REVIEW: Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller

cover of Blackfish City. Review by Markus McDowell

Here is another dystopian future novel, taking place after the “Climate Wars.” The specific setting is a city built on arches in the Article Circle—a city that reminds one of the kind of cities in Blade Runner or Necromancer. Political corruption, haves and have-nots, crime, an underworld, and technology being used for both good and ill, by the rich and poor alike. A new disease seems to be spreading, called “the breaks.”

A woman arrives at the city riding a whale and accompanied by a polar bear. She is part of a group of people that were altered to be able to communicate and ostensibly control animals. She has connections with four people in the city—connected in ways they did not know. Together, though, they are going to attempt to save the city from itself.

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.
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I didn’t find anything about this novel hopeful. Even the human connections made in it only slightly resemble genuine and deep human relationships. The blurred lines between organic and electronic, human and animal, gender, and good and evil make it difficult to root for any of the characters.

That’s not to say there aren’t some great things about this novel. The concepts of technology that allows humans to communicate with animals is interesting and somewhat unique; the infrastructure of the city is fascinating and creative, and Miller’s world-building skills (city-building?) involving technology, politics, social world, and language are well-done.

However, in the end, I found myself saying, “Interesting, but so what?” It is just another tiresome variation on the theme of bad humans in the past (us) destroyed the planet and leaving the future generations to cope, while the extrapolation of some of the more fringe social concepts of today becoming a norm leaves the characters unreliable.

Science fiction should address social issues or the human condition, I have read so many books like this lately that all have the same themes. (Maybe I should write one?) Or perhaps because I am not so pessimistic about the future nor think things are all that dire. Readers who do not share those views might enjoy this tremendously.

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