Climate Fiction Short Stories

Hundreds of years after the end of the world, the Appalachian community of Iron Hollow finds itself beset by demons. Such horrors are common these days in the outlands, where most folks die young—if they don’t turn into monsters first. When a legendary knight is summoned to hunt down the latest unearthly beast to haunt their woods, the town’s new oral historian, Shrike, has more reason than most to be concerned. Because that demon was her wife. And while Shrike is certain that May still recognizes her—that May is still herself, somewhere beneath it all—she can’t prove it.

What will become of our self-destructed planet? The answer shatters all expectations in this subversive speculation from the Hugo Award - winning author of the Broken Earth trilogy. An explorer returns to gather information from a climate-ravaged Earth that his ancestors, and others among the planet’s finest, fled centuries ago. The mission comes with a warning: A graveyard world awaits him. But so do those left behind - hopeless and unbeautiful wastes of humanity who should have died out ages ago.

Enjoy the freedom of the outdoors, the beauty of the countryside and the charm of all creatures, great and small, in this bumper short-story collection. Enid Blyton loved the countryside, animals and birds, and she wrote many wonderful stories to teach children all about the natural world. Each story is perfect for young children and is the ideal length for bedtime or classroom story time.

Climate fiction author Richard Friedman takes the listener on a journey from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to the edges of the universe with his collection of short stories. A narcissistic east coast billionaire receives a visit from three ghosts in a contemporary spin on a timeless classic. Judgment Day asks, is humanity worth saving? A family takes a tour through the Grand Museum of the Universe in The Docent and the crew of the space shuttle witnesses a nuclear holocaust in The World Burns Below.

Building from his acclaimed anthology Tales of Two Americas, beloved writer and editor John Freeman draws together a group of our greatest writers from around the world to help us see how the environmental crisis is hitting some of the most vulnerable communities where they live. In the past five years, John Freeman, previously editor of Granta, has launched a celebrated international literary magazine, Freeman's, and compiled two acclaimed anthologies that deal with income inequality as it is experienced.

Sam has retreated to her late father’s rental house, a safe place to commune with the animals in the greenbelt out back, tend to her garden, and keep her secrets. Her sense of security slowly returns - until an aggressive neighbor from the other side of the ravine fells a tree on her property. How little he regards nature. Or understands its darkness. How little he knows Sam.

Miriam was raised in a society without children. To offset the devastation of climate change, state-of-the-art birth control has made daycares and playgrounds things of the past. As tempting as the government inducements are to remain child-free, Miriam’s curiosity about the people who “drop out” of society to become parents grows. When she finds a like-minded partner, she must choose between the rewarding comforts she knows and the unknowable mysteries of being a mother.

It’s fate when a man accidentally drops his phone off the bridge. It’s fortune when it’s retrieved by a friendly shape sloshing in the muck underneath. From that day forward, as they share a coffee every morning, an unlikely friendship blooms. Considering the reality for the man above, where life seems perfect, and that of the sharp-witted creature below, how forever after can a happy ending be?

Only a few nuclear weapons fell. But in the chaos of famine and plague, there existed a few pockets of order. The strongest of them was the state of Deseret. The climate has changed, and the lake has filled up. There, on the fringes, brave, hardworking pioneers are making the desert bloom again.

Forty years ago, Walt Kelly's comic strip character Pogo famously intoned: "We have met the enemy, and he is us." Now, as the evidence for climate change becomes overwhelming, we learn the hard reality behind that witticism. The possible destruction, and certain transformation, of the ecosphere has been brought about by our own activities. What will our new world look like? How will we - can we - adapt? The clash of a rapidly changing environment with earth's self-styled ruling species, humans, provides ample creative fodder for this riveting anthology of original science fiction.

Embark on a journey across the planet through 23 stories written by 16 authors from six different countries. From super-powered humans taking down polluting industries to genius inventors creating innovative high-tech solutions to protect their communities, Gaia Awakens explores the gauntlet of climate fiction, sci-fi, and fantasy alike.

Their captivity was traumatizing. And draining. But revenge is in the blood for a group of brave survivors in this chilling short story of conspiracies and youthful pleasures gone awry.

The protected escapees of the blood-farm experiments are free, secure, and set for life. Kind of. Because there’s something new to fear in this short thriller, the twisting finale of the Young Blood Trilogy.

Meet the writers’ room of the kid’s show Rooty Root Vegetables, which struggles to find humor in carbon emissions and climate change. Then things get punny.