S. Z. Attwell

Cli-Fi, or climate fiction, is not new to the world of literature. Jules Verne’s 1889 novel The Purchase of the North Pole is the earliest example I know of. However, cli-fi has seen an uptick in offerings over the past decade. Typically, cli-fi sticks to near future timelines with a distinct dystopian feel. Some novels, however, take us centuries into the future and employ unique engineering or adaptation methods to allow the characters to exist in the first place.

S. Z. Attwell’s Aestus: Book 1: The City is one of those books. Set long after a climate disaster that has left the surface of our planet incredibly difficult to inhabit, the story focuses on a solar engineer turned Patrol named Jossey Sokol and her discovery of the true threats to the society.

Primarily told from Jossey’s point of view, the story successfully weaves political intrigue, mystery, science fact, science fiction, classism, betrayal, action and even romance together in order to bring us into the City and beyond. This is a drama, a cli-fi that sometimes feels as operatic as Dune or Foundation. And while those two novels are set in a place far removed from Earth, Aestus: Book 1: The City is set here, and that makes it all the more possible…and very similar to the world of today.

To pull off so many elements of fiction in one book takes a lot of pages (700 or so), but the writing is smooth, without too much superfluous narration. It is easy to digest, and while it does end on a cliffhanger, Aestus: Book 1: The City does not leave us wondering about much. All in all, S. Z. Attwell’s novel is a fitting entry into the cli-fi library, and I look forward to reading Book 2.… (més)