The City in the Middle of the Night - by Charlie Jane Anders (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A LOCUS AWARD FINALIST!

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 with #10 LA Times bestseller The City in the Middle of the Night.

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

"Like a classic from another timeline... this book has notes of Ursula K. Le Guin and Phillip Pullman." --Robin Sloan, author of Sourdough

Review Quotes

Praise for The City in the Middle of the Night

"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

"An intimate portrait of people as much as it is a piece of culturally aware social scifi -- a look at our moment in history through a distorting lens of aliens and spaceships." --NPR

"Tragic, brave, and so very human...Anders dares to imagine something different, a better way forward." --Den of Geek

"Classic SF in the mode of Ursula K Le Guin or Octavia Butler....This is a millennial's novel, featuring young people trying to make their way through an uncaring, corrupt and intermittently violent world....Heartfelt and absorbing fiction." --The Guardian

"Anders has written a unique book, one that uses tropes found in old-school science fiction to comment on modern side effects of class structures" --Washington Post

"Original and gripping...The City in the Middle of the Night may be set light-years away, but it's likely to hit too close to home." --Paste

"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

"An intricate tale of colonialism and evolution on both physical and social levels. Stunningly storytelling that will capture readers' minds and hearts." --Library Journal, starred review

"Intricate, embracing much of what makes a grand adventure: smugglers, revolutionaries, pirates, camaraderie, personal sacrifice, wondrous discovery, and the struggle to find light in the darkness. Breathlessly exciting and thought-provoking." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Absolutely memorable...terrifying and exciting... makes for a fascinating exploration of humanity and human relationships." --Hypable

"The kind of didactic, intelligent, critical fiction that interrogates the boundaries of our current moment through broad-scope questions...I couldn't recommend it more." --Tor.com

"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

"The City in the Middle of the Night does everything right. I f--ing love this book. It is really, really breathtaking." --Daveed Diggs, Grammy and Tony Award winning actor

"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

About the Author

CHARLIE JANE ANDERS is the former editor-in-chief of io9, the popular Gawker Media site devoted to science fiction and fantasy. Her debut novel, All the Birds in the Sky, won the Nebula, Locus, and Crawford Awards and was on Time's list of the ten best novels of 2016. Her award-winning short fiction (including "Six Months, Three Days") has appeared on Tor.com, as well as Wired, Slate, Tin House, Conjunctions, Boston Review, Asimov's Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, ZYZZYVA, and several anthologies. Anders is also known for her journalism and activism; she organizes the popular Writers With Drinks series and has written for Salon, The Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, and many other outlets.