Sam J. Miller’s short stories have been nominated for the Nebula, World Fantasy, Sturgeon, and Locus Awards. His debut novel The Art of Starving (2017), a YA tale about a boy who discovers that starving gives him superpowers, was nominated for the Andre Norton Award, and was an honorable mention for the 2017 Tiptree Award. John DeNardo selected it as one of the Best Bets for SF, Fantasy and Horror in July. His new novel Blackfish City is one of the most anticipated SF books of the year. It arrived in hardcover this week.

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.

Blackfish City was published by Ecco on April 17, 2018. It is 336 pages, priced at $22.99 in hardcover, and $11.99 in digital formats. The cover was designed by Will Staehle. Read a sample chapter at the Orbit Books website.