Cities at Sea

About the Book

Cities at Sea is a story set a couple of thousand years from now. Land-based civilization collapsed long ago as a result of climate change, flooding and impoverishment of soils, wars, and other causes. Knowing that about three quarters of the globe is covered by the sea, all the major coastal cities of the globe saved themselves by moving onto the oceans, developing gigantic, highly sophisticated, entirely self-sufficient rafts on which they now navigate at will. Life is easy in the raft cities for those who conform but is strictly disciplined under constant surveillance.

Sal is a restless young woman who longs for something exciting. She imagines a more intimate connection with the sea and its creatures. She seeks help from a renowned genetic scientist. This leads to extraordinary adventures and changes in her and the city where she now lives. The story ends as a new era begins.

About the Author

Martin Simons was born in Derbyshire, England, in 1930. After national service in the RAF, he trained as a teacher at Borough Road and Goldsmiths Colleges. While teaching full-time, in the evenings, he studied geography with ancillary geology at Birkbeck College, London University. He graduated with first-class honours in 1959 and subsequently became a university lecturer in London and Adelaide. He completed masters’ degrees in education and in philosophy.

He has had lifelong interests in education, philosophy, aeronautics, especially the sport of gliding, and has written extensively about these and other subjects.

In 1954, he married Jean, and they had two daughters, Patricia and Margaret. The family moved to Adelaide in 1968. After fifty happy years, Jean died of pancreatic cancer in 2005. Since then he has lived alone in suburban Melbourne but remains fully engaged with his writing and other activities.

In recent years, while continuing to fly and write nonfiction, he has written three very unusual novels, Jenny Rat, Cities at Sea, and The Glass Ship.