Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors

This sparkling anthology of 12 climate fiction stories distinguishes itself with its hopeful bent, promoting the idea that good can still exist within destruction, even if it can only be found in small pockets. Adrienne Maree Brown writes in the foreword that these stories are “attempts to decolonize our thinking of the future, particularly on this planet, and to show what hope and utopia look like through lenses beyond our own.” And while some of the stories feel like fragments of larger pieces and ill-fitted to the short form, others deliver exactly what Brown promises: the title story by Lindsey Brodeck explores a future in which the protagonist must decide between leaving Earth for another planet or staying as a ”keeper,” part of a group working to restore the relationship between humans and nature, while “Broken from the Colony” by Ada M. Patterson sees its trans heroine find community in a coral reef full of trans sisters after a hurricane submerges her island. Offering a glimpse at imagined futures across the globe, this is a welcome lift to the spirits to those who may be struggling to see any brightness amid climate fears. (Feb.)