Tomorrow's World
SciFiNow|Issue 144

Author Sam J Miller tells us about the blend that is his stunning floating dystopia Blackfi sh City

Jonathan Hatfull
Tomorrow's World

The world hasn’t quite ended in Blackfish City, it’s just been forced to adjust. After massive climate change and bloody conflicts, humanity has moved onto the water, and Sam J Miller’s debut novel plunges us into Qaanaaq, a floating metropolis where class divisions are alive and well. When a mysterious woman arrives who seems to be psychically linked to her orca and polar bear companions, a seemingly disparate group of people – disillusioned politician’s assistant Ankit, mentally unstable fighter Kaev, ambitious non-binary delivery person Soq and morose, terminally ill rich kid Fill – find their lives beginning to intertwine with hers…

What came first, the city or the orca?

The orca! Killer whales are amazing, and after I used them in my story Last Gods, I knew I had to spend more time with them... and what better way than to have a terrifyingly powerful woman who is emotionally bonded with an orca? When we sold Blackfish City, I got an orca tattoo in the hopes that some of their badass-ness and intelligence will rub off on me.

Was Blackfish City something that you’d had in your head for a while?

This story is from the Issue 144 edition of SciFiNow.

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This story is from the Issue 144 edition of SciFiNow.

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