ancient, half-derelict cyborg, the Godwhale of the title. This enormous 'rake' is an ocean-going biota harvester built in part from a genetically modified blue whale. Initially attempting to rejoin human civilization, the Godwhale (named Rorqual Maru or 'Whale Ship' in Japanese), along with its class six companion cyber, Iron Trilobite, eventually teams up with a genetically modified clone of Larry, ARNOLD (Augmented Renal Nucleus of Larry Dever) Larry himself, and an assortment of misfits and refugees from the Hive. Together they set out to try to find out what mysteriously brings the marine biota back to the previously sterile oceans, while a tiny group from the Hive, the outcasts, and their cyber deities survive and thrive in the face of incredible bungling by the 'Class One' computer that manages humanity and the various castes of 'Nebish' humans brought into the fight. Reception The Godwhale was a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1974. Lester del Rey described The Godwhale as "a complex and fascinating novel [and] a fine example of what science fiction is all about." Writing in The New York Times, Theodore Sturgeon simply declared the novel "Good." James Nicoll, conversely, called it "not a good novel", with "characters (who) are thin when they're not implausible", but nonetheless praised it as "a vivid attempt to imagine how a world with trillions of humans might work". References 1974 American novels 1974 science fiction novels American biopunk novels Ballantine Books books Fiction set around Procyon Novels about genetic engineering Overpopulation fiction Novels about artificial intelligence Cyborgs in literature Novels about cloning Dystopian novels Fiction about whales Underwater civilizations in fiction Underwater novels Transhumanist books