A review by julian7
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I liked the concepts in this book (like nanobonding with animals and how the breaks result in sharing memories) a lot more than the actual book. The world-building felt underdeveloped - there were a lot of cool concepts, but perhaps too many to take on in one book, because they were often not explained very well. Also, it took forever for all the different characters and threads to come together. I didn’t feel like I knew what was going on until about a third of the way through, and even then I was still confused about the logistics of some things, like nanobonding and the breaks. 
Meanwhile, the anticapitalist messages felt over-explained. Sometimes, I feel like the “message” or moral of the story is too hard to figure out, but with this book I actually felt like it was way too easy because the author would explicitly say it many times throughout the book. That being said, I still really appreciate the anticapitalist messaging. 🫡
Another thing that was underdeveloped was the relationships between the characters. A lot of the characters had potential to feel more interesting and relatable had they been more developed. 
All in all, super interesting concepts and a lot of potential for an interesting world and characters, but not enough development and depth, because of the massive amount taken on. Overall, 3/5 score. Also, THE COVER GLOWS IN THE DARK so that’s pretty fucking cool. 
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