Never Heard of Cli-Fi? Here Are 20 Books That'll Introduce You to the New Genre

The first book in N.K. Jemisin's trilogy, The Fifth Season takes place on a planet undergoing a phase of catastrophic climate change that happens every few centuries. In a society sharply divided along class and caste lines, three women struggle to cope with the oncoming storm. They all are "orogenes," or people who have the ability to manipulate energy and temperature, and they discover a dangerous plan to end the cycle of "fifth seasons" once and for all.

Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver, narrates what happens when Dellarobia, an unhappy housewife in rural Tennessee, discovers a swarm of monarch butterflies in the valley near her home. The discovery draws the attention of media and scientists alike, and she learns that the beautiful butterflies are actually a result of climate change, having migrated from their usual home in Mexico. Dellarobia comes to understand more about the frightening weather patterns that have been appearing and questions whether individuals can make a difference.

As in her best-known work, The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood creates a world that is both horrifying and horrifyingly close to home with Oryx and Crake. "Snowman," who may be the last human on Earth, is mourning the loss of his best friend Crake and the woman they both loved, Oryx. In his grief, he embarks on a journey through the strange wilderness that overtook a huge metropolis not long ago, on the heels of a corporation's genetic experiment that spun out of control.

Claire Vaye Watkins, famous for her contemporary depictions of the American West, translates those themes into a new genre with Gold Fame Citrus. At heart, the novel is about one woman's search for family and home, but the milieu in which she struggles is one ravaged by climate change. The West is nearly devoid of water, and the Rockies have been overwhelmed with desert sand, turning the landscape into an unforgiving, unending test of endurance.

Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death was optioned by George R. R. Martin for an HBO series, so you can bet the world in the novel is detailed and intense. Instead of following a Western city or elite scientists, however, Okorafor focuses on Onyesonwu, a woman in a segregated, post-apocalyptic fantasy world who is trying to protect her own developing powers from a mysterious enemy — while just trying to survive in this ravaged version of Africa.

In The Beast of Cretacea, Todd Strasser reimagines the classic Moby Dick and turns it into an allegory about creeping climate change. Ishmael is a teenage boy who wakes from stasis to discover that he's on a new, clean planet rather than the polluted Earth he left behind. Cretacea isn't all it seems, though, and his task becomes hunting down ocean beasts — including a legendary creature — to send back to an Earth severely depleted of its resources by climate change.

Set in an imagined Second Civil War, American War, by Omar El Akkad, follows Sarat, a girl born in Louisiana in 2074, when the state has been almost totally swallowed by the waters, bioterrorism and climate change have torn the whole country apart, and war is being fought over what remains of fossil fuels. When she's sent to a camp for displaced families, Sarat finds herself caught up in the war itself and making difficult choices that could affect the entire country's future.

Ian McEwan's Solar tells the story of a washed-up scientist, Dr. Michael Beard, who's become a shade of his former self. His participation in government climate-change research is a formality at best — until he stumbles into information that could reinvigorate his career and turn him into the hero who saves the world from itself.

Also titled Drowning Towers, George Turner's novel tells the story of a future Earth where government corruption and indifference sparks a seemingly unstoppable water disaster. Francis, a young boy who lives on government support in an increasingly difficult world, discovers the conspiracy to flood away their lives and goes on an adventure to escape the oncoming tides.

In James Bradley's Clade, a young couple seem to only have their fertility treatments to worry about. They're quickly proven wrong, as catastrophic storms, civil war, and a full-fledged pandemic sweep across the globe. Each global disaster seems to be almost unsurvivable, and yet these characters and the people around them attempt to forge onward into the future — whatever that may be.

Kim Stanley Robinson, a prolific cli-fi writer, returns with Green Earth, a sweeping tale of global climate change and unheeded warnings. At the beginning, a Capitol Hill staffer and his scientist wife try to warn those in power of the dangerous breakup of Arctic ice. But politics hinder their efforts, putting the fate of the Earth at the center of a battle between science and political ideology that may not resolve until it's too late.

With eerily timely subject matter, Odds Against Tomorrow is Nathan Rich's exploration of the battle between corporations and the unstoppable forces of nature. Mitchell Zukor, whose job it is to create plans to protect companies from climate-linked disasters, becomes an overnight celebrity when one of his doomsday scenarios comes true.

Sam J. Miller's Blackfish City is set on an Earth ravaged by climate change and natural disasters. The last city is in the defrosted Arctic Circle, but society has stratified and only the elite few enjoy a comfortable life. When a woman arrives in the city, riding an orca and accompanied by a polar bear, she serves as a conduit to bring together people from different parts of society to resist the creeping corruption and attempt to save what remains of humankind.

Set in a creepy future where evolution has begun to run in reverse, Louise Erdrich's Future Home of the Living God centers on Cedar, a pregnant young woman. Her pregnancy wouldn't be a big deal — if the onslaught of babies being born as primitive human species hadn't led to pregnant women being rounded up by the government. As society becomes increasingly paranoid and betrayal is commonplace, Cedar tries to figure out what's happening and protect herself and her unborn child.

When a new, seemingly idyllic planet is discovered in Jeanette Winterson's The Stone Gods, hope springs anew. The group sent to begin colonizing the planet, however, encounters disastrous results, and the novel jumps back and forth between the past, present, and future as humans (and robots) attempt to find a safe place to live and love.

Set in a futuristic New York City where climate change has led to catastrophic rising waters, Kim Stanley Robinson's New York 2140 tells the intertwined stories of the residents of one high-rise that remains above the waters. The lives of a trader, a detective, a reality star, a pair of young boys, and the squatters on the roof all intersect in a story about what happens in this world and who is allowed to thrive.

Taking a more YA-oriented approach, Saci Lloyd's The Carbon Diaries puts the plight of young people in a climate-ravaged world front and center. Sixteen-year-old Laura does her best to keep her life together and to keep up with the newly mandated "carbon rationing" implemented to try to reduce the chances of catastrophe. Of course, the plan doesn't work as hoped, and Laura's world is shattered when multiple natural disasters hit and her own family is directly impacted.

Frank Schatzing tells a story in The Swarm of the oceans rising up and taking back the Earth from humanity. Toxic sea life begins poisoning water supplies, sea shelves collapse, and it seems as if the sea has taken on a life of its own — and is out for revenge.

Imagine a world where some mysterious force has burned up all the water. In Thirst, Benjamin Warner portrays this very dilemma. The world grinds to a halt without this crucial resource, and the residents of a stranded small town find themselves morally compromised over and over as they struggle just to survive until plans for the future can be made.

In an eerie post-apocalyptic world, a calorie-seeking scavenger and a genetically engineered quasi-human slave cross paths in Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl. Calories have become currency in this future ravaged by bio-engineered plagues, and bio-terrorism is a commonplace tool of corporate warfare. As both Anderson and Emiko begin to question their place in this society, they begin questioning the new world itself.