Our Shared Storm

Part science communication, part futurist call to action, these five interlinked sci-fi novelettes chart different potential futures for a 2054 Buenos Aires climate conference. When the Conference of the Parties is struck by a hurricane, the fates of four characters—American delegate Noah, Swedish climate refugee and artist Saga, Bollywood heiress turned climate influencer Diya, and Argentinian political up-and-comer Luis—depends on the climate path humanity has followed. The deeply affecting “Too Fast to Fail,” for example, imagines a dystopian, hypercapitalist climate business scene, while “If We Can Do This, We Can Do Asteroids!” swaps in a didactic but ultrautopian communal scenario. Bureaucracies, climate aid indenture, and drone war zones also feature. Debut author Hudson skillfully grounds the poignant iterating structure with thoughtful worldbuilding, well-balanced prose, and a keen sense of human motivation. Unfortunately, swaths of technical exposition and an academic introduction and afterword explaining the real climate modeling behind the fiction integrate awkwardly. Still, fans of William Gibson and Kim Stanley Robinson will savor this thoughtful, rigorous exploration of climate action. (Apr.)