With the growing threat of climate change, readers will find an increased number of books portraying a terrifying future, one where the Earth has become a toxic and inhospitable wasteland. While these landscapes may seem dismal, the heart of many of these stories focuses on the resiliency of the human spirit.
Whether their salvation lies underground, in space or on floating cities, the characters in these seven books hold out hope for a brighter tomorrow — and remind us that our actions today can change our future.
The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins
Born after the climate crisis, Emi Vargas believes she lives in a utopia — which her parents, Kristina and Larch, helped to shape 30 years ago when they fought on the frontlines of The Great Transition. But when Kristina disappears as a possible suspect in the public assassination of a dozen climate criminals, Emi’s world is turned upside down. Alternating between Emi’s desperate search for her mother and a heart-stopping account of her parents’ experiences during The Great Transition, this novel beautifully shows how our actions today determine our fate tomorrow.
The Burning Years by Felicity Harley
Since The Burning Years, the remnants of civilization have moved into expansive (yet isolated) underground communities. After Sophie dismantles the world’s weather modification program to stop its harmful effects on the atmosphere, she and her husband Peter flee with his highly sought-after creations — the first successful male and female cyborgs. But the elite rulers will stop at nothing to get them back, for they hold the secrets to humanity’s future. Meanwhile, the worldship Persephone heads to Proxima Centauri to build a better world than the one they left behind. (Check out the BookTrib author interview and review here.)
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind manga series by Hayao Miyazaki
Years after humanity set off a cataclysmic ecological disaster, the Earth is slowly consumed by the Sea of Corruption — a toxic forest filled with mutant insects and spores that release poisonous miasma into the air. At the edge of the sea lies the Valley of the Wind, home to a young princess, Nausicaä, who has an empathic bond with the giant insects and other animals. Among their warring empires, she risks everything to save her people — and bring peace and health to all. Read the classic manga series and check out the Studio Ghibli movie!
The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
In small-town Florida, Wanda Lowe is named after the devastating storm she was born into. Her electrician father, Kirby, and one of their neighbors do their best to stay rooted in their hometown, rebuilding and adapting for years to ride out the ongoing tropical storms. When keeping the lights on becomes impossible, and the state decides to shut off all services and evacuate the residents and workers, the Lowes and their neighbors have to make a decision to abandon their homes or stay and live off the land. (Check out BookTrib’s repost of the Book Nation by Jen review.)
Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller
After the climate wars, humanity fled to a floating city-island in the Arctic Circle. It may be a remarkable feat of mechanical and social engineering, but it’s begun fraying at the edges with widespread corruption and crime, and the growing division between wealth and poverty. When a woman arrives riding an orca, with a polar bear by her side, the downtrodden citizens become entranced. The “orcamancer” subtly brings together four people living on the edges of society, staging unprecedented acts of resistance and saving their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay.
The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard
By 2145, solar radiation and global warming have melted the ice caps, and Triassic-era jungles have overrun a submerged and tropical London. In this terrifying future, biologist Robert Kerans and his team of scientists confront a surreal cityscape populated by giant iguanas, albino alligators, and endless swarms of malarial insects. Nature has swallowed all but a few remnants of human civilization, and slowly, Kearns and his companions are transformed ― both physically and psychologically ― by this prehistoric environment.
So Long Earth by Michael Bienenstock
Scientist Dr. Tom Burns is done with waiting. He has evaluated the catastrophic climate situation and concluded the only action left to save the human race and “enjoy a full life” would be to leave Earth behind. Ditching his high-level job in the aerospace industry, Burns takes on the complex and decades-long task of overseeing a massive project of his own initiative — designing and building a spaceship capable of carrying 1,000 crew and passengers on a pilgrimage to the nearest star system, Alpha Centauri. (Check out the BookTrib review here.)
