Length 328 pages
Format softcover
Published 2018
Series standalone
My Copy I bought it
My Review
"Qaanaaq is an eight-armed asterisk. East of Greenland, north of Iceland. Built by an unruly alignment of Thai-Chinese-Swedish corporations and government entities, part of the second wave of grid city construction, learning from the spectacular failure of several early efforts. Almost a million people call it home, though many are migrant workers who spend much of their time on boats harvesting glacier for freshwater ice...or working Russian petroleum rigs in the far Arctic."
Qaanaaq, the dystopian floating city is beautifully articulated, a living-breathing organism as distinctive and unique as the characters who inhabit it and those who flock to it in search of refuge from gangs, pirates, politics and other dangerous syndicates.
To be honest, the characters and their stories were secondary to what author Sam J. Miller chose to write about, such was the addictive need to learn more about this strange, cold, yet futuristic and scarily plausible place.
That said, I loved the myth surrounding the arrival of the woman riding an orca with a polar bear, caged, at her side and the increasing intrigue as the narrative of her unfurled.
"People would say she came to Qaanaaq in a skiff towed by a killer whale harnessed to the front like a horse...At her feet, in heaps, were the kind of weird weapons and machines that refugee-camp ingenuity had been producing."But the story wasn't just about the strange new comer, with 5 characters sharing page time with dedicated chapters, their occupations ranging from professional fighter, underworld boss, courier, unemployed rich kid, and political adviser. The multi POV added depth and enhanced the context and concept of Blackfish City.
My rating: 5/5 stars. Blackfish City a great dystopian Sci-Fi that blends sci-fi with tech-fi to create a scarily plausible future.
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