More like Antarctica
anchored on:science fictionour worldarctic & antarcticanear futureecological collapseinformative+1 more
but
- The Drowned World
J. G. Ballardstandalone novel1962
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsereflectivesurvival
The Drowned World is a 1962 science fiction novel by J. G. Ballard. It first appeared in shortened form in the January 1962 issue of the UK edition of Science Fiction Adventures and was published in book form later that year by Victor Gollancz Ltd in London; an American edition followed from Berkley Medallion. Critics have grouped The Drowned World with Ballard's early science-fiction novels as part of an "ambiguous apocalypse" sequence that also includes The Drought and The Crystal World, from the period in which he was developing the ideas he described as "inner space". Set in a future in which solar radiation has melted the polar ice caps and transformed London into a flooded tropical lagoon, the novel follows biologist Robert Kerans as he becomes increasingly drawn toward the altered environment rather than toward restoring the old social order.
- The Ministry for the Future
Kim Stanley Robinsonstandalone novel2020
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsesurvivalpolitical intrigueour world+1 more
The Ministry for the Future is a climate fiction novel by American science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 2020. Set in the near future, the novel follows a subsidiary body, established under the Paris Agreement, whose mission is to act as an advocate for the world's future generations of citizens as if their rights were as valid as the present generation's. While the ministry pursues various ambitious projects, the effects of climate change are determined to be the most consequential. The plot primarily follows Mary Murphy, the head of the titular Ministry for the Future, and Frank May, an American aid worker traumatized by experiencing a deadly heat wave in India. Many chapters are devoted to other characters' accounts of future events, as well as their ideas about ecology, economics, and other subjects.
- New York 2140
Kim Stanley Robinsonstandalone novel2017
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsereflectivepolitical intrigue+1 more
New York 2140 is a 2017 climate fiction novel by American science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson. The novel is set in a New York City that has been flooded and altered by rising water.
- Mother of Storms
John Barnesstandalone novel1994
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsesurvivalpolitical intrigueour world+1 more
From the flaps of the Tor first edition: "It is 2028. A strike to destroy an illegal Arctic weapons cache has a catastrophic side effect. Massive amounts of energy are liberated from the polar ice, suddenly warming the Earth's climate. In the middle of the Pacific, a gigantic hurricane thousands of miles across is forming, larger than any in human history. A storm with winds of supersonic speed. A storm that changes direction at whim. A storm that refuses to die. A storm so vast it spawns dozens more in its wake... Blinded by intrigue, expedience, and greed, the world's politicians and power brokers have ignored the killer storms threat until it is too late. Already the death toll is in the tens of millions, as it savages the Pacific coast, while its devil's brood of smaller storms are wreaking havoc across the face of the planet. While the survivors scramble for advantage, a handful of courageous men and women undertake a daring, desperate plan to save humanity from total destruction - a plan so visionary it may alter forever the future of the human race."
- Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
Kate Wilhelmstandalone novel1976
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsesurvivalour world+1 more
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang is a science fiction novel by American writer Kate Wilhelm, published in 1976. The novel is composed of three parts, "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang," "Shenandoah," and "At the Still Point," and is set in a post-apocalyptic era, a concept popular among authors who took part in the New Wave Science Fiction movement in the 1960s.
- Earth
David Brinstandalone novel1990
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapseinformativeour world
Earth is a 1990 science fiction novel by American writer David Brin. The book was nominated for the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1991.
- Juniper Time
Kate Wilhelmstandalone novel1979
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsereflectivesurvival+1 more
From back cover of Pocket Books paperback, June 1980: In a world now ravaged by drought and famine. Jean Brighton and Arthur Cluny grew up in the limelight, children of space pioneers who built the orbiting space laboratory. Now Arthur carried on his father's work at the lab. But Jean fled into isolation, harboring a hatred for the space station and the intrigue that surrounded it. How could she know that in her desert solitude she would hold the key to the future of the space station she so desperately wanted to forget... that for a moment international peace would rest in her hands... or that Arthur would come to wrest from her a secret she would rather not face, a secret that could return the world to... JUNIPER TIME?
- Termination Shock
Neal Stephensonstandalone novel2021
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsepolitical intrigueour world+1 more
Termination Shock is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson, published in 2021. The book is set in a near-future when climate change has significantly altered human society and follows the attempts of a solar geoengineering scheme. The novel focuses on the geopolitical and social consequences of the rogue fix for climate change, themes common in the growing climate fiction genre.
- The Last Gasp
Trevor Hoylestandalone novel1983
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsesurvivalour worldarctic & antarctica+1 more
From the flaps of the Crown first edition: "When British marine biologist Gavin Chase stepped out into the windswept wastes at the Halley Bay antarctic research station one morning, the last thing he expected to see was a sled team coming out of nowhere carrying a half-mad, half-frozen Russian scientist babbling an incomprehensible warning. But that warning would threaten the future of the human race and force Chase to make some of the hardest decisions of his life. Months later, at a Geneva environmental conference, Chase meets Cheryl Detrick, the daughter of Theo Detrick, the grand old man of diatom research. Chase, the Detricks, and Soviet scientist Boris Stanovnik theorize that the oxygen-producing microscopic plants of the world's oceans are dying and the level of atmospheric pollutants has finally exceeded the ability of the planet's ecology to recycle them. There is also good reason to believe that the superpowers are planning to wage a new type of environmental warfare. Sooner or later there will be nothing left to breathe. So begins a race against the future. Chase and Cheryl, now lovers, struggle to avert ecological catastrophe as agents of the military-industrial complex hunt them down... and as a growing belt of unbreathable gases spreads outward from the equator, uprooting millions. Their enemies are Lloyd Madden, an insane military mastermind planning to seed the earth with poison and then repopulate it with a race of mutants, and Joseph Earl Gelstrom, a wealthy chemical manufacturer who has Cheryl's father killed to hide his involvement. But Gelstrom himself falls victim to pollution sickness, and he repents. To raise money to finance a research team, Chase must make an unholy alliance with the dying Gelstrom, but this is too much for Cheryl, who leaves him. As more and more of the world becomes uninhabitable, as industries and governments collapse and chaos reigns, as the oceans fill up with dioxin, as the climate changes and mutant life-forms encroach upon the last refuges of humankind, Chase leads a last desperate mission to find and rescue Cheryl and to lead his team of scientists to safety."
- Science in the Capital
series5 books2004
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsepolitical intrigue+2 more
Kim Stanley Robinson's Science in the Capital trilogy follows scientists and staff at the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C. as they try to get a paralyzed government to act on accelerating climate change, while catastrophic storms on both American coasts turn the crisis undeniable. Forty Signs of Rain introduces biomathematician Frank Vanderwal, the Quibler family, and a delegation of Buddhist monks from a low-lying island nation threatened by rising seas; Fifty Degrees Below and Sixty Days and Counting follow the same characters through worsening disaster and the slow mechanics of policy change. Robinson later revised the trilogy into a single volume, Green Earth.
- How High We Go in the Dark
Sequoia Nagamatsustandalone novel2022
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapseour worldarctic & antarctica+1 more
(Robin MacArthur, in Scientific American): "[A] dystopian narrative set in the near future about an ancient virus that is uncovered by a scientist ... while she is researching melting permafrost in the Arctic."
- Make Room! Make Room!
Harry Harrisonstandalone novel1966
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsesurvivalour world
Make Room! Make Room! is a 1966 science fiction novel written by Harry Harrison exploring the consequences of both unchecked population growth on society and the hoarding of resources by a wealthy minority. It was originally serialized in Impulse magazine.
- The Ghost from the Grand Banks
Arthur C. Clarkestandalone novel1990
similar byscience fictionnear futurereflectivesurvivalour world+1 more
As the centennial of the Titanic's sinking approaches in 2012, two rival teams race to be the ones who raise a piece of the wreck from the floor of the Atlantic, one betting on brute engineering, the other on a wilder, more mathematical approach rooted in fractal geometry. Clarke weaves in a fictional newspaper editorial warning against disturbing the wreck at all, framing the expeditions as a test of the very hubris that sank the ship in the first place. A late Clarke novel that trades space opera for the ocean floor, with a running fascination with the Mandelbrot set along for the ride.
- Generation A
Douglas Couplandstandalone novel2009
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsereflectiveour world
In the near future bees are extinct — until one autumn when five people are stung in different places around the world. This shared experience unites them in a way they never could have imagined.
- Greybeard
Brian W. Aldissstandalone novel1964
similar byscience fictionnear futurereflectivesurvivalour world
Long after a catastrophe that has sterilized humans and most other mammals, the 54-year-old protagonists—Greybeard and Martha—take a tour of entropic England. In scattered self contained communities only the old survive, while outside these enclaves nature comes back into its own, peopling the land with new animal life.
- The Coming
Joe Haldemanstandalone novel2000
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsepolitical intrigueour world+1 more
An astronomy professor in Florida in a mid-21st century suffering from climate change and international hostilities detects an apparent interstellar vehicle headed directly for earth at near light speed but decelerating dramatically; it transmits the message "We're coming". The effect this discovery has on her, those close to her, and the surrounding circles of contacts is followed, as the impending event plays out on the larger stage of national and international affairs until it comes to an unpredictable ending. The dedication page says in part "The author gratefully acknowledges the influence of James Gunn's beautiful novel The Listeners, on this book."
- Childhood's End
Arthur C. Clarkestandalone novel1953
similar byscience fictionnear futurereflectiveour world
Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows a peaceful alien invasion of Earth by mysterious Overlords, whose arrival begins decades of apparent utopia under indirect alien rule, at the cost of human identity and culture.
- The Lost Cause
series2 books2023
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsereflectivepolitical intrigueour world
- This Is the Way the World Ends
James Morrowstandalone novel1986
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsesurvivalour world+1 more
This Is the Way the World Ends is a post-apocalyptic novel by American writer James K. Morrow, published in 1986.
- Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandelstandalone novel2014
similar byscience fictionnear futurereflectivesurvivalour world
"Set in the days of civilization's collapse, Station Eleven tells the story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity. One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of King Lear. Hours later, the world as we know it begins to dissolve. Moving back and forth in time — from the actor's early days as a film star to fifteen years in the future, when a theater troupe known as the Traveling Symphony roams the wasteland of what remains — this suspenseful, elegiac, spellbinding novel charts the strange twists of fate that connect five people: the actor, the man who tried to save him, the actor's first wife, his oldest friend, and a young actress with the Traveling Symphony, caught in the crosshairs of a dangerous self-proclaimed prophet." (source: Goodreads.com)
- The Water Knife
Paolo Bacigalupistandalone novel2015
similar byscience fictionnear futureecological collapsesurvival+1 more
The Water Knife is a 2015 science fiction novel by Paolo Bacigalupi. It is Bacigalupi's sixth novel, and is based on his short story, The Tamarisk Hunter, first published in the news magazine High Country News. It takes place in the near future, where drought brought on by climate change has devastated the Southwestern United States.
- The Black Cloud
Fred Hoylestandalone novel1957
similar byscience fictionsurvivalour world+3 more
The Black Cloud is a 1957 science fiction novel by British astrophysicist Fred Hoyle. It details the arrival of an enormous cloud of gas that enters the Solar System and appears about to destroy most of the life on Earth by blocking the Sun's radiation.
- Stranger in a Strange Land
Robert A. Heinleinstandalone novel1961
similar byscience fictionnear futurereflectiveour world
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by the American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians, and explores his interaction with and eventual transformation of Terran culture.
- Earth Abides
George R. Stewartstandalone novel1949
similar byscience fictionecological collapsereflectivesurvival
The novel tells the story of the fall of civilization from deadly disease and the emergence of a new culture with simpler tools. Set in the 1940s in Berkeley, California, the story is told by Isherwood Williams, who emerges from isolation in the mountains to find almost everyone dead. en.wikipedia.org
