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Loading... The Warming: Speculative Fiction about the Human Impact of the Climate Crisis (edition 2015)by Lorin R. Robinson (Author)
Work InformationThe Warming: Speculative Fiction about the Human Impact of the Climate Crisis by Lorin R. Robinson
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It's 2047. Hundreds of millions around the world are suffering from TheWarming-drought, rising ocean levels and increasingly calamitous weather. Dr. Jonathan Carver is a brilliant marine scientist-both an observerand participant in the growing crisis. Despite major roadblocks, he works todevelop a project that, while it cannot stop the warming, would addressthe growing hunger and famine. He also struggles to bring his dysfunctionalpersonal and professional lives under control. Readers are taken around the world to experience the human impact of TheWarming close up.The novel is a thought-provok No library descriptions found. |
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The novel offers several approaches to the subject matter. First of all, the story is presented using a 12-chapter narrative that begins in 2047 and ends with an epilogue, with seven short-story flashbacks journeying around the world to present first-person stories of warming catastrophes and with a series of video news reports.
It's not usual to have a subset saga within the main story line, but while these short pieces take place beyond the main story, they enhance that effort by adding extra dimensions of understanding and human experience into the mix. The fictional short video news stories (in the form of flashbacks presented in broadcast script form) further consider the political, social and economic effects of the growing global crisis.
This three-step process is confusing only if readers anticipate (and need) a linear approach. In reality, these devices work together to add levels of complexity and insight to the story to paint an overall bigger picture of the climate crisis and its various challenges. Philip Wylie accomplished something similar (without quite so many approaches) in his classic End of the Dream. It's satisfying to see a similar attention to detail used here to create an absorbing and multi-faceted story line capturing the nuances of global warming and all its implications for the survival of the human race. ( )