Blackfish City

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.

  STARBURST

• 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, Hugo, Nebula and Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author

• 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

  GUARDIAN

• Miller’s poetic prose gives this dystopian story a taut, lyrical edge

  ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

• 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

  Carmen Maria Machado, National Book Award-nominated author of HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES

• 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

  Adam Sternbergh, author of THE BLINDS

• 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!

  N. K. Jemisin

• 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

  WASHINGTON POST

• 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.

  PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

• 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

  James Bradley, author of CLADE

• 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

  BOOKBAG

• This is the kind of swirling, original sci-fi we live for

  B&N SCI-FI AND FANTASY BLOG

• 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

  Daryl Gregory, World Fantasy Award-winning author of SPOONBENDERS

• 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.

  LIZ LOVES BOOKS

• A marvellously intricate mosaic of human stories and survival in a city afloat in the wreckage of the anthropocene

  Paul McAuley, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author

• 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

  Tade Thompson, Nommo Award-winning author of ROSEWATER and THE MURDERS OF MOLLY SOUTHBOURNE

• Miller draws a fascinating post-collapse future, mixing low-life and high concept SF to create something very different

  Adrian Tchaikovsky, Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning author

• Imaginative, compulsive and all-too plausible

  Gareth L. Powell, BSFA Award-winning author

• 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

  FANTASY BOOK REVIEW

• A powerful novel about political corruption, organized crime and technology run amok in a dystopian city floating in the Arctic Circle

  KIRKUS

• A vivid dystopian metropolis that feels distressingly real and wonderfully fantastical . . . You’ll be drawn in to Blackfish City in no time at all

  SCIFINOW

• Imagines a rough, cobbled-together future, then brings forth a little magic from its potential darkness . . . An addictive tale of redemption and hope

  BOOKPAGE

• 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

  Charlie Jane Anders

• 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

  BOOKLIST

• 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

  B&N SCI-FI AND FANTASY BLOG

• 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

  THE BOOK SMUGGLERS