read a chapter about one character, think to myself “oh, that was really interesting, can’t wait to see where this goes” and then have to wait 7 or 8 chapters before I’d even see that character again. By that point, my interest in the character had faded, as had my memory of the many specific plot points and names involved in each character’s story. You get the idea.
That said, the second half of the novel (when all the characters and plot lines start to actually come together) was much more enjoyable than the first.
In practice… I found it difficult to really *get* this book. Part of that is just that it’s a high-level book that requires a lot of thought when reading, so you really need to give it all your focus. But a large part of my problem with this book is that there was just so much going on. So many characters, worldbuilding details, plot lines, etc that it all became very hard to keep track of.
Especially in the first half of the book, the amount of POV characters was a huge issue for me. There were like 6 or 7 POV characters to know and keep track of, each with separate (and, in the first half of the novel, rarely connecting) plot lines. I would have loved to read about any one of them (except maybe Fill… not a huge fan of Fill), but with so many to keep track of, it became very difficult to care about any of them. I would read a chapter about one character, think to myself “oh, that was really interesting, can’t wait to see where this goes” and then have to wait 7 or 8 chapters before I’d even see that character again. By that point, my interest in the character had faded, as had my memory of the many specific plot points and names involved in each character’s story. You get the idea.
That said, the second half of the novel (when all the characters and plot lines start to actually come together) was much more enjoyable than the first.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
a futuristic environmental thriller that was sad but hopeful
Lots of interesting SciFi elements and ideas, but I had a hard time getting invested in the plot/characters. There is something to unpack here about family history and the role of stories to connect us, disrupted cultural memory, the importance of found family in the lgbt community VS the ties of blood relations... but it didn't quite payoff enough for me.
It's refreshing to read a biopunk/postcyberpunk book that's not located in Japan for once. And the story is awesome.
Propulsive reading. Ends a tad on the abrupt side but I feel like that's probably by design.