The City in the Middle of the Night
By Charlie Jane Anders
Charlie Jane Anders bats lead-off in A People’s Future of the United States with one of the more obviously political pieces in that collection. It’s no surprise then that her new novel The City in the Middle of the Night is a political allegory as well, as politics seems to be everywhere these days. Blame Trump.
The planet January, split between perpetually hot and cold, light and dark hemispheres, was colonized long ago by immigrants from Earth. But now human society, divided among various city states, is breaking down due to environmental strains, declining technology, and political repression. Civilizational collapse seems to be another popular subject in our own time.
Enter a bunch of would-be rebels and revolutionaries, all with different agendas, headed by a young woman who shares a psychic link with some of the strange creatures native to the planet. It’s a good story and Anders does a great job with the world-building, leaving us with the expectation that we’ll be reading more January adventures soon.
Alex on SF 