Sky City: The Rise of an Orphan Part 1

**Winner of Wattpad's: Watty 2014 - People's Choice Award for Science Fiction** 'My name is Arturo Basilides. I am an orphan living in the slums of Medio City – the capital of a nation ravaged by a war which was won by extremists. Offered a choice between slavery and disenfranchisement, we exist in an underclass so disconnected we effectively inhabit a different era. Daily life involves scavenging, theft and substance abuse with a bunch of misfits who are somehow still in one piece after years of abandonment. I am a natural born fighter and although I despise warfare, I must witness the downfall of those bastard elites whilst fulfilling my romantic intentions with the forever unattainable girl of my dreams.' Sky City is a biopunk adventure set in a world where science is indistinguishable from magic and oppression is near-inescapable. Technology has created a newer, 'superior' form of human and genetically engineered monstrosities are as terrifying as anything encountered in your nightmares. The underclass have been underestimated and as they fight back the boundary between freedom fighter and terrorist becomes increasingly blurred. Meanwhile, the drug-induced haze of a traumatised mind places a question mark over the meaning of reality. 'Sky City: The Rise of an Orphan interweaves heavy social issues and philosophy without ever sounding pedantic, milking the sci-fi genre for all its worth. The slum dog's efforts to maintain their humanity in such a heartless age, when everything is going against them is so palpable. The 99% versus 1% theme focuses our minds on where society might be heading and forces us to look at things how they are, if we wish them to be truly different.' Dean C. Moore – Author of Renaissance 2.0