Natural Resources: A Novel [9781552455432]

Overview

Climate fiction that urges us to find a new, more balanced world before it’s too late 

In the near future, climate change has divided the world in two: the domed ‘smart cities,’ where nature flourishes through sophisticated technological controls; and outside the domes, where small groups of people eke out a living in ‘autonomous villages’ and off-the-grid communities. In this golden era of green capitalism, private firms are contracted to manage the planetary environment, none more successfully than Torrents.

Clémence Saint-Pierre, Torrents’ young Head of Comms, is lost in her routine until the unthinkable happens: the Gulf of Saint Lawrence is emptied of marine life overnight. The ensuing crisis unleashes mass protests, and Clémence is followed by a mysteriously connected woman, a fox, and a flying drone. As the company seeks to understand the disaster, Clémence unravels a sinister plot and secret experiments that make her question her faith in her employer and society.

Natural Resources presents a world of bioengineered creatures, human-AI amalgams, interspecies assemblages with unified consciousness, and mysterious mists with magical properties. But this alternate future is, above all, a cogent and lyrical critique of capitalism and contemporary society’s unwillingness to deal with climate change.