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The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders Published February 12th, 2019, by Tor Books Finished Reading April 14th, 2020
I read and liked – but did not love – Charlie Jane Anders’ first novel, All the Birds in the Sky. Just as with her new novel, The City in the Middle of the Night, it’s difficult to articulate what rubs me the wrong way. But I will try!
The setting is January, a tidally-locked planet that humanity has colonized, despite the fact that we can survive in only a narrow band at the center of the planet between the scorching hot, sun-facing side, and the unimaginably cold obverse side. Even within this band, there are untold dangers, from monster-filled seas to the “crocodiles,” strange creatures with tentacles and pincers and fur.
On January, there are two main settlements: Xiosphant, where every hour is regulated on pain of punishment, and Argelos, where people are more free but also more unequal. Traveling between these cities is dangerous in the extreme, and so they are isolated, two lights in the wilderness.
There are two main characters. The first is Sophie. She is in love with her best friend and classmate, Bianca, and when Bianca breaks the law Sophie lies, claiming she was the one who did in instead. Her punishment: She’s thrown over the wall, onto the Night side, where she’s expected to die. Instead, she encounters a crocodile, and there begins a remarkable transference that will ultimately change the world – and Sophie herself – in ways that she could never hope to imagine.
The other protagonist is Mouth, a member of a group of people who no longer exist. She was never given a proper name – her people died before they could do it – and now feels the weight of responsibility bearing down on her. As the last of her people, she feels it’s her job to understand them and preserve their memory. Her story will weave in and out with Sophie’s over the course of the novel.
Maybe you don’t get to choose how you make peace, or what kind of peace you make. You count yourself lucky if peace doesn’t run away from you.
The City in the Middle of the Night
What’s frustrating to me about this book is that, while I like all of the different ingredients, I don’t care for the book as a whole. I think it largely comes down to the characters, who are just … not that interesting, to be perfectly frank. To Anders’ credit, they behave like real people: They get stuck in repetitive cycles, they make easily avoidable mistakes, they consistently trust the wrong people. Unfortunately, this realism makes the middle section of the book – which feels, ultimately, like a particularly languorous detour – hard to sit through.
The ending is also a disappointment. Anders is playing with heady themes here, including posthumanism and the impact of humanity on the environment, not to mention a dash of political revolution; her characters, meanwhile, are forced to confront the cycles they have been stuck in and finally make new choices. This should all make for an explosive climax, but unfortunately, the end didn’t work for me at all – it’s a slow petering out of narrative possibilities, a shrug of resignation instead of an earnest debate. Whatever catharsis I was hoping to find in the end felt denied.
So, was there anything I liked? Yes! The world itself is great, and the crocodiles – which Sophie takes to calling the gelet – are great. Such an authentically alien consciousness, such an interdependent way of perceiving the world! I can’t say more for fear of major spoilers, but let’s just say I liked the gelet a lot. Anders’ writing is also frequently gorgeous – her descriptions of the environment, especially, are so precise and evocative, I really feel like I understand what it might be like to live on January.
I will keep reading Charlie Jane Anders, and keep hoping that this is the book where her great ideas combine with characters I love and a world I care about. I didn’t get that with The City in the Middle of the Night, unfortunately – but maybe next time.
Sean Reads Sci-Fi 