Here are two book descriptions I wrote a while ago about novels you may have already read and might ought to, if you haven’t.
Blackfish City, by Sam J. Miller This book is good ol-fashioned cyberpunk, but way more multiracial and less gender- & hetero-normative. A consortium of wealthy elite, the “Shareholders,” has built a city on pilings in the Arctic Sea because, per the typical cli-fi canard, old cities are underwater (if only it were that simple). There’s an avenging woman warrior who rides an orca whale, the de rigueur speedy street messenger, and of course the evil old guy who’s pulling the strings. All the seedy megacity topoi of the cyberpunk canon and its noirish black-leather-clad denizens. And it’s all set against a world that is both watery and liquidated. The writing can be a bit wooden, and the dialogue, pretty predictable. But the premise and backstory are incredibly detailed and all-too-believable. There is some actual science-fiction, too (i.e., fiction based on science). And the social and economic analysis of the book – esp. its understanding of a rentier economy and how forced migration causes it to metastasize – is immaculate. Definitely worth a read. Gold Fame Citrus, by Claire Vaye Watkins Southern California and the US southwest have been declared sacrifice zones, due to lack of water and the presence of a mega-dune, growing, shifting, and covering much of the west. Our heroes, Luz (rhymes with “buzz”) and Ray, have taken up residence in an abandoned mansion in an LA canyon. They end up running into a small child who is in the custody of some sketchy characters. They decide to try to make it across part of the desert to a smuggler who says he can get them to Lawrence, Kansas, and thence to more verdant points east. Adventures interrupt the trip. Californians are the new Okies: people in other parts of the country don’t want them. There’s an underground detention facility to house migrant wanderers. Whole shopping malls are alternately buried and uncovered by the shifting sand mountain range. And there’s a cargo cult of sorts. Great quirky detailed observations in both omniscient narration and characters’ thoughts. The thought and speech patterns are weird enough to be true; and a great depiction of a charismatic sociopath – the type already flourishing in our overheating global climate.
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June 2021
Kristin Prevallet Author/Editor
I'm a writer & teacher in Lawrence, Kansas who actually believes the scientists. I wrote a book of poems called Of Some Sky that seems to have something to do with all this. |