The Islands at the End of the World by Austin Aslan
Right before my eyes, my beautiful islands are changing forever. And so am I …
Sixteen-year-old Leilani loves surfing and her home in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. But she’s an outsider – half white, half Hawaiian, and an epileptic.
While Lei and her father are on a visit to Oahu, a global disaster strikes. Technology and power fail, Hawaii is cut off from the world, and the islands revert to traditional ways of survival. As Lei and her dad embark on a nightmarish journey across islands to reach home and family, she learns that her epilepsy and her deep connection to Hawaii could be keys to ending the crisis before it becomes worse than anyone can imagine.
A powerful story enriched by fascinating elements of Hawaiian ecology, culture, and warfare, this captivating and dramatic debut from Austin Aslan is the first of two novels. The author has a master’s degree in tropical conservation biology from the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Categories: Dystopia, Young Adult, Survival
Published by Wendy Lamb Books (out now)
The Big Field: A Child’s Year Under the Southern Cross by Anne Morddel
Beautifully illustrated, this is the charming story of a girl who spends a year with her grandmother on a farm at the edge of the South American Atlantic Rainforest. The child is from the city, but the time she spends with her grandmother teaches her about the seasons of the Southern Hemisphere and the beauty and transience of the rainforest from the plant, animal, and insect life to the cycles of nature. Following them as they spend their days walking through the forest, lying on their backs under the trees, eating dinner outside, collecting seeds, and learning about the wildlife, this entertaining narrative is also environmentally sensitive in its approach. An illustrated, child-friendly glossary with sections dedicated to butterflies and moths, birds, bugs, and trees and plants concludes the book.
Categories: picture books, animals, friendship, forest
Published by KWS Publishers (out now)
A boy who’s grown up as the only human in an enchanted rainforest and what happens when people from the outside world discover his home.
For the first twelve years of Arrow’s life, he grew up as the only human in a lush, magical rainforest that’s closed off from the rest of the world. He was raised by the Guardian Tree, the protector of the forest, which uses the earth’s magic to keep it hidden from those who have sought to exploit and kill it. But now the magic veil is deteriorating, the forest is dying, and Arrow may be the only one who can save it.
Arrow never saw another human until one day, a man in a small airplane crash-lands in the forest. Then, a group of children finds their way in, escaping from their brutal, arid world where the rich live in luxurious, walled-off cities and the poor struggle for survival.
The Guardian Tree urges Arrow to convince the trespassers to leave by any means necessary. Arrow is curious about these newcomers, but their arrival sets off a chain of events that leave him with a devastating choice: be accepted by his own kind or fight to save the forest that is his home.
Categories: Middle Grade, fantasy
Published by Simon & Schuster (out now)
Category: Speculative fiction, Science Fiction
Published by Owl House Books (out now)
Blue Mar by Francesca G. Varela
In the not-so-distant future, two sisters must navigate a world that is unraveling due to climate change. Wildfires blot out the sky, coastlines are being washed away by rising seas, and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch has been geo-engineered into an actual island called Blue Mar. When Laurel and Paloma visit their Great-Aunt in El Salvador, they find that things are far worse than in the U.S., so bad that many people are moving to Blue Mar to start a new life. As they search for their identity and their place in the world, Laurel and Paloma must decide whether to go to Blue Mar themselves, or whether to stay, reconnect with their culture, and fight to save the land of their ancestors.
Categories: speculative, Sci-fi, apocalyptic, disaster, adventure, thriller
Published by Grand Central Publishing (out now)
When dark comet UD3 was spotted near Jupiter’s orbit, its existence was largely ignored. But to individuals who knew better — scientists like Benjamin Schwartz, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies — the threat this eight-kilometer comet posed to the survival of the human race was unthinkable. The 150-million-year reign of the dinosaurs ended when an asteroid impact generated more than a billiontimes the energy of an atomic bomb.
What would happen to Earth’s seven billion inhabitants if a similar event were allowed to occur?
Ben and his indomitable girlfriend Amy Kowalski fly to South America to assemble an international counteraction team, whose notable recruits include Love Mwangi, a UN interpreter and nomad scholar, and Zhen Liu, an extraordinary engineer from China’s national space agency. At the same time, on board a polar icebreaker life continues under the looming shadow of comet UD3. Jack Campbell, a photographer for National Geographic, works to capture the beauty of the Arctic before it is gone forever. Gustavo Wayãpi, a Nobel Laureate poet from Brazil, struggles to accept the recent murder of his beloved twin brother. And Maya Gutiérrez, an impassioned marine biologist is — quite unexpectedly — falling in love for the first time.
Together, these men and women must fight to survive in an unknown future with no rules and nothing to be taken for granted. They have two choices: neutralize the greatest threat the world has ever seen (preferably before mass hysteria hits or world leaders declare World War III) or come to terms with the annihilation of humanity itself.
Their mission is codenamed The Effort.
Category: Near future, Science fiction, eco-thriller, science fantasy, hopepunk, climate fiction
Published by Atthis Arts (out now)
In November 2039, marine scientist Wend Taylor heaves themself aboard a zero-emissions boat skippered by elusive nature photographer Viola Yang. Guided by instinct, ocean dreams, and a shared birthday in 1972, they barter stories for passage across the Pacific. Aljon, Viola’s younger cousin, keeps a watchful eye and an innovative galley. Story by story, the trio rethink secrets, flying dreams, and how they experience their own minds.
When they reach Hawaiʻi and prepare to part ways, opportunity and mystery pull them closer together. Both scientific and personal discoveries take shape as they join with ex-lovers, lost friends, and found family. Wend must navigate an ever-shifting future, complicated by bioengineered microbes and a plot to silence scientists, entangled with inexplicable dreams and a calling to Be the Sea.
Category: near-future, political, science fiction
Published by Fordham University Press (out now)
Our Shared Storm: A Novel of Five Climate Futures by Andrew Dana Hudson
Through speculative fiction, five interlocking novelettes explore the possible realities of our climate future. What is the future of our climate? Given that our summers now regularly feature arctic heat waves and wildfire blood skies, polar vortex winters that reach all the way down to Texas, and “100-year” storms that hit every few months, it may seem that catastrophe is a done deal. As grim as things are, however, we still have options. Combining fiction and nonfiction and employing speculative tools for scholarly purposes, Our Shared Storm explores not just one potential climate future but five possible outcomes dependent upon our actions today. Set in the year 2054, during the Conference of the Parties global climate negotiations (a.k.a., The COP) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Each story features a common cast of characters, but with events unfolding differently for them—and human society—in each alternate universe. These five scenarios highlight the political, economic, and culture possibilities of futures where investments in climate adaptation and mitigation promised today have been successfully completed, kicked down the road, or abandoned altogether. From harrowing to hopeful, these stories highlight the choices we must make to stabilize the planet. Our Shared Storm is an experiment in deploying practice-based research methods to explore the opportunities and challenges of using climate fiction to engage scientific and academic frameworks. As such, the book includes an introduction and afterword, providing a framework for examining the SSPs as speculative narratives and the COP as a site for climate imaginaries, and offering a new theoretical contribution in the concept of “post-normal fiction”—a humanities iteration of sustainability’s “post-normal science.”
Category: Solarpunk, climate fiction
Published by Android Press (out now)
Different Kinds of Defiance by Renan Bernardo
Defiance has many faces, and in Different Kinds of Defiance, they are as varied as they are gripping. In a world teetering on the brink of moral ambiguity, each story is a testament to the spirit that resists, rebuilds, and redeems.
From the sunbaked docks of a Rio de Janeiro, changed yet still familiar, to the oil-streaked shores of Barra Nova, Renan Bernardo weaves tales of characters caught in the throes of life’s tempests. Meet Hamilton, whose pursuit of a stolen yacht morphs into a crusade for healthcare for the forgotten, his acts a mosaic of bravery and necessity. Walk with Vitória as she battles the relentless tide of pollution with a fleet of smart-bots at her side, her resolve as persistent as the oil that stains her beach. Stand by Jota, who faces the storms of parenting in the shadow of a past that is never quite done with him or his defiant bloodline.
Different Kinds of Defiance is a collection for the rebels at heart—for those who find courage where hope seems lost and for whom every act of resistance is an act of sheer will.
Can one steal for the greater good? Can technology heal a land left for dead? Can a single act of love withstand a legacy of struggle? Dive into these stories of resilience and witness the many forms defiance can take when faced with the precipice of change.
Category: Science Fiction, Dystopia
Published by Penguin Random House (out now)
The Eye and the Flower by Claudia Aboaf
Translated from the Spanish by Allison A. deFreese
Set in a parched, dystopic future that is experiencing an environmental catastrophe, Claudia Aboaf’s compelling novel The Eye and the Flower is a warning and a call to action about the environment, as well as a lyric love poem to the unbreakable bonds between women and sisters who—both together and separately—navigate an ecologically and emotionally depleted landscape. Written in three acts, The Eye and the Flower is a gorgeously crafted book with a narrative voice that flows into a lush, imagistic prose and cascades into fresh and vibrant poetic language. This is a story unlike any other you have read and is filled with both linguistic and thematic surprises. Set in and around the Delta del Tigre, Aboaf’s book follows the divergent paths of two sisters whose journeys traverse a world where childhood is a tapestry of brutal illusions, abuse is real but silenced, natural resources are dwindling, capitalism has led to an uninhabitable political climate, and the water is disappearing—leaving in its wake arid river beds, stranded boats, and a literal thirst for gentler times and survival. With our world in 2020 reeling from the impact of a global pandemic and fascist political structures as polar icecaps melt and cities around the globe either drown in hurricanes or typhoons, or else bake in record temperatures that turn prairies into deserts, Claudia Aboaf’s story of two sisters’ poignantly personal journeys into an uncertain future reality is more powerful and urgent than ever today. Now is the moment for The Eye and the Flower to reach a larger audience on the world stage through translation into English. This book will speak to English language readers across the UK, Europe, North America, Australia, Asia—and beyond. It brings us a message we are ready to hear now more so than at any other time in our lives or in history, in an era when social and environmental movements are in full force around the world—from activism in Taiwan, to civil rights marches in the U.S., to climate change advocacy in Papua New Guinea or Sweden. This elegant and exquisitely crafted book addresses relevant issues related to the environment, politics, equity, feminism, and social justice at a moment when the world is also taking notice. As we confront new social and political realities and increased isolation, English-speaking audiences are ready—and waiting—for this message, for the melancholy yet moving music of Claudia Aboaf’s delicately perceptive and urgent book.
Between taking night classes for her MBA and her demanding day job at a cruise line, marketing manager Henley Evans barely has time for herself, let alone family, friends, or dating. But when she’s shortlisted for the promotion of her dreams, all her sacrifices finally seem worth it.
The only problem? Graeme Crawford-Collins, the remote social media manager and the bane of her existence, is also up for the position. Although they’ve never met in person, their epic email battles are the stuff of office legend.
Their boss tasks each of them with drafting a proposal on how to boost bookings in the Galápagos—best proposal wins the promotion. There’s just one catch: they have to go on a company cruise to the Galápagos Islands…together. But when the two meet on the ship, Henley is shocked to discover that the real Graeme is nothing like she imagined. As they explore the Islands together, she soon finds the line between loathing and liking thinner than a postcard.
With her career dreams in her sights and a growing attraction to the competition, Henley begins questioning her life choices. Because what’s the point of working all the time if you never actually live?
Categories: Romance, Travel,
Published by Hachette/Simon & Schuster (out now)
Side Chick Nation by Aya de León
She’s beautiful, unpredictable-and on the run from dangerous men. But this ex-side chick is ready to risk everything to help others in trouble . . . Fed up with her married Miami boyfriend, savvy Dulce has no problem stealing his drug-dealer stash and fleeing to the Caribbean. Between her special skills-and an eye for very rich and/or very smokin’ men-Dulce stays a hustle ahead of trouble and makes her new life one endless party in Puerto Rico. Until she’s caught in Hurricane Maria-and witnesses both the heartbreaking disaster of climate change, and the international vultures who plunder the tragedy for a financial killing, making shady use of relief funds to devastate the island even more . . .
New York-based mastermind thief Marisol already has her hands full fleecing a ruthless CEO who’s stealing her family’s land in Puerto Rico, while trying to get her relatives out alive. An extra crew member could be game-changing, but she’s wary of Dulce’s unpredictability and reputation for drama. Still, Dulce’s determination to get justice draws Marisol in, along with her formidable Lower East Side Women’s Health Clinic’s heist squad. But their on-the-fly race-against-the-clock plan is soon complicated by a sexy crusading journalist-not to mention powerful men who turn deadly when ex-side chicks step out of the shadows and demand to call the shots . . .
Categories: Feminism, Political
Published by Dafina Books (out now)
The Tourist Trail by John Yunker
An environmental novel about endangered species and those who risk their lives to protect them…
Biologist Angela Haynes is accustomed to dark, lonely nights as one of the few humans at a penguin research station in Patagonia. She has grown used to the cries of penguins before dawn, to meager supplies and housing, to spending most of her days in one of the most remote regions on earth. What she isn’t used to is strange men washing ashore, which happens one day on her watch. The man won’t tell her his name or where he came from, but Angela, who has a soft spot for strays, tends to him, if for no other reason than to protect her birds and her work. When she later learns why he goes by an alias, why he is a refugee from the law, and why he is a man without a port, she begins to fall in love-and embarks on a journey that takes her deep into Antarctic waters, and even deeper into the emotional territory she thought she’d left behind.
Against the backdrop of the Southern Ocean, The Tourist Trail weaves together the stories of Angela as well as FBI agent Robert Porter, dispatched on a mission that unearths a past he would rather keep buried; and Ethan Downes, a computer tech whose love for a passionate activist draws him into a dangerous mission.
Categories: Mystery, Romance, Ecology
Published by Byte Level Books (out now)
Climate Fiction Writers League 