Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller, 328 pagesA few hundred years in the future, climate change has changed the face of the planet, forcing people to get creative if they want to continue living. One of those solutions is Qaanaaq, an eight-armed floating city moored above an underground volcano in the north Atlantic. Here, the privately funded city is loose on rules but tight on space, especially in arms Seven and Eight, which are piled high and tight with slums. And it doesn't help that a mysterious sexually transmitted disease is running rampant. This inventive book follows four seemingly unrelated people — bureucrat Ankit, messenger Soq, journeyman fighter Kaev, and strung-out playboy Fill — as they make their way in this city, which is thrown into additional disarray by the simultaneous and unexpected arrival of a woman, an orca, and a polar bear.
Miller has created an immersive setting and multidimensional characters that are full of flaws and shades of gray. I particularly enjoyed the way their motivations shifted as they took in new information. I also liked the mysterious "City Without a Map" bits between chapters, which provided both useful background information and an air of mystery to the novel. I very much enjoyed this book, and I look forward to discussing it with the Orcs & Aliens group on Monday night
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