With superstorms, megadroughts, ecoterrorism and polluted police states, Loosed Upon the World offers chilling visions of near-futures decimated by global warming. Compiled by John Joseph Adams, the Hugo Award-winning editor of Lightspeed magazine and Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy series editor, this is the first major anthology of climate fiction, or cli-fi, a subgenre whose popularity is rising alongside average global temperatures.
The majority of these tales are effective, some especially so. Paolo Bacigalupi contributes two stories that take place in a desiccated southwestern United States where water is more valuable than human life. One of them, "Shooting the Apocalypse," feels like a missing chapter from his novel The Water Knife--not that this is a bad thing. It and Bacigalupi's other story, "The Tamarisk Hunter," are among this collection's strongest entries.
Sean McMullen's "The Precedent" careens into a terrifying dystopic vision of the World Audit, where "tippers"--everyone born before the year 2000--are held to brutal account for their roles in ruining the earth. Masked auditors pass death sentences for climate crimes like squandering resources or denying climate change. Like other gems in this genre, "The Precedent" forces readers to confront their own complicity in global warming.
Even Margaret Atwood, who helped popularize cli-fi with her MaddAddam trilogy, makes an appearance, though her entry is more flash fiction than short story. Fans of speculative fiction and readers concerned about the potential future of our planet owe it to themselves to read Loosed Upon the World. --Tobias Mutter, freelance reviewer