Review::The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders, is one of those novels that I wasn’t sure I was going to like. It starts out rather slow and takes 17 pages to begin to become interesting. Those seventeen pages are the a lot of character and world building that almost begin to plod along; though one does get this feeling that they might be in some world that is not quite 1984, not quite Brave New World and not quite Handmaid’s Tale, yet quite just as much terrifying in its own subliminal level.

The world of January is a tidally locked world and one begins to think that this city is more one that is on the edge of day and night. However the question might be more of which city is the title referring to.

The people of the city on January are colonists from a ship that arrived long ago and even now continues to orbit silently above the planet. Sophie’s city is Xiosphant; with its specialized economy, social structure, and work and sleep schedule that seem tightly woven into their moral and civil structure. There is another city named Argelo that seems in many ways to be less structured and more chaotic; though this might be tempered by a perception of Xiosphant in comparison. At one time the two cities traded goods; however that seems to have been back before Xiosphant began governing by circadian rhythms.

Now there are smugglers who risk the perilous journey between the two cities to trade items of value that each city used to trade freely. Mouth is one of those who make that trek and was once a member of a group who lived in the dangerous outside world that teeters between hot and cold on the edge of a world half frozen and half on fire.

This is very much the story of these settlers, though that falls short of the mark because it is also very much the story of the frightening creatures that were already on this world when the interlopers arrived.

There were many moments when my mind would try to draw comparisons between this rich world and Frank Herbert’s Dune. And even a temptation to try to make a comparison to Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. Thankfully the author’s voice rose above all that and inserted itself to remind me that this is the story of January and its inhabitants. Where often I felt both Dune and The Left Hand of Darkness were mostly stories of man against the elements, the story of the City in the Middle of the Night felt more one of the people.

I don’t often quote authors, however if I were to try to describe the main theme of this book I might borrow from the authors words.
‘Mouth would never forgive the Gelet for what they had done, but she could understand it. You might mistake understanding for forgiveness, but if you did, then the unforgiven wrong would catch you off guard, like a cramp, just as you reach for generosity.’

Sophie’s journey was going to take her and Mouth and many more to a place of self discovery and the understanding that there is another city and another people on this planet and there are far more urgent problems than their own that must be faced if everyone wants to survive.

This novel ends with less of an ending and enough room for reader interpretation and also enough room for the author to further visit the world and its inhabitants.

Most of all, for me, this novel has gotten me to wondering what I will find more about the author when I pick up her All The Bird In The Sky.

J.L.D.



View all my reviews