“Cli-Fi” this week (June 1-8)

Virgina Woolf does cli-fi

• In a review of Megan Hunter’s new cli-fi novel “The End We Start From,” British literary critic Lucy Scholes comes up with a line that will sure to become a classic in the annals of climate change fiction literature. This debut novel has already been optioned by actor and producer Benedict Cumberbatch. Scholes noted: “This isn’t a novel in which exposition is a problem; it’s more Virginia Woolf does cli-fi, impressions of a scene rather than detailed depiction.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-end-we-start-from-review-megan-hunter-a7753556.html

• Los Angeles-based reviewer Ellie Robins gives a thumbs up to British author Laline Paull’s latest cli-fi novel “The Ice,” calling it an allegory in the Arctic, and noting that here ”human intrigue is mixed with climate change” themes. Paull, who is an Indian immigrant to the UK, is also the author of “The Bees.”

Closing Down

• Speculative fiction usually starts with a “what if”: what if there was an environmental reckoning? What if we didn’t have enough water? What if the world was running out of food? What if that was coupled with a catastrophic global financial crisis? What would Australia look like? And how would its citizens cope? Those are the questions debut novelist Sally Abbott, 57, asks in this new cli-fi novel from Down Under.

Cli-Fi Every Week

• Daily updates to the Cli-Fi This Week link can be found here, updated 24/7, every hour, on the hour.

https://northwardho.blogspot.tw/2017/05/cli-fi-this-week-may-15-22-hundreds-of.html

A major cli-fi literary piece by a major American scholar. Stay tuned.

Coming June 15 from Amy Brady, literary critic extraordinaire, her 5th monthly column for a Chicago literary journal about cli-fi trends and titled “Burning Worlds”. Soon.