Speculative

A Diary in the Age of Water, Nina Munteanu

Reviewed by Mary Woodbury Nina Munteanu’s newest novel, A Diary in the Age of Water, deftly follows four generations of women fighting for—and exploring scientifically, spiritually, poetically, and philosophically—water. Lynna’s mother Una and daughter Hilde understand water scientifically, but Hilde, influenced by her love-of-life Hanna, often dips into pseudoscience, which […]

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Heart Wood, Shirley DicKard

Complete title: Heart Wood — Four Women, for the Earth, for the Future Heart Wood is a compelling family saga set in the foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada. Its characters shift from one generation to the next, as do the struggles they face in saving their homestead from the ravages […]

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Tales of Two Planets, John Freeman

Though not a book of just fiction, editor John Freeman compiled poetry, short fiction, and essays from some of the world’s best creative voices on the subject of climate change and inequality. Galvanized by his conversations with writers and activists around the world, Freeman engaged with some of today’s most […]

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The Ministry for the Future, Kim Stanley Robinson

From the visionary, New York Times bestselling author of New York 2140 comes a near-future novel that is a gripping exploration of climate change, technology, politics, and the human behaviors that drive these forces. Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads

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Bridge 108, Anne Charnock

Bridge 108 is a “disturbing, near-future novel” about a young climate refugee who is trafficked into slavery in the north of England. It is described by Such as “a warm yet deeply heart-rending story about a boy who is too trusting and inevitably falls prey to malevolent forces on his long […]

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Wolfe Island, Lucy Treloar

Part western, part lament for a disappearing world, Wolfe Island (set off the northeast coast of the US) is a transporting novel that explores connection and isolation and the ways lives and families shatter and are remade. Goodreads Reviews Back to GoodReads

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The Black Dwarves of the Good Little Bay, Varun Thomas Mathew

The sea has invaded its boundaries, and its inhabitants reside in a towering structure called the Bombadrome, which hovers above the barren land. Theirs is an artificially equated society; they lead technologically directed lives; they have no memory of the past. They don’t remember that this place was once called […]

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Lagoon, Nnedi Okorafor

This is about Nigeria. Lagos Nigeria. It is about the people who live there and the culture and language that has arisen there from time immemorial, being created, generation after generation, as the evolution of any group. It is about the sea, about the animals and creatures, great and small, […]

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Tentacle, Rita Indiana

Rita Indiana’s Tentacle (originally published in Spanish as La mucama de Omicunlé) is a speculative text that has as much to say about the future as it does about the present. While the novel is set in the Dominican Republic in the year 2037, it is as much a commentary on the […]

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FKA USA, Reed King

WB buys rights to new dystopia series, FKA USA, that imagines a fallen United States after climate change and “the final president.” –Den of Geek Reed King’s amazingly audacious novel is something of a cross between L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, Douglas Adams’s A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the […]

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Voice of the Elders, Greg Ripley

In the near future, the ravages of a warming planet have worsened, driving a new era of climate refugees. Rohini Haakonsen, a young Indian-American woman, attends a UN conference on the problem when humanoid aliens materialize. Known as the Elders, the aliens present themselves as benign, even offering to help […]

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Glass and Gardens, Solarpunk Summers, Sarena Ulibarri et al.

Solarpunk is a type of optimistic science fiction that imagines a future founded on renewable energies. The seventeen stories in this volume are not dull utopias—they grapple with real issues such as the future and ethics of our food sources, the connection between technology and nature, and the interpersonal conflicts […]

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Stealing Air, Ralph Walker

Stealing Air is the second in the Rising Waters Series of near future short stories. Similar to Black Mirror or Close Encounters before it, this episodic anthology follows everyday characters into a world challenged by accelerating technology and inevitable climate change. Each story stands alone, but together they paint a […]

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The Devil’s Highway, Gregory Norminton

An ancient route links Britain’s deep past and far future in an ecologically aware tale spanning thousands of years –The Guardian Spanning centuries, and combining elements of historical and speculative fiction with the narrative drive of pure thriller, this is a breathtakingly original novel that challenges our dearly held assumptions […]

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