Book Review: Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future

Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future is a climate fiction anthology edited by Grist, one of the Internet’s longest-running environmental news and culture websites. It’s available now for pre-order with a release date of October 22, 2024.

This visionary anthology features the winning entries from a climate fiction contest called Imagine 2200: The 2024 Collection. The contest was the third installment of Grist’s innovative Imagine 2200 series.

Imagine 2200 asks a simple but powerful question. What will the future look like when diverse people and communities create meaningful and impactful solutions to the climate crisis together?

I’ve enjoyed the results of other climate fiction contests like the Everything Change contest run by the Imagination and Climate Futures initiative at Arizona State University. It’s always amazing to read stories from up and coming authors with a gift for climate storytelling. But Imagine 2200 has become my new favorite place to look for short stories with climate themes — and Metamorphosis is arguably the greatest fruit of this climate storytelling project to date.

What sets Imagine 2200 and the Metamorphosis anthology apart is the dual focus on diversity and solutions. Each story features one or more prominent intersectional themes that include characters, settings, and voices from Afro-, Asian, Indigenous, Latinx, disabled, and other marginalized communities. Each story also depicts climate solutions in some form, whether that may involve technological innovations, new or renewed forms of social organization, artistic and cultural responses to the climate crisis, or some combination thereof.

The interplay between rich cultural themes, creative climate solutions, and well-developed plots, characters, and settings make for some remarkable and deeply compelling climate storytelling. Each story in the anthology stands alone on its on merits, yet they also combine well into a delightful sampler platter of diverse climate imaginations.

These stories don’t shy away from heartache. They all grapple in some substantive way with the tremendous grief and loss of the climate crisis. Most of them take place in settings where the catastrophic consequences of the climate crisis are still having various impacts on people’s lives. But one of the qualities that sets these stories apart from so much climate fiction is that they come out on the other side with a vision for how particular communities and humanity in general can develop and implement solutions that improve people’s lives and sustain their communities in spite of the crisis. These solutions range in scale, from a single character working on personal healing and local ecological restoration, to entire communities living in ways that demonstrate principles and practices that today’s climate concerned individuals and communities can benefit from seeing.

The only way to grasp the full extent of what the authors and editor have achieved with this anthology is to read the anthology! I encourage you to do so. In the meantime, a quick taste of what each story has to offer may whet your appetite for this delightful climate fiction anthology.

• To Labor for the Hive by Jamie Liu tells the story of a beekeeper in China who discovers that her bees can play an important role in helping scientists develop an early warning system for floods. In the process, she reconnects with the outside world and members of her community. It’s an understated but quietly moving tale that explore love and loss, digital communication, and the importance of community centers in providing climate resilience for local communities.
• The Last Almond by Zoe Young describes the fate of the last almond farm in California and the climate survival story of its caretaker. This is one of the more pensive tales of the anthology, but offers a fascinating take on what phasing out water-intensive almond farms will look like in a region prone to both droughts and floods.
• A Seder in Siberia by Louis Evans by Cameron Neil Ishee is the intimate tale of a family of climate exiles hosting a Passover celebration. A surprise guest arrives, revealing new information about what drove the family into exile. I was particularly fascinated by how this story handles the passing down of family traditions, the pivotal role that remediation will surely play in future societies, the ways in which we may hold climate criminals accountable, and how a family of climate exiles can find a new start in a new land.
• Accensa Domo Proximi by Cameron Neil Ishee takes place in a futuristic cityscape that’s far along in implementing its climate solutions and other technological advances. A remarkable art installation captivates the imagination of a cook who lost his childhood home due to the climate crisis. The artwork and the artist who created it demonstrate the powerful emotional and artistic value in creating artwork to commemorate places and cultures that have been lost to the climate crisis.
• Gifts We Give To The Sea by Dinara Tengri explores the story of a mother who is grappling with her son’s gender identity, the loss of her husband, and the climate changes that have led to the decline of her local community and region. Her son’s return home brings up memories of the past and the potential for a new local climate solution.
• The Imperfect Blue Marble by Rae Mariz is narrated in the first person by a storyteller from the future. This storyteller weaves many different elements of the follies of today’s society and the insights of their future society into the narrative, but focuses mostly on the story of a nonverbal child who is fascinated by an imperfect blue marble and what they can do with it.
• Cabbage Koora: A Prognostic Autobiography by Sanjana Sekhar is a multigenerational tale of an Indian family’s metaphorical and literal journey in response to the consequences of the climate crisis. As their physical locations change over time, the technology they use to keep in touch becomes increasingly high tech. In spite of all of the changes in where they live and how they communicate, they still find ways to stay in touch and keep their cultural traditions alive together.
• La Sirène by Karen Engelsen tells the tale of a submarine crew that does ecological remediation work and takes in children with a rare genetic mutation caused by oil spills polluting the ocean. It explores a fascinating intersection between faith, disability, ecological disaster, and ecological remediation,
• The Long In-Between by Andrew Kenneson explores the grief of a father and the rewilding project he starts in his daughter’s memory. It covers a surprising amount of ground for such a calm and contemplative story, including the grief of loss, the challenges and rewards of a DIY rewilding project, and the relationship between rewilding and “conventional” agriculture.
• A Gift of Coconuts by Melissa Gunn is the story of a family weathering a major storm on their coconut farm. Their rush to prepare for the storm makes for an exciting story, a compelling family tale, and a fascinating exploration of the consequences of sea level rise and how coastal communities may adapt to it over time.
• Stasis by Lovinia Summer is the surreal tale set in a futuristic city full of people who migrate from the desert to the ocean and back again. The main character prepares for this difficult journey with the help of medical androids and an herbal and spore-based treatment with psychedelic and mutagenic properties.
• The Blossoming by Guglielmo Miccolupi and Laura C Zanetti-Domingues is the story of a young student in an ecological utopian society seeking their life calling and helping a fellow student complete their scientific research. It starts with an exciting chase scene and sustains the reader’s interest through its fascinating exploration of the details of life in this new society and the scientific research they’re conducting.

If any of these stories sound like a good read to you, be sure to check out the whole anthology. Since they’re all separate stories, you can start with the one that sounds most relevant to you and then . Part of the joy of this volume lies in the multicultural experience — seeing how the climate crisis and creative climate solutions play out in many different places for people of many different backgrounds and identities. So even if a particular story doesn’t seem as directly relevant to your own climate story, it will still help you to see how people from other cultures and backgrounds than yours may experience the climate crisis and climate solutions.

You can preorder your copy of Metamorphosis today. Buying a copy of this innovative anthology will place these stories in your hand and support the creation of diverse and solutions-oriented climate storytelling.