Lucas Blogs About The City in the Middle of the Night

Oh, another inductee to the name much larger than the title on the spine club.

So, what's this book's deal?

Well, Hypothetical Reader, The City in the Middle of the Night is Charlie Jane Anders's follow-up to the stellar: All the Birds in the Sky.

Oh, right! You fucking loved that book!

You're damn right I did!

What did you think of this book?

It's good.

Not as good as All the Birds in the Sky?

Not as good. Although it is also notably, an entirely different genre of speculative fiction. While Birds was a blend of urban fantasy and near-future sci-fi set in San Francisco, City has more of a New Wave Science Fiction vibe. It's set on January, a tidally-locked planet whose day and night sides are equally inhospitable to human life, leaving only a narrow band of twilight with a few settlements. It's been a long time since humans first came to January, following an ecological disaster on Earth, and now the technology that's allowed them to survive is failing. We begin in the totalitarian city-state of Xiosphant, where college student Sophie longs for two things: A) a more egalitarian social order and  2) her roommate, Bianca. This gets her in trouble when police break up a meeting of young radicals where Sophie takes the fall in order to protect Bianca from theft charges. She's cast out into the night, a seeming death sentence. However, she's approached by a creature the Xiosphanti call a crocodile (it definitely doesn't look like one), that saves her life and shares a telepathic vision. Sophie is able to return to Xiosphant but must live in hiding. Meanwhile, Mouth is the last survivor of nomadic cult, the Citizens, and now works for the Resourceful Couriers (read: smugglers) who sneak goods between Xiosphant, Argelo, and various other locations. She's foul-mouthed, ill-tempered, and violent, but also fiercely protective of the people in her in-group, particularly her sleepmate Alyssa. They've just arrived in Xiosphant and are laying low at the the coffee house where Sophie has found employment. However, there's something Mouth wants out of the palace, and, wouldn't you know it, a group of student radicals, including Bianca, are planning to storm the palace in the near future.

That's kind of a lot, how far into the book does this synopsis take us?

Oh, we're just getting started, but if any of that piques your interest, you might want to check the book out. But let's get into the nitty gritty.

Yes, let's. What would you describe as the novel's strengths?

As with All the Birds in the Sky, Anders excels at drawing her main characters. This is largely accomplished through contrast. Sophie, who kept her head down and her nose to the grindstone to earn a scholarship is in awe of the more confident and flippant Bianca. Meanwhile, Mouth is constantly on the move in a effort to find meaning in the teachings of her childhood religion. This puts her at odds with Alyssa, who wants to put down roots somewhere off the road. However, Sophie's experiences with the crocodiles (which she comes to call the Gelet) and the increasingly reckless measures she takes to try and establish a relationship with them draw these two characters inexorably together.

Why inexorably?

Oh, right, once Mouth finds out that Sophie's been communing with the Gelet, she can't help but hold her in awe.

Cause she grew up in a cult?

Cause she grew up in a cult. But more specifically, because she sees in Sophie's efforts to make contact the planet's aboriginal inhabitants a purpose to which she can dedicate herself. This might be a good time to transition to something that I don't think works quite as well.

Go on.

Well, after the protagonists leave Xiosphant, they go to Argelo. Argelo is the second largest city on January and is in many ways the opposite of Xiosphant.

So it's a utopia instead of a dystopia?

No. And that's something that I think does work. While Xiosphant has artificially enforced a circadian routine through the use of shutters and curfew patrols, established a centralized hierarchy based on birth, and strictly enforces social norms (Sophie's crush on Bianca isn't just hopeless because of their class difference but because of a taboo on homosexuality), Argelo has no timekeeping devices, no calendar, and no authority greater than power.

Maybe be a little more specific.

It's run by warring gangs. But people do have significantly more freedom. Sure, Bianca still isn't into Sophie (though she isn't above stringing her along) but no one would judge Sophie for loving another woman. That said, I can't help but feel that both Xiosphant and Argelo are a little too on the nose. It's all a bit too Ego/Id, Apollonian/Dionysian.

So . . . too neat of a dichotomy?

Yeah. It is balanced somewhat by neither seeming like a particularly pleasant place to live. But I'm not quite sold on it. Anyway, let's talk about how it's written.

Like structurally . . . or like sentence by sentence.

Structurally, the structure is actually another thing that works really well. Most of the novel is written in alternating chapters, going back and forth between Sophie and Mouth's perspectives. Sophie serves as the narrator in her chapters, with a first person present tense pov. This gives an immediacy to her experiences (particularly her interactions with the Gelet), and helps immerse the reader in her perspective. Mouth's chapters utilize a third person past tense pov, which lets the reader take a step back and try to view her character progression from a more objective standpoint. Mouth starts off as a character who acts on instinct, but slowly becomes more contemplative.

And what about the Gelet?

What about them?

Well, it sounds like they're pretty important. Or would talking too much about them be a SPOILER?

I guess I can address them while avoiding the dreaded SPOILERS. So, the Gelet communicate via touch-based telepathy, passing memories back and forth until all experience feels communal. They live in the titular city on the planet's night side. The City in the Middle of the Night is contrasted with both with Xiosphant and Argelo. While the Xiosphanti are trying to establish a sense of control on a planet where their long-term survival is in doubt, and the Argelans have sunk into chaos and hedonism in the face of seemingly certain doom, the Gelet have silently been living their lives and trying to find a way to communicate with the humans how they can do the same.

So they want Sophie to be their emissary?

Let's not get too far into the plot. But, yeah, more or less. You might have guessed it from the description, but the novel deals a lot with the question of identity and how you define yourself. Obviously, Mouth's quest to learn more about the Citizens plays into this, as does Sophie's rediscovery of her ethnic heritage in Argelo. There's a lot of good in the novel, but sometimes the reading is slow-going.  That said, it kept drawing me back and in describing it now, I can't help but feel I like it better now that I've had a little time to think about it.

Then what's the verdict.

We already covered that, it's good but not as good as All the Birds in the Sky.

But who should check it out?

People who like New Wave Science Fiction and don't mind when stories get a little too on the nose.

All right, sounds good.

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders, Tor Books hardcover edition, 2019, 363 pages, pairs well with gin-and-milk/not thinking about what gin-and-milk probably tastes like

Links:

Here's the author's website, if you're into that kinda thing.