Everything Change: An Anthology of Climate Fiction

Everything Change is like the title says, an anthology of climate fiction based on a large contest (743 stories from all over the world), sponsored by the Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona State University, and headed by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Climate fiction, a sub-genre of science fiction concerned with climate change and adaptation, is necessarily and sadly political. In an era when a prominent climate denier just won an election, stating the truth of anthropogenic global warming is an act of courage. Imagining a future beyond catastrophe takes even more courage.

There is a definite theme to these stories. Children, growing up in a drowning, diminished world. Adult, trying to hold on to the good parts of the past, show more without bitterness as the industrial civilization that got us into this mess. The stories that stuck out, Sunshine State, Acqua Alta, On Darwin Tides, were quite exceptional, the rest more middling. I couldn't shake the sense of despair, though. I could believe in the characters of these stories; I couldn't believe in the kids.

The authors aren't quite Names yet, but they're above the level of talented amateurs, and many have some publishing or workshop experience in their past. I expect to see at least one of them break through in the next year. If you're looking for climate fiction, and can deal with the thematic similarities, this collection can't be beat.

*Disclosure: I am an ASU PhD graduate and know the editors, but was not involved in any way with this collection. show less

In late 2015, the Imagination and Climate Futures Initiative of Arizona State University opened a contest for short works of climate fiction. They received nearly 750 submissions and a jury pared the list down to 12 finalists. Kim Stanley Robinson was then tasked with determining a grand prize winner and four runners up.

All told, this is a decent collection of short fiction. Anyone familiar with Robinson and his work could have predicted that "Sunshine State" would be his pick for the winner, but it is a very good story. I did find some of the later stories not quite to my taste. There seems to be a trend of late in science fiction where stories don't really end, they halt on the cusp of the action or resolution, leaving the reader to show more decide how everything turns out. Three or four of the stories in this collection follow that trend, but at least one of them was quite good despite this device.

In any case, this collection is well worth seeking out for readers who enjoy current SF and climate fiction such as KSR's Science in the Capitol series. show less