Blackfish City
- Author Sam J. Miller
- Narrator Vikas Adam
- Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
- Publish Date 19 April 2018
- Run Time 10 hours and 24 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Dystopian and utopian fiction, Modern and contemporary fiction, Narrative theme: Environmental issues, Narrative theme: Politics, Science fiction, Science fiction: apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic, Science fiction: near-future.
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What to expect
***SHORTLISTED FOR THE NEBULA AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL***
***A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF 2018***
***A KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF 2018***
***A WASHINGTON POST BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF 2018***
'A remarkable work of dystopian imagination' - Starburst
'Incisive and beautifully written . . . Blackfish City simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder' - Ann Leckie, Hugo, Nebula and Clarke Award-winning author
*****
After the climate wars, a floating city was constructed in the Arctic Circle. Once a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering it is now rife with corruption and the population simmers with unrest.
Into this turmoil comes a strange new visitor - a woman accompanied by an orca and a chained polar bear. She disappears into the crowds looking for someone she lost thirty years ago, followed by whispers of a vanished people who could bond with animals. Her arrival draws together four people and sparks a chain of events that will change Blackfish City forever.
DISTURBING, POWERFUL AND FEARLESSLY IMAGINED, BLACKFISH CITY IS A MESMERISING NOVEL FROM A REMARKABLE NEW VOICE IN SCIENCE FICTION
*****
'A compelling dystopian thriller' Guardian
'Sam Miller is a fiercely strong writer, and this book is a blast' - Daryl Gregory, World Fantasy
Award-winning author
'I haven't been this swept away by imagination and worldbuilding since Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials' - Carmen Maria Machado, National Book Award-nominated author of Her Body and other Parties
'Damn near perfect' - The Book Smugglers
'An ambitious, imaginative and big-hearted dystopian ensemble story that's by turns elegiac and angry' - Publisher's Weekly
'This is the kind of swirling, original sci-fi we live for' - B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog
***A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF 2018***
***A KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF 2018***
***A WASHINGTON POST BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF 2018***
'A remarkable work of dystopian imagination' - Starburst
'Incisive and beautifully written . . . Blackfish City simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder' - Ann Leckie, Hugo, Nebula and Clarke Award-winning author
*****
After the climate wars, a floating city was constructed in the Arctic Circle. Once a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering it is now rife with corruption and the population simmers with unrest.
Into this turmoil comes a strange new visitor - a woman accompanied by an orca and a chained polar bear. She disappears into the crowds looking for someone she lost thirty years ago, followed by whispers of a vanished people who could bond with animals. Her arrival draws together four people and sparks a chain of events that will change Blackfish City forever.
DISTURBING, POWERFUL AND FEARLESSLY IMAGINED, BLACKFISH CITY IS A MESMERISING NOVEL FROM A REMARKABLE NEW VOICE IN SCIENCE FICTION
*****
'A compelling dystopian thriller' Guardian
'Sam Miller is a fiercely strong writer, and this book is a blast' - Daryl Gregory, World Fantasy
Award-winning author
'I haven't been this swept away by imagination and worldbuilding since Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials' - Carmen Maria Machado, National Book Award-nominated author of Her Body and other Parties
'Damn near perfect' - The Book Smugglers
'An ambitious, imaginative and big-hearted dystopian ensemble story that's by turns elegiac and angry' - Publisher's Weekly
'This is the kind of swirling, original sci-fi we live for' - B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog
Critics Review
A remarkable work of dystopian imagination . . .a gorgeously realised world that feels authentic . . . [Miller] writes exquisitely and presents us with a future that is terrifyingly plausible but never less than mesmerising . . . It's too early in the year to begin assembling 2018's 'best of' list, but Blackfish City has got to be an early contender.
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!
Miller excels at depicting a metropolis bursting at the seams and populated by both refugees and the elite. Blackfish City is a compelling dystopian thriller
Miller's poetic prose gives this dystopian story a taut, lyrical edge
A floating Arctic city; nano-bonded orcas and polar bears; an Earth violently reshaped by the mistakes we're making right now . . . I haven't been this swept away by imagination and worldbuilding since Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. A gorgeous, queer, muscular novel
Blackfish City is an exhilarating tour of a post-catastrophe future that's both fantastical and eerily convincing. Imagine The Yiddish Policeman's Union cross-bred with Snowcrash and you'll get an inkling of the imaginative horsepower on display here. A saltwater-splashed refuge for misfits and cutthroats, teeming with mystery and intrigue, Blackfish City is a place you might never want to live in - but as a reader, you won't want to leave
You know it's a good story when the watery death of the world we know, and the nanobonded orca, aren't even the most interesting things going on!
An urgent tale imploring us to look at the ties between technology, race, gender and class privilege . . . Surprisingly heartwarming . . . an action-packed science fiction thriller
An ambitious, imaginative, and big-hearted dystopian ensemble story that's by turns elegiac and angry. . . Miller has crafted a thriller that unflinchingly examines the ills of urban capitalism. [the city] is a beautiful and brutal character in its own right, rendered in poetic interludes.
Blackfish City is a triumph. Thrilling, heartfelt and ferociously political, it is the kind of fiction we need more of if we are to survive the climate catastrophe that is already enveloping our world
Fans of dystopian sci-fi will eat this one up - it's only January and already I can guarantee this one will make a lot of best of 2018 lists
This is the kind of swirling, original sci-fi we live for
Blackfish City is a wildly inventive post-cyberpunk ride that also has real things to say about community and family. Sam Miller's drowned future is vivid and fully real, even as he throws in the weird and the fantastic: nano-bonded orcas, cage fighters, AIs and post-human sword fighters. Sam Miller is a fiercely strong writer, and this book is a blast
I LOVED Blackfish City - imaginative, compelling . . . with beautifully immersive descriptive prose and characters that just pop . . . it was a pure pleasure to read first page to last. Highly Recommended.
A marvellously intricate mosaic of human stories and survival in a city afloat in the wreckage of the anthropocene
Blackfish City is a book that seethes with competing interests and despair, but also joy, politics, crime, and brutal orcamancy. Miller is our best guide for this prophetic tale with its morass of characters locked into their destiny against a background of warped urban landscape. The book is cinematic and punchy
Miller draws a fascinating post-collapse future, mixing low-life and high concept SF to create something very different
Imaginative, compulsive and all-too plausible
Miller has created a world that is so deep, complex and well-imagined that it almost appears to be a living breathing entity . . . Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys science-fiction . . . I can see this making many 'best-of-the-year' lists in 2018
A powerful novel about political corruption, organized crime and technology run amok in a dystopian city floating in the Arctic Circle
A vivid dystopian metropolis that feels distressingly real and wonderfully fantastical . . . You'll be drawn in to Blackfish City in no time at all
Imagines a rough, cobbled-together future, then brings forth a little magic from its potential darkness . . . An addictive tale of redemption and hope
Blackfish City feels like a place I've never seen in a story before, but I came away feeling as though I'd lived there forever. One of the most intriguing future cities in years
A timeless story of rebellion against a corrupt master, giving it a kind of Hunger Games resonance that reaches beyond any genre boundaries. Miller is a graceful writer
Sam J. Miller has proven himself a force to be reckoned with . . . Blackfish City is an eco-punk thriller with startling implications for how climate change, technology, and the political machinations of the mega-rich could dramatically alter our future . . . Sam J. Miller's sophomore effort proves him a writer with real potential. Best to start here, and prepare yourself for many more strange journeys at his side
The novel flows with the momentum of an epidemic, an outbreak, and it doesn't slow down until the floor is littered with blood and bodies, and the air smells of fire and ash and hope . . . From battles involving polar bears and orca whales to daring rescues through maximum security installations, the novel brings a vivid action and fast pace . . . Damn near perfect
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