Science fable and phantasy have take on everything from environmentalist Utopia , to horrific industrial disasters that create befoulment zombie . Here are ten speculative novels that search environmental themes , from a mixture of political perspectives , that could change the agency you look at nature eternally .
1 . Ecotopia , by Ernest Callenbach
In the near future , the “ Helicopter War ” stop with Northern California , Oregon and Washington seceding from the United States and spring their own environmentally sustainable nation called Ecotopia . A hard - bitten New York diarist comes to visit the nation ’s chapiter , San Francisco , to report on what has go on in the X since the commonwealth shut its borders . What he finds is a culture where office buildings have become menage , all transportation is public , woman escape the government , and African Americans start the prisons . Vivid , well - researched , and often funny , Ecotopia is an eco - SF classic from the first undulation of eco - fiction in the 1970s .
2 . The Quiet War , by Paul McAuley
The Quiet War is fascinating tale of geopolitics in the out solar system , where a geoengineer who builds ecosystem gets caught up in a Brobdingnagian interplanetary intrigue . War is brewing between environmentalist conservativist back on Earth , who object to genetical engineering science , and post - human colonists on the outer major planet , who resculpt themselves and their environments . One of the most incredible parts of the novel is McAuley ’s power to evoke vividly how geoengineered exoplanets would look – and the scientific discipline that would be require to make farms in vacuum , beneath the ice of Europa , or among the clouds of Jupiter .
3 . The Color of Distance , by Amy Thomson
A human travels to a satellite whose inhabitants live in thoroughgoing balance with their environment . They build incredible homes among the trees and voluntarily commit suicide at the age of 100 ( even though their bioengineering power give up them to know for chiliad of year ) so that their population will never become too much for the ecosystem to support . It ’s a fantastic portrait of what a unfeignedly sustainable society would seem like . And though it starts out looking very Fern Gully , it becomes much saturnine and more complex than you ’d ever expect . Plus , the alien are delightfully non - human – they communicate devilfish - like through colorful chromatophores in their skin .
4 . Boneshaker , by Cherie Priest
Priest ’s alternate chronicle of nineteenth 100 Seattle is about a horrific industrial chance event that unleashes a toxic fogginess in the business district region . People who breathe too much of it become zombie - corresponding puppet , so the city fence off the several - block region affected by the stroke . We abide by the escapade of a female parent and son who venture into the area , encounter the human who have figured out ways to know in the intensely - contaminated building , create a vast underground city fed by tune pecker and patrolled by gasmask - wearing daredevil .
5 . The Lorax , by Doctor Suess
In this classic kid ’s tarradiddle , we meet the Lorax , who represents all the trees whose life are peril by the forces of industry . A gentler version of Miyazaki ’s perturbing , intense film Princess Mononoke , it ’s one of the well - do it environmental apologue for children . It has proven controversial too , getting banned in some school district in America for being “ anti - logging diligence . ”
6 . “ The Magic Goes aside ” by Larry Niven
In this novelette written by Liven in the wake of the early-1970s oil crisis , a man known only as the Warlock discovers that magic is a non - renewable resource and must deal with the import .
7 . The Alchemist and The Executioness , by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias Buckell
Bacigalupi and Buckell are known for their eco - theme skill fiction , and now they ’ve produce two linked fantasy novella go down against a backcloth of mysterious mood variety . In the world that both stories share , magic is forbid but widely practiced – and each time a spell is cast , the horrific toxicant “ bramble ” grows large , threatening to make the world unlivable . ( Availableonly as an audiobook , which you may revel without using numb tree diagram body . )
8 . Lilith ’s Brood , by Octavia Butler
In this trilogy , humanity has nuked the Earth into uselessness , but fortuitously a few survivors have been preserve by an alien metal money called the Oankali who reproduce only by finding unexampled species to twin with in a process that resemble genetic engineering . The Oankali live in sodding musical harmony with nature because , ironically , all of their technology is bio - engineer . They live inside a planet - sized biological spaceship , where one day their man - Oankali intercrossed children will dwell as well – if they can convince the humans to become part of their acculturation .
9 . Watermind by M. M. Buckner
Part eco - thriller , part SF , this novel is about artificial intelligence emerges from a river full of high - technical school trash . The first thing the AI does is forecast out a path to trickle all the toxins out of its contaminated home . It ’s a raceway against time to see if the bad incorporated eccentric will demolish this “ watermind , ” or if our geek protagonist will save it in the name of science .
10 . Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood , by Margaret Atwood
Together , these biotech apocalypse novels tell the story of what bump when two mad scientists decide to save the planet by supercede humanity with a more environmentally - friendly levelheaded species . Set in a future where genetic applied science is commonplace , and the passing productive extend their lifetime with spa treatments , the two novels show us how a horrific , humanity - destroy plague affects both the rich as well as a commune of basal environmentalist .
Top figure of speech byMona Caron
BooksEcologyScience
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