Stephen Markley: Deluge (2023, Simon & Schuster)
English language
Published Dec. 11, 2023 by Simon & Schuster.
A US-centric view of the coming two decades as the climate and social cohesion rapidly break down. Amplifies the worst of current political & economic trends to create a truly terrifying but not-impossible dystopia. Told from a rich variety of perspectives, though compresses the pace of climate change improbably (I hope!). Intense, scary & draining.
The topic here is climate change and how different groups of people respond to the challenge, the threat, the opportunity — depending on their points of view. The author starts about 10 years in the past and then slowly moves forward about 20 years into the future, following various characters over a long arc.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover how honest the novel is, how it doesn't flinch from depicting the greed and corruption all around us, or from portraying the ugly results of climate breakdown and societal fracturing.
Truly a great book, highly recommended, though I'll warn it's not an easy read. It sometimes takes effort to keep up with everything that's happening, and it's often very sad, even disturbing. But I believe this is the most accurate projection of where we're probably going that I have ever read.
My only disappointment is that the conclusion, the final …
The topic here is climate change and how different groups of people respond to the challenge, the threat, the opportunity — depending on their points of view. The author starts about 10 years in the past and then slowly moves forward about 20 years into the future, following various characters over a long arc.
I was pleasantly surprised to discover how honest the novel is, how it doesn't flinch from depicting the greed and corruption all around us, or from portraying the ugly results of climate breakdown and societal fracturing.
Truly a great book, highly recommended, though I'll warn it's not an easy read. It sometimes takes effort to keep up with everything that's happening, and it's often very sad, even disturbing. But I believe this is the most accurate projection of where we're probably going that I have ever read.
My only disappointment is that the conclusion, the final chapter or two, seems to back off from the prevailing tone, intended perhaps to let the reader down gently. It's not exactly a happy ending, not after everything else we've seen, but it does seem slightly out of synch with what came before.
Amazing and terrifying
