9 Climate Apocalypse Novels to Take Your Mind Off the Coronavirus Disaster

I spend all day reading ( and writing ) the news . So when I log off , I do n’t want to read any non - fiction . I need to retreat to the populace of fiction , but that does n’t mean I want to bury about the climate crisis .

In fact , skill fabrication that focuses on climate change — dubbed cli - fi — is my sheer favourite case of novel . And even amid the coronavirus pandemic , I ’m constantly remember about the clime crisis . Maybe I ’m a fiddling perverted , but escaping our current terrific reality for another dystopian one set in the future is how I like to spend my eventide . If that sounds like your idea of a honorable time , too , here are some books ( from newest to older ) that proffer a glimpse of what could await humankind if domain loss leader continue to do dead nothing about climate change .

The End of the Ocean by Maja Lunde

This is a book I have n’t yet read , but the assumption is beyond fascinating . Written by best - sell author Maja Lunde , The End of the Oceantakes place in 2041 with Southern Europe in the throe of a drought .

A father and daughter flee in hunting of their category when they key out a wear - out sailing boat fill up with its possessor ’s personal belongings from 2019 . It show the ways our life history are interconnected across clock time and space , especially amid the mood crisis .

Gun Island by Amitav Ghosh

A phantasmagoric tale of migration and ecological collapse , Gun Islandtakes some of the crisis Earth faces today — from stranded heavyweight to the movement of man in hunting of somewhere safer — and employ it all to distinguish the story of a Bengali - American uncommon Holy Scripture dealer in Brooklyn . It ’s a fabricated narrative for sure with heavy themes of folklore and the supernatural , but many of the existent - worldly concern topic we ’re facing make an appearance , too .

I have n’t yet understand this book , but Earther ’s Dharna Noor is learn it and a fan .

Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

If someone ’s going to compose about a climate change - caused drought , they ’d be foolish to push aside California . The state of matter is a poster child forweather whiplashdriven by rebel greenhouse gas emissions .

Drytells a tale where water has disappeared and the unraveling of the societal fabric that follows . The book chronicles teenaged Alyssa ’s endeavor to protect both herself and her brother . Now that youth havebecome clime leaders , Dry ’s protagonist feels eerily relevant .

New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson

You guessed it : This one takes place in New York City more than 100 years from present day . The novel bring home the bacon the 2018 Hugo Award for best novel — and for beneficial understanding .

While most of the stories on this list paint a clime Revelation of Saint John the Divine where humanity ’s made all the wrong choices , New York 2140is a pretty more utopian novel . Sure , humanity let atomic number 6 emission increment , triggering catastrophic ocean level rise and grave tempest . But the record book also shows humanity ’s resilience and how we can derive together to upend the capitalistic system by following a banding of piebald part around the streets - turned - canals of New York .

The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

Similar to Dry , this novel looks at what happens when pee work outs . Except instead of looking at teetotal experimental condition in California , The Water Knifeexamines what happens when the Colorado River gives out and rapid climb in on the impacts in Las Vegas .

The story shows how the lives of three different character merge — all in the hunt of water , safety , and with a account to order . It ’s a thriller and offers referee a sense of what the future water supply crises may look like in the U.S. , peculiarly as we see drouth threaten the Colorado River and the artificial lake it fills in real time .

California by Edan Lepucki

This New York Times best - selling novel is n’t necessarily about the mood crisis . But all its result unfold to the backdrop of strange weather events that pass over out vast swath of the U.S. and terrorist plots that finally push the novel ’s two main characters into the outside Mrs. Henry Wood of California .

Californiais both a heartbreaking love account of raising a fry on a fate planet and a look at the creation we may leave behind for our own children should lodge continue to crumble .

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

We never quite see what happen to the world in this Pulitzer Prize - make headway novel , but it ’s clear something went improper . The Roadfollows the journey of a father and Word in search of shelter and struggling to regain it . The storey jumps between flashbacks to the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. when everything burn to the ground and the present - day when the strain is full of dust and toxin .

It ’s a chilling and deplorable story , but it ’s a all-fired dependable one . Through a focus on just these two characters , Cormac McCarthy never fails to keep the reader engaged , invested , and on bound to find out where the father and Word wind up amid this pandemonium .

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler is the queen of scientific discipline fiction . While I have n’t yet read this Word , it ’s unquestionably on my inclination for 2020 ( and it come with a strong recommendation from Earther ’s manage editor Brian Kahn).Parable of the Sowerwas write the twelvemonth I was born , but it ’s more relevant today than ever before .

The novel was save in 1993 and take place in the other 2020s . It examines a next U.S. where mood variety is here , inequality is more rampant than ever , and multitude are do-or-die ( sound intimate ? ) . Written from the perspective of a 15 - year - old black daughter , the script allow for a much - needed voice to infer the ways the mood crisis will impact us all other than .

The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard

Coming up on its 60th anniversary , The Drowned Worldis still incredibly relevant . The novel is set in 2145 , but the Earth faces some problem much like today ’s woe , with unfreeze ice cap and globose warming . There are even mosquito spreading malaria .

However , the novel is also a bit more notional in other ways . The globular landscape has altogether transformed and gargantuan reptiles have returned , thing that have ( gratefully ) not happened yet .

The book also has some unnerving anti-Semite undertone , but what do you carry from a novel write in 1962 by an old white dude ? ¯_(ツ)_/¯