The City in the Middle of the Night

A lot of very interesting sci fi ideas in here. They are explored through intriguing and believable characters interacting in heartfelt and some time frustrating ways. Gave me a left hand of darkness vibe with the iceland looming and fantastical adventure. Very good.

The book was introduced to me as an example of a setting on a tidally locked planet. Well it was set on a tidally locked planet, but it was utterly incidental, irrelevant to the plot and hardly explored. The book is technically sci-fi, but it could just as well have been written as fantasy, and it wouldn't have changed a thing. And all of it would have been fine if I just could connect with the characters or felt invested in the story.

It's rare that a book is so truly new and unique that it is almost too unique to fathom. But this one is very unique and yet is enjoyable and has poignant social commentary. Another good read by Anders, but a little slow at times. Overall enjoyable though.

Tedious.

Goddamn teenagers. Everybody wounded, everybody searching.

The characters and world have promise, but there was something missing or not working for me. I would love to see more buildout.

There's some interesting science fiction - and some political intrigue. Perhaps this is a great book for you.

Part of how they make you obey is by making obedience seem peaceful, while resistance is violent. But really, either choice is about violence, one way or another.

This review can also be found on my blog.

This was such a strange book that felt almost needlessly complicated in some aspects. I could tell that Anders was extremely into her world building but I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief for some aspects of it. It reminded me a bit of Amatka: a society filled with unyielding rules. The comparisons largely end there, though.

I never felt strongly connected to any of the characters. Sophie didn't feel solid enough as a pov character; she never really bypassed concept into full-fledged character for me and I didn't feel like she had much agency. I struggled similarly with Mouth, who started off as a caricature and morphed into something softer that I didn't quite understand. I just never felt fully convinced by either of them. The dialogue itself, while largely good, felt stilted in some parts. There were random scenes where I thought, “no one talks like that.”

I really struggled with the message of the story for a bit. It sort of felt like it was trying to push too many storylines together at once. If it was expanded into a series this would have made more sense, but as is it had a kind of claustrophobic feel to it. My mind was constantly dragged in several different directions and I wasn't really sure what to expect next, but not necessarily in a good way.

I did really admire the way this tackled toxic relationships. Sophie is deeply in love with her best friend Bianca, although seemingly unable to admit it to herself. Bianca is privileged, self-centered, and blind to anything that doesn't impact her directly. It was frustrating watching Sophie return to Bianca over and over, but it also makes sense in the context of their relationship (until their last meeting — that didn't make sense to me).

Regardless of my criticisms, this was highly readable and I hope people will still give it a shot. I hit points where I just didn't want to put the book down because the writing was so compelling and I really wanted to see what would happen next. It's a good book, but I think cutting down a little would have gone a long way.

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Another Hugo nominee down (I'm working my way through most of the list again this year). This is the second novel I have read by Anders, and I stand by my review of [b:All the Birds in the Sky 25372801 All the Birds in the Sky Charlie Jane Anders https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1429225322l/25372801.SY75.jpg 45119441]. I find her short fiction to be really strong but when the format is a novel....there are these rambly parts that just kind of stretch the story and I lose patience. Here we have endless parties to sit through, what feels like the same fights over and over again in relationships and we are constantly meeting new crew members for new missions who might as well all be wearing red shirts. At the same time, there were parts I really enjoyed. Others were not explained in a way that I understood them. It bothered me that some things have “Earth” words that clearly do not describe what something actually is. I don't think I fully understand the world (is night blazing day and vice versa? What the hell are ankle skirts? Trim on pant legs?) I never felt fully immersed, and then we change cities mid-book so it didn't really matter. This just wasn't for me.

Only 3.5 stars. Nobody is more surprised than me...

Interesting setting/worldbuilding but ... I dunno. This is a depressing story about a bunch of depressing people. It is a fairly cynical view of humanity. A lot of things randomly happen for narrative convenience and are hand-waved away (people die out of nowhere; other people survive situations they really oughtn't; the palace is impossible to take with an entire rebel force early in the book, but easy to take with a handful of soldiers toward the end; a certain character is remarkably, preternaturally good at fighting and murdering, until for unexplained reasons she just loses the ability to hold weapons or even make fists)...

Some of the tiny details of the setting are still bothering me (how did the Citizens, a small band of nomadic travelers, manage to overharvest a particular flower to the point of extinction? what the heck is an “ankle skirt” and how would that even work? why are Mouth's sections in the third person and Sophies' in the first?)... the characters don't really learn or change throughout the story, and insist on making inexplicably bad and self-destructive choices, but don't seem to have enough self-awareness of their emotional states to understand why (or for the reader to understand why).

For a book that seems to be trying, at least in part, to make a point about trauma not defining people, it has a lot of characters whose only defining characteristic is their trauma. In fact everyone is pretty two-dimensional and hard to believe in as people. I kept getting the two protagonists confused because they don't feel like very different characters. And then you'd get other characters saying things that were not backed up by anything in the narrative, like “you were always just so yourself... that sweet and passionate girl” (to Sophie) or “you were always the strongest of us” (to Alyssa) when there was really nothing in the entire rest of the book to make that seem true.

And then the cop-out ending where it's just?? Hanging? Nothing gets resolved and you just get to guess what happens? I'm just so angry lol

This book made me a bit sad. I love Charlie Jane, and this is the first time I've read something of hers that just didn't work for me. She is, as usual, a master of complicated, nuanced relationships and relatable characters. However, I just didn't enjoy the world. Things kept happening that snapped the suspension of my disbelief. From the first chapter, things kept happening that didn't make sense. From the lack of any government system of punishment to the overabundance of aggressive, carnivorous wildlife... it just didn't work for me. The fact that a teen relationship is at the center also just meant I probably wasn't going to love it. Also, Bianca is the worst. Consistently. The worst. I still love C.J. but I think I prefer it when she's working in urban fantasy.

Great worldbuilding, nice mix of geopolitical and human-scale drama, of action and emotion, full of smart ideas and originality. The only downsides : a fairly abrupt ending and the sometimes unrealistic behaviour of the characters

An ARC was provided by the author in exchange for an open and honest review. Quotes are taken from an uncorrected ARC and may change upon publication.

“Bianca is the most unusual person I have ever met.”
Excerpt from The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

The land bakes, or freezes depending on where you are. Human ingenuity and creativity have completely stagnated. Once cutting edge technologies ten generations ago, have now begun to fail. Cities that are separated by almost pathless land have become mythical and divided on the governance of their citizens. While political and societal upheaval shakes the foundations of the city, Xiosphanti, people begin to rage at their cog-like existence in the dying machine of their city while ecological disaster looms in the distance.

Sophie, a student from a more impoverished background, plods day to day at her wealthy school. She is attracted to Bianca, her roommate, who comes from the upper class and is in a different social stratosphere than her. This attraction shared between the two of them emboldens Sophia to take the fall for some of Bianca's more questionable choices and thus starts Sophie's path as either a savior or her undoing.

The name Charlie Jane Anders is synonymous with excellent writing and incredible world building. Her previous works: All The Birds in the Sky, Six Months Three Days, Rick Manning Goes for Broke as well as few others have garnered her a Nebula Award for Best Novel, a Hugo award for Best Novelette as well as a smattering of others. Anders has significant science fiction writing cred. With all that being said I had gigantic hopes and excitement for this book, and sadly it fell flat for me.

There is a whole lot of good in this book. Anders is a master world builder and she created a unique world system complete with politics, races, gender identity, sociology, and a rich colonial history. She also interwove prominent environmental concerns and adaption into her world system. Ander's has a unique approach that I appreciate as a reader. Instead of just saying, “it was blindingly hot.” She talks about environmental and architectural adaptation to a world with no definitive circadian rhythm and how that can play mary hell with humans ability to mentally rest and physically sleep.

“The video cuts out. I'm left staring at empty space, feeling sorrow for a woman who died a long time ago, one way or another.”
Excerpt from The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane AndersThe world bisects into light and dark. The light side is scorching and blinding while the dark side never sees the light. It has a complete lack of warmth. It reminds me a bit of that scene from “The Chronicles of Riddick” where they are trying to escape the underground prison, and as the sun starts moving across the landscape, the ground explodes from the heat. This is pretty cool when you describe an entire society based around the presence of too much or too little warmth. The impending doom of the cities due to much imperialism. To much rigid control. The reader knows that the end is coming, but not how.Each character has a definitive voice. I never once got confused about who was talking or how they were feeling about a situation. I loved peeking into the minds of the main characters: Sophia, Bianca, and Mouth. Each viewed the world very differently and how, by the end of the book, each character has changed in their way is bittersweet. Sophia comes into her own while other characters show their true colors.The relationships and interactions between the main characters were hard to read but ultimately became a source of strength for the writing. Bianca is a classic character of privilege. She floats through life and dabbles in politics or other things that tickle her proverbial fancy while not reaping the consequences of her actions. At the same time, Bianca abuses by Sophie. Sophie gives her chance after chance while Bianca ultimately does not deserve her. In the end, Sophie finally sees the true Bianca. How she will never develop emotionally, nor will she see past herself or her wants and desires for something greater.I am giving this book a lower rating, and it has everything to do with pacing. This story is slow. So much so that I almost DNF. I kept waiting for the story to pick up and get going, and it did at about page 250 or so. But during the first 250 pages, I was waiting on any inertia to start the characters moving towards their outcomes. Ultimately the ending of the story saved the story and tied everything together. In the end, this is an impressive character study and example of worldbuilding however the pace of the story made it very difficult to read for me.