Reviews - Blackfish City | The StoryGraph

980 reviews for:

Blackfish City

Sam J. Miller

3.61 AVERAGE

zarap's review against another edition

2.75

adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

This book had a lot going on, and it didn't really pull it together in a way that worked for me. The sff crime world vibe reminded me a bit of Jade City by Fonda Lee, but I wasn't nearly as attached to the characters in Blackfish City, and the plot seemed a bit all over the place to me. I rarely say this, but I think this might've been better as a duology or trilogy.

sarabz's review against another edition

4.0

Loved this! Interesting world, engaging story. Interesting explorations of home, survival, illness and health (of individuals and of a community), family. I had a little bit of a hard time getting into the story at first, but as I kept reading I wondered if the structure was mirroring the Breaks which made me forgive that.

mary_soon_lee's review against another edition

3.0

"Blackfish City" is one of the six nominees for the 2018 Nebula Award. The story takes place in a dystopian science fiction future scarred by climate change and social disruption. The specific setting is Qaanaaq, a floating Arctic city built to harness a geothermal vent, a city that is as much a character as the four human point-of-view characters. Although the worldbuilding is strong, the story took a long time to draw me in. I love to lose myself inside fiction, but "Blackfish City" left me distanced for at least its first third. Sometimes I felt sympathy for the characters, but I wasn't immersed in their lives. The switches from one character to another felt choppy, and it took quite a while before the puzzle pieces started coming together for me. Had I not been reading this book in order to vote on the Nebula awards, I might have stopped before I came to the sections I liked best. So, while I unequivocally like the worldbuilding, and while I was enjoying the book by the end, I am ambivalent about the book as a whole.