"Miller gives us an incisive and beautifully written story of love, revenge, and the power (and failure) of family in a scarily plausible future. Blackfish City simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder. Plus, it has lots of action and a great cast of characters. Not to mention an orca and a polar bear!" —Ann Leckie, New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Clarke Awards
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.
"Miller gives us an incisive and beautifully written story of love, revenge, and the power (and failure) of family in a scarily plausible future. Blackfish City simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder. Plus, it has lots of action and a great cast of characters. Not to mention an orca and a polar bear!" —Ann Leckie, New York Times bestselling author and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Clarke Awards
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.
Critiques-
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In a futuristic world, the remnants of human society gather on constructed islands in the Arctic Ocean after climate wars have all but destroyed the earth. This story focuses on one such island, which is administered by AIs with minimal human involvement. It unfolds primarily through the separate stories of four main characters for whom narrator Vikas Adam creates distinct voices through a mix of accents, pace, and vocal tones. Interspersed are episodes of newscasts providing general information about the society as whole, which Adam delivers with a variety of voices. Adam maintains a forward momentum that is particularly helpful in the beginning of the audiobook before the individual stories begin to coalesce. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
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Starred review from October 9, 2017
Miller, fresh from his YA debut (The Art of Starving), makes the jump to adult SF with an ambitious, imaginative, and big-hearted dystopian ensemble story that’s by turns elegiac and angry. The floating city of Qaanaaq was constructed after many mainland cities burned or sank. The arrival of a woman with two unusual companions—an orca and a polar bear—draws a disparate group together. Ankit, a political aide, wants to free her institutionalized birth mother; her brother, Kaev, is a brain-damaged fighter at the end of his career; Fill, a rich playboy, has the breaks, an illness that throws sufferers into strangers’ memories; and Soq, an ambitious nonbinary street messenger, is trying to hustle their way into a better life. Together, they uncover a dramatic series of secrets, connections, and political plots. Miller has crafted a thriller that unflinchingly examines the ills of urban capitalism. Qaanaaq is a beautiful and brutal character in its own right, rendered in poetic interludes. The novel stumbles only at the very end, in a denouement that feels just a little too hurried for the characters’ twisting journey. Agent: Seth Fishman, Gernert Company. -
March 15, 2018
In the aftermath of climate change, refugees from flooded and destroyed cities crowd into Qaanaaq, a floating metropolis constructed north of Iceland. They bring with them the same fears, flaws, grasping desires, and hopes they'd held prior to the collapse. The once powerful and wealthy continue to exert their influence--setting groups against one another to deflect the anger and discontent that arises. The nanobonded, victims of experimentation, who can connect with animals by virtue of their enhanced blood, are particularly hated and ostracized. Atrocities are committed, families are torn apart. Meanwhile, "the breaks," a potentially viral memory disease, infects much of the population. Into this backdrop an enigmatic woman accompanied by a polar bear, and pulled on a raft by an orca, arrives--willing to do whatever it takes to find and reunite her people. This new offering from the author of the YA novel, The Art of Starving, explores the tenuous survival of our species in a not-so-distant or impossible future. VERDICT With detailed worldbuilding, enriched through multiple characters' points of view, this fiercely exciting story should find an audience among fans of apocalyptic sf. [See Prepub Alert, 10/22/17.]--Karin Thogersen, Huntley Area P.L., IL
Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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Secrets are revealed and a power structure is under threat in this near-future, almost-but-not-quite dystopian tale set in a floating Arctic Circle city.Populated by the refugees and descendants of refugees from nations destroyed by social upheaval and environmental disasters, Qaanaaq is run by software while political and economic power rests in the hands of landlords, crime gangs, and the ultrawealthy, never-seen shareholders. But what was once a relatively stable system is headed for a shakeup as the gulf between the haves and have-nots widens. Someone is transmitting subversive broadcasts about life in Qaanaaq; a gang lord is planning her ascent to the ranks of shareholders; a woman seeks to help her mother, who's imprisoned, perhaps unjustly, in an ultrasecure mental hospital; a brain-damaged fighter is pressured into becoming an enforcer; an ambitious courier becomes a spy; and the grandson of a shareholder contracts a sexually transmitted disease that fatally afflicts its carriers with the memories of the previously infected. But true chaos only enters the city with Masaaraq, a tough warrior woman who travels with her psychically bonded orca and a chained polar bear. She has a very specific reason for coming to Qaanaaq, and she does not care whom she harms or what plans she disrupts in the course of fulfilling her purpose. Although it has its bleak and very violent moments, there's also a certain amount of optimism in this story, which ultimately proves to be about family and the hard-won strength of those who survive against all odds. Author and professional activist Miller (The Art of Starving, 2017) allows his passion for advocacy--for people desperately clinging to their hope for a home, exploited minorities, and those outside the cishet dichotomy--to inform and structure his fiction but in such an integral and yet casual way that it never feels preachy.Harsh and lovely.
COPYRIGHT(2018) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. (Online Review)
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February 15, 2018
In the future, a massive floating city in the Arctic, home to a million people, is slowly decaying. Corruption and crime, not to mention a frightening new plague, are destroying the city's self-contained civilization. Then a mysterious woman arrives from the sea and inspires a handful of disparate people to join together to fight for the survival of their home. This has the look and feel of science fiction, but the novel tells a timeless story of rebellion againsta corrupt master, giving it a kind of Hunger Games resonance that reaches beyond any genre boundaries. Miller is a graceful writer, easing us into the story gently, letting us get acclimated to its time and place, before subtly speeding up the pace and plunging us into the characters' race for survival. And what fine characters they are: people of the future, yes, but with all the texture and believability of ordinary folk.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)
