Blackfish City

Abstract

In the near future, a climate crisis has changed the Earth drastically, with massive floods that render most continents uninhabitable. The upper social classes have, however, established massive floating cities in the Arctic Circle, while poorer people, as refugees, try to reach them in order to survive. These well engineered cities are scientifically and technologically advanced, with extraordinary innovations that allow people, for example, to have access to instant translating systems or a telephone via nanotechnology implanted in their jaw. Blackfish City not only lets the reader delve into these carefully constructed cities, but also introduces several characters, one of these being the “orcamancer”, a mysterious woman who arrives in one of these cities, and who is nano-bonded to a killer whale. The novel explores the effects of climate change and the limits of technology, not only in the creation of intricate and advanced devices, but also on its capacity to manipulate and shape human-to-animal emotional connections.