Book Review: City in the Middle of the Night

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

One of the enticing things about science fiction is that it lets the writer explore fundamental questions, such as: What is the nature of time?


The Earthly emigrants in this imaginative novel have moved to January, a world far away that is tidally locked to its sun. Thus, it has two sides -- one facing away from the sun, in eternal darkness and cold, and the other always facing the sun, in blistering heat and everlasting, blinding light. The human settlers have found the middle ground, literally -- they have conquered what for them is the thin habitable zone between the two extremes, and founded two diverse cities.

This leads to one of the basic conflicts in the book: Is it better to enforce an artificial time of day and night -- forcing the residents to move inside, close the shutters, and sleep for designated period -- or have limitless outdoor activities and allow people to find their own sleep cycles without any help from nature?

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Things you should know:

• Argelo: One of the two major cities on January.
• Ankle skirts. Skirt-like bits of fabric women wear around the ankles. Never explained. Weird.
• Gelet: Known colloquially -- and insultingly -- as crocodiles, an intelligent, native species who live on the dark side of the planet and have amazing talents.
• Light sickness: An illness -- similar to migraine headaches -- that some people get when exposed for too long to the bright side of the planet.
• Mothership: It brought humans from Earth to January.
• Sea of Murder: A dangerous ocean one must cross to travel between the two cities.
• Shadow jumping: A children's game in which players attempt to jump from shadow to shadow, never exposing themselves to the full sun. If you're good, you can play it with your eyes closed, because without the sun rising and setting, the shadows never change.
• Xiosphant: Another of the two major cities on January.
• Young Father, Old Mother: Mountain ranges around Xiosphant that separate the habitable zone from the light side and dark side of the planet.

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Another strength of science fiction is that it's a great way to use space exploration, encountering new worlds and life forms, as metaphors for life on earth. Often, as is the case here, those metaphors are not subtle. Anders uses her new world and the humans who inhabit it as sort of a second chance to fix the problems that forced them to leave earth, which are hinted at but never explained. Suffice to say that several generations traveled through space to reach January, and they tried to use the time  to unify themselves into a cohesive group.

But once on January, they went their separate ways, moving to and creating different forms of society in the two cities and the lands between them. She explores how the humans interact with and affect the native flora and fauna, which becomes another major story arc. She has one character note that whenever two intelligent species interact, one winds up dominating the other.

Even if that is inevitable, it's not always deliberate; sometimes, it's just a matter of not knowing -- or recognizing -- the full consequences of one's actions.

The story is told by two of its major characters. But though each has a specific role and point of view, this method allows for varying perspectives as we alternatively follow each character's narrative. It's a heavily feminist book, with most of the main characters female, and it contains hints of a variety of sexual orientations, none of which appears to cause any problems or dissents.

Overall, it is an interesting if uneven tale. It takes awhile to get into the new world, some of which is left unexplained. But the story is well done, and the writing is concise and colorful. The one thing  I would have loved to see is a map of January and its cities, which would have gone a long way toward making the world easier to understand.