I deeply loved Charlie Jane Anders’s debut novel All the Birds in the Sky, a wild, imaginative saga that blurred the lines between science fiction and fantasy as though they never existed, all while telling a story that was simultaneously epic and deeply intimate, following a pair of children throughout their lives as they find themselves on opposite ends of a massive conflict. It was original, sweeping, funny, unpredictable, and just plain fun in every way.
Anders’s followup, The City in the Middle of the Night, is a whole different animal. Sure, Anders still demonstrates her knack for not only rich characters but for creating complex relationships that aren’t easily reduced to “friends” or “lovers.” And once again, she demonstrates an incredible gift for world-building and imagination across the board, exploring life on a tidally locked planet (that is, the planet always shows the same face toward/away from the sun) and what it would do to human life on such a world. And, yes, again she's grappling with big ideas about revolution, about change, about reform, and about how our connections with other people are the most important piece of those ideas.
But what struck me most about City, for all of its similarities with Birds, is just how different it feels from its predecessor. If Birds was light and fun and adventurous, City feels starker, less hopeful, more traumatized. This is a book about trauma, about toxic relationships, about climate change, about trying to change a world and seeing your ideals collapse in the face of a society that’s completely content to stay the way it is. (Can you tell this is a book of this moment in time or what?) For all of the imagination and scope of City, more than anything else, it’s a book that feels shaken and scared for its world, one that’s as much about how we react to the horrors of the world as it is what we do about them.
City starts (after a brief opening that’s worth revisiting after you finish the book, as it might change entirely how you feel about the ending) with a bang. Our protagonist, Sophie, is a poor girl who’s worked her way into a prestigious university, where she met Bianca. Bianca is upper class, privileged, gorgeous, and politically active. And given that Sophie loves Bianca, that means Sophie plays politics, too. And when she tries to protect Bianca from the consequences of her actions, Sophie is effectively sentenced to death - tossed out into the permanent frozen night of the planet, where creatures nicknamed “crocodiles” live.
But instead of being eaten by these creatures, Sophie reaches out to them - and everything changes.
There’s so much more to City - alien races, political debates, smugglers, monsters, allegories - and we haven’t even met our secondary protagonist, a nomad named Mouth (and there’s an explanation for that name, and it’s quietly heartbreaking). And yet, City never feels overstuffed or bloated. It’s a lot of things - blistering, painful, stark, sincere, outspoken, confident - but Anders always remembers to keep her book working in service of her characters, driving the story as much by what they’re experiencing emotionally as by the needs of the plot.
Indeed, those emotions - along with complex ideas about authoritarianism, libertarianism, freedom, revolution, class warfare, and more - are truly what the book is about. Anders has always been outspoken about loving the books of Ursula K. LeGuin, and that shows through here; while Anders’s writing is undeniably more plot-driven than LeGuin’s, there’s a similar fascination with using genre fare to explore human nature, and letting that subtext drive the book as a whole.
The City in the Middle of the Night is more challenging than All the Birds of the Sky, and in many ways, it’s harder to enjoy. At the same time, it’s a richer, more complex book, one with headier ideas, a denser emotional palette, and a contemporary relevance that’s undeniable. It’s all of that while building an incredible world and populating it with flawed, human characters that linger long after the last page is turned. And in that, it’s a more than worthy followup to Anders’s first book, and a promise that she’s got a long, great career ahead of her.
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Top reviews from other countries
christopher neitzert
Great Story, fast read, worth your time.
Reviewed in Germany on March 28, 2019
