Blackfish City by Sam J Miller

Blackfish City by Sam J Miller

"One of the most intriguing future cities in years." --Charlie Jane Anders

"Simmers with menace and heartache, suspense and wonder." --Ann Leckie

After the climate wars, a floating city is constructed in the Arctic Circle, a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering, complete with geothermal heating and sustainable energy. The city's denizens have become accustomed to a roughshod new way of living, however, the city is starting to fray along the edges--crime and corruption have set in, the contradictions of incredible wealth alongside direst poverty are spawning unrest, and a new disease called "the breaks" is ravaging the population.

When a strange new visitor arrives--a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side--the city is entranced. The "orcamancer," as she's known, very subtly brings together four people--each living on the periphery--to stage unprecedented acts of resistance. By banding together to save their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay, they will learn shocking truths about themselves. 

Blackfish City is a remarkably urgent--and ultimately very hopeful--novel about political corruption, organized crime, technology run amok, the consequences of climate change, gender identity, and the unifying power of human connection. 

Sam J. Miller was raised in a small hamlet in upstate New York and now lives in New York City. He comes from a long history of butchers. He's also worked as a film critic, a grocery bagger, a community organizer, a secretary, a painter's assistant and model, and a guitarist in a punk rock band, in no particular sequence. His work has been nominated for the Nebula Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award, as well as being on the Hugo Award longlist and winning the Shirley Jackson Award. He is a Clarion Writers Workshop graduate.

His fifteen-year-husband is a nurse practitioner who is far sharper and more attractive than Sam. Sam J Miller's website is www.SamJMiller.com.