Book Review: Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller

Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller

Hardcover, 328 pages

Published April 2018 by Ecco

If you have read my blog or reviews at all you will know I am a big believer in the Cli-Fi literary movement and consider myself apart of it as both an author and critic. In my role as a critic, I feel a great responsibility to promote works of Cli-fi because I consider these novels to be as valid a form of social commentary like the novels On The Beach and Alas Babylon were at the height of the arms race. We are at a crossroads where every look into the horrors that climate change unchecked is likely to bring are important. I hope that one day we will get a classic that reaches the mainstream. I am trying to read as many of the major works of Cli-fi that I can and boost the signal for the great ones.

That leads me to this novel Blackfish City and the author Sam Miller. I was first turned on to this novel by hearing Miller as a guest on one of my favorite podcasts Geek's Guide to the Galaxy. If you are paying attention, being a guest on Geek's Guide is a common way I find authors. Indeed one of my other favorite reads of the year Freeze Frame Revolution by Peter Watts was found that way. Your take way at this point is you should be listening to Geek's guide...back to the book.

This novel takes place in the near future after the majority of the world is in full ecological collapse. The city is Qaanaaq built in the arctic circle by various multi-national corporations. I picture Manhattan floating in the middle of the fog-drenched northern sea. Tall buildings and overpopulated the people are spread between the eight arms of the city. They have had to adapt to a crazy lifestyle that is divided by class and skill, some are the rich who bought their way out of the mainland and the Refugees turned workers who do the dirty work. A disease called "The Breaks" is spreading among the poor, and the frayed edges of this society are starting to show.

When the novel kicks off we meet a woman riding a killer whale who is known as an "Orcamancer." When this happened in the opening chapter I thought I was reading the wrong book. I was expecting cli-fi neo-noir and Cyberpunk influence. Don't worry we get there quickly. It belongs in the tradition of speculative fiction novels that explore the nature of the urban landscape. The tradition has a great history with some of my favorites being Simak's City from the fifties, John Shirley's City Come A-Walkin to the more modern like China Mieville's Perdido Street Station.

This novel has a diverse set of characters and bounces between multiple points of view with good rhythm. You gotta pay close attention to details for example. Soq, for example, is a non-binary character I think some of the older more traditional sci-fi readers might get lost. There are excellent characters throughout some we grow to like such as Soq and Fill, some like Podlove who challenge us. My favorite was Kaev a professional fighter who has taken a few more hits than he probably ever should have.

This book balances lots of things I love in a novel. Miller has lots of plates spinning from world building, well-drawn characters and clear but not heavy-handed message. If you look at the issues he is able to address from the climate horrors,post-scarcity culture, classism, refugees and at the core the many ills of capitalism. It might seem like he was writing a political paper but it is all subtly slipped into the story naturally. You end up with a super smart politically driven neo-noir novel that reminded me of an urban Snowpiercer with plenty of PKD influence for my Dickheads. (Working on getting this author on Dickheads in the next few months)

My favorite quote of the book was "Money is a mind, the oldest artificial intelligence. Its prime directives are simple, it's programming endlessly creative. Humans obey it unthinkingly, with cheerful alacrity. Like a virus, it doesn't care if it kills its host. It will simply flow on to someone new."

So yeah I really loved this novel. Was there any weakness? The spiritual meets the technological aspect of the psychic polar bear and Orcamancer was probably my least favorite part. That being said it still worked fine for me. It connected this very modern cyberpunk noir tale to the spiritual traditions and natural wildlife of the region of the world it takes place in.

I suspect this novel will be on my best of the list at the end of the year. I think it should be essential reading for its Cli-fi nature alone, but as a work of sci-fi aside from the message, it is a must read. It will be compared to Kim Stanley Robinson's 2140, I am surprised as anyone to say this, but this novel tackles similar themes but is a better novel with the message more clearly stated. High praise but Blackfish City earned it.

David Agranoff is the Wonderland award-nominated author of 5 novels including his latest the Cli-Fi horror novel Ring of Fire out from cult horror publisher Deadite Press.

Updated to include my podcast interview with Sam Miller: