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Blackfish City
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
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Blackfish City
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Summary
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 30 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 imagines, Blackfish City is a mesmerising novel from a remarkable new voice in science-fiction.
Critic reviews
"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." (Ann Leckie, Hugo, Nebula and Clarke Award-winning author)
"Miller is a fiercely strong writer and this book is a blast." (Daryl Gregory, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Spoonbenders)
"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)
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What listeners say about Blackfish City
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- bookaddict
- 29-04-19
Didn't love it
Too self consciously pc. None of the characters were rounded enough to care about them.
It's a shame because I was excited about the idea of the story.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Lindsey Kinsella
- 13-12-23
Bags of Originality
Blackfish City is a post-apocalyptic tale set in a floating city in the Arctic ocean. This dysfunctional, AI-ruled society is disrupted by the arrival of a strange woman riding an orca.
This is very much a book of two halves. The first half is a slow build, heavy on the worldbuilding, and with several seemingly disconnected plots from the perspective of a variety of characters. It can be a bit of a slog early on and definitely struggles with pacing.
However, the second half sees all of these plots converge and from there it really builds momentum. Everything which took so long to lay out pays off and then some in a spectacular conclusion.
The characters are well defined and developed and form believable relationships and conflicts with one another (once they finally meet!)
The premise has bags of originality. From, the marine city setting, to a mysterious brain disease which transfers the memories of others, to cults who "nano-bond" with animals; it's all quite fascinating.
A slow burn, but your patience is rewarded.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- brianreadsbooks
- 26-03-21
Proud, surprising and exciting story
Blackfish City had me wondering what would happen next from start to finish. Nothing about it was obvious and up to the end I was shocked and surprised. It was a fantastically original story weaving in cultural components from peoples around the world and strong themes highlighting refugees and wealth inequality taken to the extreme.
This book also meant a lot to me personally. It’s awesome to read a story that authentically and strongly represents LGBT characters without being *about* that as the defining narrative. Miller managed to find the perfect balance, including relationships between characters and their sexuality and gender proudly as important parts of advancing the story, without resorting to it being the only facet defining their lives.
The narrator Vikas Adam did a pretty champion job of distinctly voicing about 15 primary characters. This is the second I've heard him narrate and really strong compared to the other.
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