Review: Blackfish City

Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller combines cyberpunk and post apocalyptic in a uniquely vivid world reflecting the world and yet is still wildly different. I picked up Blackfish City because of the cover and was engrossed in the story right away.

Publisher’s Blurb:

After the climate wars, a floating city is constructed in the Arctic Circle, a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering, complete with geothermal heating and sustainable energy. The city’s denizens have become accustomed to a roughshod new way of living, however, the city is starting to fray along the edges—crime and corruption have set in, the contradictions of incredible wealth alongside direst poverty are spawning unrest, and a new disease called “the breaks” is ravaging the population.

When a strange new visitor arrives—a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side—the city is entranced. The “orcamancer,” as she’s known, very subtly brings together four people—each living on the periphery—to stage unprecedented acts of resistance. By banding together to save their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay, they will learn shocking truths about themselves.

Blackfish City is a remarkably urgent—and ultimately very hopeful—novel about political corruption, organized crime, technology run amok, the consequences of climate change, gender identity, and the unifying power of human connection.

My Thoughts:

I read Blackfish City in two sittings. I absolutely am in love with this book. I haven’t been so engrossed in stand alone novel since An Unkindness of Ghosts. The world is grim and yet, it’s full of hope and heart. At the heart of the story is family which branches into dealing with a hellscape of politics and capitalism. It is one part heist, one part found family, and one part political maneuvering, and one part revenge quest.

I really loved the characters. They were well rounded with their own agendas and hopes. There’s a street fighter, a tired administrator, a rich kid that’s slowly dying, an older lesbian couple that want to protect their family, and  more. My favorite hands down was Soq, an orphan and message runner who starts to work for one of the local crime lords. They are a teenager on the cusp of adulthood who is reckless, cunning, and ambitious.

Soq is nonbinary which is wonderful, but there was a “what’s in your pants” moment. Although Soq called out the character who made the comment, it was questionable Soq was established as falling outside of the gender binary just by their use of “they/them” so it was really unneeded. There was one other part where Soq used a typically lesbian identities to talk about gay men. I know what Miller was trying to get across just from seeing Discourse on social media, but it was a poor choice of terms to use. Outside of those two passages, the book was really good with the LGBT content.

I particularly like how the plot unfolds in which all the POV characters are brought together slowly. Only Ankit, the administrator pov, really knows one of the other pov characters and yet she does not interact with him until the Orcamancer makes her move. One of the povs ends halfway through the book allowing for the twist of the Orcamancer to have pov chapters. Everyone and everything is connected which is almost foreshadowed by the plot element of a mysterious podcast about Qaanaaq. There are layers of mystery to the story: Where did the breaks come from? Who is the Orcamancer? Why is Ankit’s mother imprisoned? Who is the author of “The City Without A Map? Miller weaves the mysteries together so that they are integral to understanding the answers to each other.

Qaanaaq feels so real and fleshed out for a setting. I could easily visualize it. In ways it felt like a Star Wars city meets a metropolitan area with its speed skating messengers, monkeys that have taken the place of pigeons, and the contrast between the shanty towns and wealthy.. As much as I liked the characters and the plot, Qaanaaq was what really made the story appeal me. I am a huge sucker for world building. Qaanaaq takes from so many sources of inspiration that I can see the snippets in my minds eye easily. Miller puts small details into his world that makes it pop so well.

Blackfish City takes place in a near future which feels so plausible with the shape of the world as it is. As much as it is something that is depressing, I found Qaanaaq to have this sense of wonder. The people and characters are survivors of the worst parts of humanity. Somehow, even if the world is turned upside down — there is still hope and good. I have a hard time with books where the world is horrible, there is no hope and there is nothing good, only a battle for survival. The characters try to make change for the better even if it’s for their selfish desires. The quest of revenge results in not just revenge but also hope for the future. The backstory revealed adds so much depth to the story as well.

Blackfish City is one of the best books of 2018 so far in my opinion. I highly recommend it.

Content Warnings: Medical Abuse, Genocide, Psychiatric Abuse, Assault

Get it here.