The City in the Middle of the Night

E-book, 352 pages

English language

Published Aug. 8, 2019 by Doherty Associates, LLC, Tom.

ISBN:
978-1-4668-7113-7
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4 stars (56 reviews)

Would you give up everything to change the world?

Humanity clings to life on January--a colonized planet divided between permanently frozen darkness on one side, and blazing endless sunshine on the other.

Two cities, built long ago in the meager temperate zone, serve as the last bastions of civilization--but life inside them is just as dangerous as the uninhabitable wastelands outside.

Sophie, a young student from the wrong side of Xiosphant city, is exiled into the dark after being part of a failed revolution. But she survives--with the help of a mysterious savior from beneath the ice.

Burdened with a dangerous, painful secret, Sophie and her ragtag group of exiles face the ultimate challenge--and they are running out of time.

Welcome to the City in the Middle of the Night

6 editions

I'm fascinated but goes on between the lines here...

4 stars

IMHO, lots of themes explored or mentioned here. Deep characters, with different cadence of growths. A cool world premise, but what got me is the ecologist twist, as well as the acceptance of the weird, non-human.

I would've liked to know more about what happened on the ship, but at the same time, the fact that we don't know what happened, that we only read the lasting generational trauma, is quite eye-opening for me.

Very good read, though long in the middle, and a bit of repetitious.

Review of 'The City in the Middle of the Night' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Interesting read this one. It took me a while to get through it, but in the end the world building was compelling enough to keep me interested, even if I didn't entirely get on with the writing style to begin with.

I have to commend the author for conjuring such a unique setting... the more I read the more I wanted to know about the histories of the two cities, the story of the mothership, and the mystery of the 'crocodiles'. It wasn't without annoyances though... the whole Bianca/Sophie dynamic was fascinating to begin with but became infuriating by the end. Mouth's arc felt more satisfying, but in the end the whole story kind of felt like it finished before it really got started. I read (after finishing it) that it's a standalone, which, frankly, shocked me, since I was sure it was going to be the start of a …

Review of 'The City in the Middle of the Night' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

This is a tough book to rate. The story will definitely stick with me and I'm incredibly glad I read it. However, I'm not sure I exactly enjoyed reading it. It was powerful and compelling, but rambling and dense.

In the end, I would recommend this book to science fiction fans – just don't read it expecting a light, fluffy, quick read.

Review of 'The City in the Middle of the Night' on 'Goodreads'

1 star

My recent stretch of random books has been on a successful run but The City in the Middle of the Night was a misstep for me. I found the book to be a drag and I kept waiting for something to happen and justify my investment. I can tolerate a slow burn or a reveal at the end that connects everything together but there was none of that here.

The individual elements of the story (origin of the planet pioneers, tales of two cities, mysterious creatures living in the shadow of night) were interesting in concept but failed to resonate with me. What was the story about? What was the conflict? Even if information is withheld it should keep the reader engaged but all I was interested in was the number of pages remaining.

Other reviews echo my feelings and do a more elegant job of dissecting what worked and …

Review of 'City in the Middle of the Night' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

Science fiction rests on suspended disbelief, and Charlie Jane Anders toys with that concept with a level of creativity I have never seen before. The world in this book feels plausible, and the world-building is amazing. But more importantly Charlie Jane uses tropes and their subversion expertly. In particular, I appreciated how the book deals with themes like friendship, trauma and healing, and relations in general in a way that felt more mature than any science fiction I think I have read before.

This feels like a science fiction that finally plays with a full hand of sciences, not just imaginary pseudo-physics.

Review of 'The City in the Middle of the Night' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

I adored All the Birds in the Sky, and I was initially intrigued by this book, especially the world-building on a tidally-locked planet. But this book lost me pretty quickly. The main characters feel emotionless and dislikable, the secondary characters are barely even there, the plot moves way too slowly and there's too many events in the plot that just...happen... semi-randomly. I was also extremely surprised to find out that this is a stand-alone book, because it ends so suddenly I assumed it had to be continued in a second book. This is a Stephensonian level of abrupt unresolved ending. Really, really disappointed.

Review of 'The City in the Middle of the Night' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Set on a planet where the only human-habitable zone is the terminus between day and night, this book is about a lot of things. It's about settler colonialism, political power, differing models of social control, the limits of political revolution, the longing for a feeling of connection to one's culture, and those weird, intense friendships between pre-teen and teen girls that make you go "is it gay? Are they on the verge of forming a cult? Or is this just a normal stage in development?"

You might enjoy this if you like LeGuin, Anne of Green Gables, or thought Enders Game could have more girls in it.

Review of 'The City in the Middle of the Night' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Oof. I don't know. I tried really hard. I wanted to like this book, kept flipping pages determined that the next one would bring me to the turn that would let me love this book. But it never came.

Technically, this is a very well-written book. Anders' prose is wonderful. The world is very interesting and developed just enough to keep me reading to learn more about it. But the characters are... Shockingly unlikeable. I didn't like Sophie, even though I kept rooting for her, just to be consistently let down. She doesn't grow, doesn't really change. She is passive and weak, which is fine at first, but not by the end. I absolutely hated Bianca and thought she deserved to die. Alyssa is a jerk and doesn't take Mouth seriously, all while telling Mouth she needs to just "get over" her trauma. Mouth was the only characters I liked, …

Review of 'The City in the Middle of the Night' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Hard science fiction but focused primarily around three characters, so the science is more of a background than the primary focus. On a future colony world that will be settled by Earth descendents, daylight and night are so extreme that the full light of day literally sets crops on fire. Cities have to be carefully shuttered and crops shaded in order to survive. The world is clearly at least several generations post-settlement and much of their ancestors' original equipment is breaking down, while weather changes to the planet cause additional problems.

In between the strictly regimented city Xiosphant and the criminal-controlled city Argel, the plot follows a pair of friends, Sophie and Bianca, and a smuggler, Mouth. Sophie tells her part of the story in first person, so is clearly the 'main' character, and when she is thrown out of Xiosphant into the Night to die, she discovers that one …

Review of 'The City in the Middle of the Night' on 'Storygraph'

No rating

I tried to like this. Really. But I'm halfway through and the narratives feel like such a slog! The pace is too slow and I can't seem to care about any of the characters. By now I know that I don't need to finish a book if it feels like a chore 🤷🏻

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Subjects

  • Fiction, science fiction, general

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