Cli-fi, or climate fiction, is a genre that explores the impact of climate change on people and the world we live in. While the genre can often be dystopian in setting, taking a dark look at the future that awaits, it can also be hopeful and uplifting.
Climate change is a topic that isn’t going away any time soon, and the genre is already packed with great titles. With that in mind, let’s take a look at five novels to get you started reading about our potential climate futures.
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A lack of water is a long-running plot point in science fiction, but it has never felt more possible, especially in the American Southwest, where this book takes place. As the Colorado River dries up, parts of the country become uninhabitable, while others fight for water rights. Cities even go so far as to sabotage the water supply of other cities using “water knives,” who will do anything to complete their mission.
The Water Knife features deep research into the topics at hand, but is ultimately a neo-noir thriller that fully lives up to the genre. Rumours of a new water source send the main characters on their quest to uncover or control it, by any means necessary.
There is no alien virus or supernatural creatures here. Just a lack of water and the possibility of what that might do to a society. It’s not pretty, and that’s the point.
Road Out of Winter by Alison Stine (2020)
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We go from the desert in our last book to the complete opposite in this one: the cold, never-ending winter. Despite the disparate setting, the message remains the same: the world is changing, and we need to adapt quickly.
The story follows Wylodine, a member of a family of illegal marijuana growers in Appalachian Ohio. She depends on growing for her survival, but when winter fails to end for the second year in a row, she knows it’s time to head west.
The road out won’t be easy, with desperate people everywhere and danger lurking not just around every corner but all around her. Compared favourably to The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Road Out of Winter won the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award.
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner (1972)
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Climate fiction is considered a somewhat new genre, with most of these books written in the past ten years, but the genre, like the problems it covers, is not new and has been written about extensively in the past.
One of the best examples of this is the 1972 Nebula Award winner for Best Novel, The Sheep Look Up. The novel takes place in a very near future where rampant consumerism and pollution have destroyed the environment in the United States. Water is undrinkable, the oceans are poisoned beyond recovery, many animals are on the brink of extinction, and the government is indifferent to the problems, resorting to martial law to silence its critics.
Again, this was written in the 1970s.
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One thing that is sometimes missing from this genre is hope. The problems and consequences of inaction are serious, but writing about how bad things might be for the sake of it can feel helpless and hopeless, bordering on nihilistic.
The Ministry for the Future takes place in a near future (or past, as of this writing), where instead of being hopeless, the world decides to be proactive. The Ministry for the Future is created to advocate for the world’s future citizens, treating their rights as equal to our own.
From carbon quantitative easing to slowing basal sliding, the book throws a lot of information at you in Stanley Robinson’s optimistic view of a positive climate future.
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The novels of Barbara Kingsolver never do just one thing, and that is the case here as well, but climate change is a big part of this one and more than deserving to be on this list.
This isn’t a story of torrential floods or devastating heatwaves. It is simply the story of butterflies who find themselves where they aren’t supposed to be. While some people find this beautiful, even miraculous, the truth is that the butterflies being in Appalachia is a symptom of global climate change.
Kingsolver attacks this complex topic by making it small and domestic while never forgetting the big picture.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vince is the Entertainment Editor at Book Notification. His first book was Green Eggs & Ham by Dr. Seuss, and his passion for reading took off from there. He'll read just about anything, but can usually be found re-reading his favorite Pynchon novels and Seattle Mariners box scores.