Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Feb 2019
368 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
Charlie Jane Anders, the nationally bestselling author of All the Birds in the Sky, delivers a brilliant new novel set in a hauntingly strange future.
"If you control our sleep, then you can own our dreams... And from there, it's easy to control our entire lives."
January is a dying planet - divided between a permanently frozen darkness on one side, and blazing endless sunshine on the other. Humanity clings to life, spread across two archaic cities built in the sliver of habitable dusk.
But life inside the cities is just as dangerous as the uninhabitable wastelands outside.
Sophie, a student and reluctant revolutionary, is supposed to be dead, after being exiled into the night. Saved only by forming an unusual bond with the enigmatic beasts who roam the ice, Sophie vows to stay hidden from the world, hoping she can heal.
But fate has other plans - and Sophie's ensuing odyssey and the ragtag family she finds will change the entire world.
"Starred Review. An even stronger novel than Anders' Nebula Award–winning All the Birds in the Sky; a tale that can stand beside such enduring works as Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness, Frank Herbert's Dune, and Dan Simmons' Hyperion." - Booklist
"Starred Review. Anders contains multitudes; it's always a fascinating and worthwhile surprise to see what she comes up with next." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. This breathlessly exciting and thought-provoking tale will capture readers' imaginations." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Anders (All the Birds in the Sky) weaves an intricate tale of colonialism and evolution on both physical and social levels. The harsh world and well-developed characters combine with stunning storytelling that will capture readers' minds and hearts." - Library Journal
"A breathtaking work of imagination and storytelling… making the case for Anders as this generation's Le Guin." - Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less
"A stunning novel." - Edan Lepucki, author of Woman No. 17
"A wildly inventive, inventively radical, radically subtle rush of a novel." - Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife
"Like a classic from another timeline… This book has notes of Ursula K. Le Guin and Philip Pullman." - Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
"A tale that unfolds with precision, presenting wholly original ideas, new and beautiful life forms, and chillingly extrapolated and corrupt societies. I highly recommend [it]." - Anthony Rapp, Broadway star
This information about The City in the Middle of the Night was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Charlie Jane Anders is the former editor-in-chief of io9.com, the extraordinarily popular Gawker Media site devoted to science fiction and fantasy. Her SF and fantasy debut novel, All the Birds in the Sky, won the 2017 Nebula Awards for Best Novel and was a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award's Best Novel category. Her Tor.com story "Six Months, Three Days" won the 2013 Hugo Award. She has also had fiction published by McSweeney's, Lightspeed, and ZYZZYVA. Her journalism has appeared in Salon, the Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, and many other outlets.
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