Climate fiction books offer something many nonfiction books don’t: emotion. While nonfiction is great for learning new information, climate fiction captures the emotional experience of the climate crisis through exhilarating plots, unforgettable characters and introspective insights on what we’re enduring and what we might endure in the future. In this article, we’re recommending 10 climate fiction books featuring water-war conspiracies, annihilation by Nature, astronauts on a final space mission and several possible futures, both dystopic and hopeful.
Table of Contents
| Title and author | |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi |
| 2 | Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler |
| 3 | Blackfish City by Sam J. Miller |
| 4 | Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer |
| 5 | The Drought by J.G. Ballard |
| 6 | Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy |
| 7 | The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler |
| 8 | Orbital by Samantha Harvey |
| 9 | The Great Transition by Nick Fuller Googins |
| 10 | Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi |
#1. The Water Knife (2015) by Paolo Bacigalupi
In a near future where water is the most precious resource, Angel Velasquez – spy, detective and assassin – “cuts” water, so green developments can flourish in Las Vegas. When rumors of a new water source emerge in Arizona, Angel travels south where he meets Lucy, a journalist, and Maria, a migrant from Texas. When people start dying, Angel, Lucy and Maria realize they’re pawns in someone else’s corrupt and dangerous game.
| Review: Through an intriguing mystery, a cinematic sci-fi setting and literary prose, The Water Knife explores what happens when water becomes more valuable than money. It reminded me of a world right before the movie Mad Max: Fury Road, before everything completely collapses. While I found The Water Knife’s third act to be a bit abrupt, the twists and turns were always gripping and thought-provoking. |
#2. Parable of the Sower (1993) by Octavia E. Butler
15-year-old Lauren is safe in her California community, but outside its gates, climate disasters, a massive economic recession and violence threaten to upend the United States. While her loved ones try to ignore the chaos, Lauren struggles with hyperempathy, a condition that causes her to literally feel the pain of others. She finds refuge in Earthseed, a religion of her own making, that centers around the idea that “God is change.” That change comes in the form of rioters who burn her community down. Having lost everything, Lauren sets out to establish the first Earthseed safe haven and usher in a new world.
| Review: Parable of the Sower is a must-read for anyone feeling scared or hopeless about the state of the world. Climate change is just one aspect of the story – it also tackles poverty, racial inequality and crumbling democratic norms with such piercing accuracy, you would swear the book was written today and not over 30 years ago. Butler doesn’t shy away from the grief and trauma of living through an apocalypse, but through Lauren’s creation of Earthseed, she vividly imagines a future brimming with hope and possibility. |
#3. Blackfish City (2018) by Sam J. Miller
In the aftermath of a catastrophic climate war, the remaining humans built a city in the Arctic Circle. It runs on sustainable energy, but severe income inequality and a mysterious disease threaten to tear the city apart. When a woman riding an orca arrives, she brings four people together to save one other and the city from destruction.
| Review: Fans of cyberpunk will love Blackfish City, which overflows with sci-fi goodies like implants, nanobots and artificial intelligence gone awry. This techno dystopia is interesting, as it posits a world where climate change has led to machines running society while humans struggle with all the same problems, like wealth and gender inequality. Given how AI technologies have begun to infiltrate more and more of our lives, this book feels prophetic in more ways than one. |
#4. Annihilation (10th-anniversary edition, 2024) by Jeff VanderMeer
Area X is cut off from the rest of the world. Expeditions to understand what’s transforming the landscape and animals have failed. Now, a team of four women are venturing in: an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist and a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record what they see and do not get contaminated.
| Review: In Acceptance, which is the first book of the Southern Reach series, VanderMeer introduces readers to an environmental nightmare that’s as terrifying as it is disorienting. While the plot can be tricky to follow, the book’s beautiful writing and mysteries kept me hooked. It isn’t explicitly about climate change, but it digs into how it feels to be confronted and transformed by a Nature we cannot recognize or control. There are three other books in the series – Authority, Acceptance, and Absolution – but Annihilation can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story. |
#5. The Drought (1964) by J.G. Ballard
A worldwide drought has hit the planet. Thanks to years of industrial dumping, the sea has formed a protective skin, halting the water cycle. There are no clouds, no rain, and soon, every water source dries up. While most of his neighbors flee, Dr. Charles Ransom, divorced and detached, wanders through life as his town’s grip on reality and hope loosens. Eventually, Ransom must leave, too, so he heads to the last remaining water source: the ocean.
| Review: The Drought is a short, eerie experience that explores the psychological effects of a rapidly changing world. The characters are not as interesting or fleshed out as in other books on this list, but the novel succeeds in capturing the dream-like nature of disassociation, and gradually, acceptance of what can’t be changed. Some elements of the book are uncomfortably dated (a mentally disabled character is not portrayed kindly), so take care before reading. |
#6. Migrations (2021) by Charlotte McConaghy
Franny Stone arrives in Greenland with one mission: follow the world’s last Arctic terns as they make a final migration to Antarctica. As she travels by fishing boat, the story of her life – family trauma, an affair, a crime – is revealed. Like the birds, Franny is running, but you can’t outrun your own secrets.
| Review: Migrations is a national bestseller with awards from TIME, Library Journal, Goodreads and more. It’s part of a growing genre that combines literary fiction with a climate change backdrop, where the changing environment is just as much a character as the humans. Vogue describes Migrations as “suspenseful and atmospheric,” while Literary Hub calls it a “personal reckoning that cuts right to the heart.” Readers agree; on Goodreads, the book has a 4.13/5 rating with over 83,000 ratings. |
#7. The Mountain in the Sea (2022) by Ray Nayler
A species of hyper-intelligent octopus has just been discovered. They’re so advanced, they may even have their own language and culture. Marine biologist Ha Nguyen, an expert in cephalopod intelligence, travels to the octopuses’ home with the world’s first (and maybe last) android. As Nguyen struggles to communicate with the creatures, others draw closer, bent on claiming the octopus for themselves.
| Review: Based on reviews I’ve read, The Mountain in the Sea is a story for people who love big ideas. The book’s 464-pages tackle a lot of them, including the ethics of artificial intelligence, corporate greed and the nature of consciousness. Reviewing for Locus Online, critic Gary K. Wolfe describes the novel as “a genuinely intellectual thriller that does what SF does best – that is, to keep the ideas as exciting as the action.” |
#8. Orbital (2023) by Samantha Harvey
For 24 hours, six astronauts from Japan, Russia, the United States, Italy and Britain orbit Earth in the International Space Station. As they experience sixteen sunrises and sunsets, they enjoy dehydrated meals, take naps in zero-gravity and walk on a treadmill, so their muscles don’t atrophy. The astronauts also reflect on their lives back home and discuss topics like God, the meaning of life and living on a planet ravaged by climate change. The view from the ISS holds an even more special meaning for these space travelers: they are on one of the last space missions before the program ends.
| Review: Orbital won multiple awards, including the Booker Prize 2024. While it deals with intense, philosophical questions, most reviews describe the story as hopeful. “It studies people who act on their hope,” writes Alexandra Harris for The Guardian. There’s not much in the way of action (the book is only 224 pages long), so it’s best for readers who want something introspective and meditative. |
#9. The Great Transition (2023) by Nick Fuller Googins
Emi Vargas’ parents helped save the world from the climate crisis, but after a dozen climate criminals are assassinated, Emi’s mother Kristina – one of the top suspects – vanishes. Three decades earlier, Kristina fought the wildfires in the Western US, while Larch, Emi’s father, beat back the rising sea in New York City. The two became part of The Great Transition, a movement that transformed the world. Now, Emi and her father Larch set out to the outpost built on New York’s ruins to find Kristina.
| Review: Through a story about a family, The Great Transition imagines what could happen if people took climate change seriously. It doesn’t shy away from the severity of the climate crisis, but for readers who struggle with hopelessness, it offers a path forward. Reviewing for Locus Online, Paul Di Filipoo describes the novel as “jampacked with ideas, energy, attitude and action.” In an interview with the Chicago Review of Books, author Googins hopes the story inspires people to collective action. “It’s the only way humanity has ever done anything worthwhile,” he says. |
#10. Goliath (2022) by Tochi Onyebuchi
In the 2050s, those with power and money have abandoned a dying Earth for space colonies. The people left behind survive on scraps, but resources are getting stripped down and shipped to the colonists. Characters like a group of laborers, a space-dweller returning to Earth to reconnect with his lover, a journalist chronicling Earth’s violence and a marshall solving a kidnapping fill out an epic tale about race, class, gentrification and who history decides is a hero.
| Review: Goliath was a New York Times Editors’ Choice Pick, as well as a Best Book of the Year for Time, NPR, Gizmodo and The Guardian. Many readers find the book challenging due to its intense themes and unusual structure. According to a review from Reactor Mag, Onyebuchi tells his story through first, second and third POV, as well as nonfiction articles, documentary footage and more traditional prose. “This is a visceral and bracing text,” reviewer Alex Brown says. “As layered as an archeological dig.” If you love challenging novels that encourage multiple reads, Goliath is a story for you. |