Awake in the Floating City

[psocoptera]

Awake in the Floating City, Susanna Kwan, 2025 novel. Near-future science fiction about life in the skyscrapers of a drowned San Francisco, an artist who has lost touch with art, and a supercentenarian in need of an aide and caregiver. This is quiet, small, slow, literary SF - the setting is reminiscent of KSR's New York 2140 but the actual story and feel are much more like Rebecca Campbell's Arboreality. I liked it a lot; I thought the interweaving of real history (especially re the Chinese-American experience, which both main characters are) and possible future history was done well, and while "art about art" can be hit or miss for me, I thought Kwan did a good job of making the art in the book engaging, and I liked seeing a "retreat to the North" scenario only from the distant edges, thinking about who might stay behind or be left behind and why.

I have a couple of spoilery content notes I think some people might want to know: there is a sudden traumatic loss of a parent before the story begins, and there are detailed scenes of aging and decline culminating in death as a core part of the book.