• Blackfish City

  • A Novel
  • By: Sam J. Miller
  • Narrated by: Vikas Adam
  • Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (240 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Blackfish City  By  cover art

Blackfish City

By: Sam J. Miller
Narrated by: Vikas Adam
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.19

Buy for $25.19

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

"Miller gives us 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. Plus, it has lots of action and a great cast of characters. Not to mention an orca and a polar bear!" (Ann Leckie, New York Times best-selling author and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Clarke Awards)

After the climate wars, a floating city is constructed in the Arctic Circle, a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering, complete with geothermal heating and sustainable energy. The city's denizens have become accustomed to a roughshod new way of living; however, the city is starting to fray along the edges - crime and corruption have set in, the contradictions of incredible wealth alongside direst poverty are spawning unrest, and a new disease called "the breaks" is ravaging the population.

When a strange new visitor arrives - a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side - the city is entranced. The "orcamancer", as she's known, very subtly brings together four people - each living on the periphery - to stage unprecedented acts of resistance. By banding together to save their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay, they will learn shocking truths about themselves.

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.

©2018 Sam J. Miller (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers

What listeners say about Blackfish City

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    79
  • 4 Stars
    75
  • 3 Stars
    57
  • 2 Stars
    19
  • 1 Stars
    10
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    106
  • 4 Stars
    62
  • 3 Stars
    30
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    4
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    70
  • 4 Stars
    56
  • 3 Stars
    55
  • 2 Stars
    23
  • 1 Stars
    7

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Decent SF, So-So Cli-Fi

The reader was very good. The novel had a lot of interesting ideas, but wasn't done well. it started slowly with much confusion. It ended hurriedly with much confusion. The climate apocalypse was not convincing, nor powerful. The LGBT perspective added value but also was annoying, partially because it wasn't handled in enough depth.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Blew Me Away

I loved how the author imagines a future so connected to our present, and connected to our humanity. Blackfish City is writhing with personalities, political intrigue, and medical mysteries. From intimate scenes to epic ones, the author pulls you right in. This is SF with a heart as big as the Arctic Circle. Fans of Pullman should definitely check this out.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not for me.

It's an LGBT gay love story. Not my thing. thankfully, audible let me refund it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Lots of Character Development But...

I like the flow of the story and the voice acting was amazing. It became tough to follow only because the characters and back story are very thorough but the point of the story seemed a bit light in development. I was hoping for more intertwining stories, motives, complexities, and an epic climax. But I feel like it had a lot of build up and then turned out to be just a family reunion. Maybe I missed something, but I felt it was just okay. The writing is excellent and the imagery is great. If you're looking for a light drama mixed with science fiction then it will be great for you.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

This story was just not fulfilling

So many great topics here, but they really never went anywhere. I wanted to hear more about 'The Breaks', and more about their family history, and what exactly happened in the world that they are where they are now. I wanted to hear more about NYC and what happened there. More info on the nano bonding and how that originated would have been wonderful. The beginning was so hard to get through with the separate stories. Usually they all intermix towards the end in a spectacular fashion, but in this book once they all got together it was like 'hey wow cool we are family'. Some of the dialogue did not sound realistic. It sounded like a non writer who had to explain something to the reader, so he just had characters say things out of the blue. The character of 'Go' really did not come across as a real person, and it is unclear why anyone would ever like her. She says and does horrible things, and then at the end says 'Oh I love you, I did it to protect you'-which made no sense whatsoever. It does not make sense why anyone ever fell in love with her. Maybe I have been spoiled by some great books lately, but I felt cheated out of a good story here.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

boring slog with some great concepts

I've picked it up several times and I still can't finish it. in spurts of truly enjoyable storytelling is intermingled some genuinely tedious oration. Furthermore, yes, the worldbuilding is great but inconsistent. for example, it's cold you are informed, but other than being told that, it doesn't much exist in the characters senses. When you live in the cold, from chills to chilblains, it is ever present discomfort. I will probably try to pick it up again in a few months because the premise is undeniably fertile ground.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Dystopic 1%'ers and Occupy adrift

Sam J Miller's Blackfish City is a dystopic vision of the future following climate change and the collapse of world governments. Societies separate from sovereign nations have been established in the oceans by tapping into geothermal energy. Human nature persists and pretty soon the haves (landlords) and the havenots (tenants) are going at it. Into this mix add dysfunctional and corrupt local government and criminal gangs and you have the usual pattern of human history. An ensemble cast of various players, initially presented as unrelated end up having many connections.

The basic economic viability of this arrangement is never quite satisfactorily presented. A meta-AIDS disease, the "breaks" is extant. Nanotechnology has permitted the mental linkage of humans and animals with a genetic component. There's a typical "life is cheap" mentality, but the presumed fragility of this tenuous ecosystem is never explored.

The narration is reasonable, although character distinction is just acceptable.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

More kickboxing than character development

I read almost half of this for the Spartanburg Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fanatics book club, but it just wasn't for me. The City Without a Map parts were somewhat intriguing, as was the mystery of The Breaks, but not enough to keep me going when tens of people started dying in ninja-like combat. How can I like Dungeons and Dragons and movies like "Hero" yet be totally turned off by this?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

damn neat nonsensical, was there an arc?

hated it, too many undeveloped characters, too little description, believed it was a masterpiece and read like an unedited first book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The unifying power of family

This is one of those sweeping, multi-character novels that weaves together so many seemingly unrelated stories until they finally come together in an ah-ha moment. The politician’s assistant who manipulates her corrupt boss to do some good, the prize fighter who throws almost every fight, the gender-fluid street teen, the spoiled rich kid whose grandfather was one of the last to escape drowning New York City, the female crime boss, and the “orcamanser” who shows up at the arctic floating city of Quannock riding a killer whale with a polar bear in tow, all brought together in this post-climate change novel to save their city and its people. Political corruption, organized crime, a medical mystery, futuristic technology, poverty of the masses, and the unifying power of family.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful