“I just think you will die for this book.”īetween that prediction and the first part of the synopsis: it was offered to me by a publisher-pal, who confidently declared: This was a real roller coaster of a read for me. I would compare his work favorably to Paolo Bacigalupi, another favorite writer of mine, who writes of climate disaster and its effects. Miller's world seems all too believable as a chapter in human history not too many generations in the future. Quaanaaq is not a place where I would ever want to live, but it is fascinating and wonderful to read about. Why has she come to Qaanaaq, and how will she affect the lives of the people there? And also, how many people will she kill while she is there with her hardcore combat skills and large animals? That central mystery will keep the pages turning as Miller plunges us into a world so rich and multi-textured that at times I wondered if he had actually visited the place and was writing a travelogue. Each character has a compelling story, and all are bound together by the arrival in Qaanaaq of a mysterious orcamancer, fierce warrior woman who is nano-bonded to a killer whale and travels with a polar bear.
The novel follows a large cast of characters who live in Qaanaaq, one such city constructed with eight arms like a giant asterisk. The rich have fled, constructing massive floating cities in the Arctic, to which refugees flock from all over the fallen world. I'm late to the party here, but what a wonderful book! Blackfish City takes us into the near future, when climate change has caused the flooding and destruction of large swaths of the inhabited continents. By banding together to save their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay, they will learn shocking truths about themselves.īlackfish 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. The “orcamancer,” as she’s known, very subtly brings together four people-each living on the periphery-to stage unprecedented acts of resistance. When a strange new visitor arrives-a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side-the city is entranced.
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. 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.
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