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ullsi 's review for:
Blackfish City
by Sam J. Miller
The premise of Blackfish City is intriguing, but unfortunately, I never really found myself immersed in the story. Most of the characters were interesting, but I often felt that just when I’d gotten into their POV it was time to change to someone else’s, or to the info-dump chapters. I was also a bit confused about the timeline: sometimes it felt like the events of “the old world” happened several hundred years ago, but then a character would talk about things that happened in modern New York only 40-50 years ago. This confusion is probably due to me not constantly paying full attention to the audiobook narrator though.
The nanobonder concept was kind of cool, but it also raised some questions about consent and exploitation of the bonded animals. I’d like to read a story set entirely in one of their villages for a more in-depth exploration of these questions. The ending was a bit underwhelming and felt rushed; some important aspects were kind of glossed over and the scientific explanation didn’t really feel believable.
The city’s setting – floating in the Arctic circle, reliant on geothermal heating – was unique and cool, but its gritty atmosphere felt kind of like any generic post-apocalyptic city on the brink of destruction. I feel like those types of stories have been told before and that it would’ve been more interesting to hear about how it was built up instead.
The nanobonder concept was kind of cool, but it also raised some questions about consent and exploitation of the bonded animals. I’d like to read a story set entirely in one of their villages for a more in-depth exploration of these questions. The ending was a bit underwhelming and felt rushed; some important aspects were kind of glossed over and the scientific explanation didn’t really feel believable.
The city’s setting – floating in the Arctic circle, reliant on geothermal heating – was unique and cool, but its gritty atmosphere felt kind of like any generic post-apocalyptic city on the brink of destruction. I feel like those types of stories have been told before and that it would’ve been more interesting to hear about how it was built up instead.