"Blackfish City" by Sam J. Miller (BR)

[Rachel]

Umm - this is our Buddy Read discussion of Blackfish City:

Please use the usual spoiler tag etiquette

[Rachel]

I am on page 75 - about 22% in.

general impressions: I like it - the city reminds me of M. Ashby's Company Town novel.

my theory re: The Breaks (view spoiler)[ So we've heard that the orcamancer is a 'nanobonded' person which is a really cool idea btw!! So my theory on the illness called the breaks is that this a nanobonding type of virus and if these people could control it they could actually communicate with each other. and that they really are memories of others..from other people's heads!!
Can you imagine if everyone you slept with you got emotionally bonded to that way ?! LOL. wonder if it would improve or hurt a marriage..... (hide spoiler)]

[Joon]

Finished Skyward, will be starting this tomorrow.

[Bobby]

I plan to join in, but I'm kind of over committed this month, so it might be a while

[Joon]

16% in; this book is IMPENETRABLE.

Most of the reviews I've read said it is definitely a slog at first, but that it gets crazy good in the second half. Virtually no dialogue so far, which definitely slows things down.

As for your Breaks theory, based on what little I've read that sounds very plausible. (view spoiler)[One brief snippet said that someone somewhere was working on something that would allow people to share memories, and Fill just got a call from someone who apparently "remembered" his number from a mutual ex-boyfriend who they both may have caught it from. (hide spoiler)]

[Anat]

I started this yesterday... only 10% in, the settings is super interesting, but I honestly have no idea what's going on or what's the story...
still, orca and killer whale lady that's not me? I'm curious.

[Joon]

27% in and still have no idea what's going on, though at least it's getting a bit more interesting.

My theory on the Breaks is developing. (view spoiler)[I think it's like a computer virus. Like a literal one. People are literally passing nanobots onto each other, the nanobots are reproducing and effectively "computerizing" the person, and it's killing them because the nanobots aren't being "used" the way they were designed to. The people are networking, but because they aren't remaining with the people they are networked with, they are dying (there was a bit that described the testing on mice, and how the mice were fine when together, but got very sick when separated).

It would make sense that as the nanobots are passed on, and mix with nanobots from other strains, they would sort of evolve and how they affected a person would change. One thing that has been conspicuous by its absence is any description of what exactly happens to a person who "dies" from the Breaks. It says their mind "breaks" but that's it. If the nanobots are effectively digitizing the brains of the people who are infected, it's possible their consciousnesses are simply leaving the body. Not sure where they'd go, but the book does say that Qaanaaq's computer systems have been acting screwy. (hide spoiler)]

As for the orcamancer, (view spoiler)[It is very interesting that she's been described as having not spoken at all since arriving. I wonder if she, the orca, and the polar bear have a shared consciousness. Effectively one mind in three bodies. Perhaps even an AI has developed in or inhabited those three bodies that has effectively overwritten their individual consciousnesses.

Qaanaaq's computer network was described as being something to envy. If in fact the orcalady et al are housing an AI or other digital consciousness, I would think Qaanaaq would be a place it would want to go.

Ultimately right now I'm seeing everyone with the Breaks (which would include the orcamancer) as an increasingly digital person in a physical body. They're carrying the nanobots, the nanobots are integrating with the brain, and of course reproducing, and there must reach a point where they've reproduced enough that the nanobots can "download" the person's consciousness so it's being housed in them as opposed to the brain. Of course this makes them susceptible to all the bugs and glitches that normal software experiences, and with Qaanaaq being run by hundreds or more software programs and AIs, there is certainly the likelihood of interaction there. When the infected people are dying, it's either because their "software" fails (again, because the infected people are not "networking" correctly), or their newly-digital consciousness is going elsewhere. It's probably the former, but I so want it to be the latter.
(hide spoiler)]

Note: this is what happens when you read a book right after finishing a Brandon Sanderson book.

[Joon]

45%. Could not have been more wrong about the orcamancer. Jury's still way out on the Breaks.

Things are starting to come together now. It's like when you're building a jigsaw puzzle, and you have 4-5 distinct sections you're working on, and finally you're able to start connecting the larger chunks together.

(view spoiler)[I'm still looking at the Breaks/nanobonding/etc. as a sort of digitization thing. I can't overlook the nanobots. I still think it's significant they're in a city that's run by software. But by now I think it's established fact that the larger symptoms of the Breaks are simply the result of physical separation from those with whom you share an infection, so to speak. It's like nanobonding with dozens/hundreds of people you've never met, will never meet, and who may be miles away for all you know.

And it's clear that the orcamancer and her traveling companions aren't a shared consciousness lol. I don't know why we had to wait 40% of the book to even hear her speak, much less start learning about her. Hopefully that was for a reason. I wanted her to be so much more mysterious than she ended up being.

I'm especially glad that it was the character I cared the least about (Kaev) that was the first to really get tied to another part of the story. Fill's revelation was hinted at just the chapter before, indirectly tying him to another part of the story. And in fact both of those parts now share a vaguely defined connection to Kaev/Orcamancer (Kaev's "relation" to Ankit).

Ultimately I'm prepared for the possibility that there's simply nothing more to the Breaks than a nanobond gone wrong. No AI, no digital consciousness, no "computer virus". I admit I was going way out on a limb with that stuff.

One part of the book I've given virtually no thought to is the City Without a Map. So far if there's a mystery behind it, it hasn't grabbed me. I know Fill is consumed with finding who wrote it, and perhaps the identity of that person/"person" will be something of a revelation. Or perhaps not. (hide spoiler)]

[Rachel]

Well I finished! but now i feel like I can't respond cause I don't want to give anything away lol.

I will say that I liked how it pulled together - and that there is some things left to ponder- not everything is totally spelled out. (But also not an ambiguous ending like some people hate!)

(view spoiler)[in the end this book is really about family. and what it means. Also capitalism and can it ever be not evil. And immigrants. and other very timely things. (hide spoiler)]

I think my favorite character ended up being Soq

[Joon]

That suggests big things for Soq in the second half, because thus far they've done ****ing nothing lol.

[Rachel]

Hmm is it spoiler-y? Should I hide it?

[Joon]

Put down anything you want behind spoilers, I'll definitely go back and read em after I'm done. I am able to resist the temptation of reading them now lol.

[Patrick]

It's a great book. Another good one is Dark Matter. (Just about done with Blackfish City)

[Joon]

Lol of course, like one chapter after I posted "Soq's done nothing" now all of a sudden it's the Soq Show!

[Silvana]

I really loved this book when I read it last year. Everything I ever wanted in a book, great environment (I am a sucker for weird cities), memorable characters (Orcamancer whaaaaaat), and lots and lots of noodles.

Just in case anyone also noticed, one of the social issues raised here is about property ownership and the lack of access for certain classes. The author is an activist on this issue.

This has been said before, the way the story came up together in the end was satisfying. As Rachel said, (view spoiler)[it's about family. (hide spoiler)]

[Anna]

Yes, I still think of this book every time I cook noodles :D

[Anat]

I'm at 66% now and the story is finally picking up, or rather, forming into being. I want to see more of the orca, and loving the Polar bear.

As a side note, I love how naturally sexual and gender identity is treated in this futuristic city. (view spoiler)[but did they have to kill the gay boy? sigh. (hide spoiler)]

[Joon]

71%. Home stretch. My predictions were laughable. This is a much smaller story than I thought it would be, which is perfectly fine.

As for your thing, (view spoiler)[the worst part of him dying is that ultimately it's hard to see what his role in the story even was. He had no real connection to any of the other characters, except one fleeting interaction w/ Soq, which certainly contributed to Soq's story but not in a way that couldn't have been accomplished by some non-POV character. It just seemed a waste. His all-consuming quest went absolutely nowhere.

Other that that, it seems like the City Without a Map was/is written by Ora, unless I'm missing something obvious.

I'm still hoping the city's software/AI has a role to play. But I'm no longer that interested in the nanites/nanobonding, as it doesn't appear there's any more to it than what we've already learned.

And to be honest, right now that's my main concern with the story; that ultimately it will be nothing more than the tale of how a woman stormed a city to save her wife. It would still be a good story, but this book is constructed like a puzzle, so I'd feel a bit cheated if there wasn't some big revelation once it's fully constructed. (hide spoiler)]

[Joon]

Done.

(view spoiler)[Overall a good book, but the ending felt too chaotic and arbitrary, maybe a little mean.

I mean I'm glad that ultimately everyone should be okay, though Kaev is just a maybe. That's pretty much my #1 demand out of stories, is a happy or at least optimistic ending.

But that last scene at Podlove's place...I feel like it could have been handled better. On the one hand I get that maybe it was written in a way that emphasized how quickly everything happened and how chaotic it was, with some things happening off-screen that maybe would have been better served on-screen, but it also just feels like the kind of ending where the author is getting impatient and just wants to wrap it up. I don't say this about a lot of books, but I felt like this one could have stood to be a bit longer, paced things out a bit better.

Ultimately I don't mind that the story didn't end up involving all the crazy stuff I had hoped for at first. (hide spoiler)]

[Anat]

I finished too. While I enjoyed the book, it didn’t live up to my expectations.

(view spoiler)[The settings was so interesting, but half the book is spent on giving background about the city, and the story starts to develop very late, and it ended up just being a family story that it almost feels detached from the rest, and has little to do with the story of the city. Yes, Ora bonded with the people there after her bird died and she wrote the City Without a Map, but at that point it just fell flat for me. I really feel there were strong elements in the story that could've been used better. (hide spoiler)]

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

It ended up feeling like Blackfish Village, town, or cul de sac cause almost everyone was related to one another.

[Rebecca]

😂 well put

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

This has become a group book, official threads are here:

First impressions | Final thoughts