genre: climate fiction
Adam knows the climate crisis is coming - as a scientist, he knows the signs. His wife, Ellie, is an artist and while she cares in theory, she's more interested in pondering her latest biology-focused art installment than about things she can't change. It isn't long, though, until no one can look away from what's happening to the planet and in this novel that's more several loosely-tied-together short stories, everyone is going to be affected by the consequences.
As far as climate speculative fiction goes, this feels very believable. We only get glimpses of what's happening in each time period as we switch between stories/narrators/generations - but always in a chronological sequence. The vague-ness is occasionally interrupted by an actual crisis that the characters have to manage - but the character development is also so loose and vague that it's even hard to keep track of things. Oh, I did want to mention though that there is one character of the spectrum that I thought was handled in a very intentional and sensitive way, I liked being in his head, but I honestly can hardly even remember anyone else's name and I just finished it.
There is something that happens halfway through the book that made me scramble to see when it was written - and I was shocked. The author has made some really solid assumptions about not just what could happen to our planet but also how we humans would handle it. I suppose, for me, the redemption in this book is that somehow we humans DO handle it - we are still around, trying to survive, on this only rock that can sustain us.
Interesting, but without the depth and character development that would make it stick in my memory.
No comments:
Post a Comment