Drowned Worlds
2 journalers for this copy...
I got this softcover from Better World Books. It's an anthology of science fiction about what might happen if the ice caps melt and the sea level rises. Very nice variety of treatments of subject here; my favorites include:
"Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit - Forty-eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts" by Ken Liu: a rather chatty interview-the-celebrity tale set in a post-rising-oceans world, where humanity continues but after major changes. Issues include refugees, cultural identity, and even eco-tourism: there's a sequence in which divers explore the long-flooded Harvard University, imagining it full of students and bright with autumn foliage...
Kim Stanley Robinson has written novels about rising oceans and climate change, including the marvelous and inventive New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future; his contribution here is "Venice Drowned," and takes the viewpoint of one of the surviving residents of the city which is now flooded to the rooftops, with people building new homes atop the surviving buildings even at the risk of having them crumble. There's a lively tourist industry with wealthy foreigners wanting the opportunity to dive on various cultural sites and retrieve artifacts, and our protagonist - while making his living ferrying these people around - is torn between providing for his family and trying to prevent some of the spoils-taking.
Jeffrey Ford's "What Is" takes a different tack, with a setting in a land turned dry and barely habitable, where only a handful of people have stubbornly remained; they get periodic air-drops of supplies from the outside world, but in this story several of the little groups decide that they're going to destroy the others and keep the goods for themselves. How all this plays out makes for a tense survival drama that, oddly enough, reminded me of old "Twilight Zone" episodes in the way the situation drives the action. More upbeat than I'd expected by the end, fwiw!
"Destroyed by the Waters" by Rachel Swirsky focuses on an aging gay couple, one of whom has received a terminal diagnosis; they opt to go on a diving tour of their beloved and long-drowned New Orleans as a last trip together.
"The New Venusians" by Sean Williams takes an interesting spin: the world that's being flooded here is Venus, part of a terraforming attempt to render it habitable for Earthlings seeking new homes.
"Inselberg" by Nalo Hopkinson is another eco-tourism-after-disaster tale, this one with a dark little twist.
"The Future is Blue" by Catherynne M. Valente is a heart-rending tale from the viewpoint of a woman who grew up in one of the floating ocean-garbage-patch communities that seem to be all that survive in this flooded world. The communities have strict rules about who can go where, so when she gets the opportunity to travel from her low-tech community to the one that uses electricity, she's entranced. But she learns things about the goals of the Electric City folks that cause her to take a step that she will suffer for for the rest of her life - even though she knows she's actually saved the people who hate her...
Other tales deal with genetic modification as a way to adapt to new conditions, cultural shifts, gender identity, art among the ruins, and more.
"Dispatches from the Cradle: The Hermit - Forty-eight Hours in the Sea of Massachusetts" by Ken Liu: a rather chatty interview-the-celebrity tale set in a post-rising-oceans world, where humanity continues but after major changes. Issues include refugees, cultural identity, and even eco-tourism: there's a sequence in which divers explore the long-flooded Harvard University, imagining it full of students and bright with autumn foliage...
Kim Stanley Robinson has written novels about rising oceans and climate change, including the marvelous and inventive New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future; his contribution here is "Venice Drowned," and takes the viewpoint of one of the surviving residents of the city which is now flooded to the rooftops, with people building new homes atop the surviving buildings even at the risk of having them crumble. There's a lively tourist industry with wealthy foreigners wanting the opportunity to dive on various cultural sites and retrieve artifacts, and our protagonist - while making his living ferrying these people around - is torn between providing for his family and trying to prevent some of the spoils-taking.
Jeffrey Ford's "What Is" takes a different tack, with a setting in a land turned dry and barely habitable, where only a handful of people have stubbornly remained; they get periodic air-drops of supplies from the outside world, but in this story several of the little groups decide that they're going to destroy the others and keep the goods for themselves. How all this plays out makes for a tense survival drama that, oddly enough, reminded me of old "Twilight Zone" episodes in the way the situation drives the action. More upbeat than I'd expected by the end, fwiw!
"Destroyed by the Waters" by Rachel Swirsky focuses on an aging gay couple, one of whom has received a terminal diagnosis; they opt to go on a diving tour of their beloved and long-drowned New Orleans as a last trip together.
"The New Venusians" by Sean Williams takes an interesting spin: the world that's being flooded here is Venus, part of a terraforming attempt to render it habitable for Earthlings seeking new homes.
"Inselberg" by Nalo Hopkinson is another eco-tourism-after-disaster tale, this one with a dark little twist.
"The Future is Blue" by Catherynne M. Valente is a heart-rending tale from the viewpoint of a woman who grew up in one of the floating ocean-garbage-patch communities that seem to be all that survive in this flooded world. The communities have strict rules about who can go where, so when she gets the opportunity to travel from her low-tech community to the one that uses electricity, she's entranced. But she learns things about the goals of the Electric City folks that cause her to take a step that she will suffer for for the rest of her life - even though she knows she's actually saved the people who hate her...
Other tales deal with genetic modification as a way to adapt to new conditions, cultural shifts, gender identity, art among the ruins, and more.
I'm adding this to the Science Fiction bookbox (bookbox journal here), which will be on its way to its next stop soon. Enjoy!
*** Released for the 2021 Science Fiction challenge. ***
*** Released for the 2021 Science Fiction challenge. ***
Taking this book out of Erishkigal's Science Fiction Bookbox. This looks like a good one to read and then share with my cabin neighbor. The winters are very long in northern Wisconsin and he does most of his reading, then. This looks like it is right up both our alleys.
