What might the world look like in a few decades? At the beginning of the next century? Beyond that? These five science fiction books, all set on Earth in a not-too-distant future, offer both hope and despair. The future is what we make of it, and if 2024 is anything to go by, we’re making a damn mess.
Reworlding Ramallah edited by Callum Copley
What is “reworlding”? According to this striking anthology, it is the process of reimagining the real world “by generating a multiplicity of futures to affect the present positively.” The eight authors herein use science fiction as a means to call for change, to feed a revolutionary mindset, and to dream of a new future free of oppression. There are no utopias here, but harsh truths wrapped in speculative elements. (Onomatopee Projects, 2019)
Rise of the Red Hand by Olivia Chadha (The Mechanists #1)
After World War III and climate change devastated the population, the remaining nations formed the Planetary Alliance Commission. A ragtag group of dirt poor orphans and one black sheep son of a wealthy family join the rebellion against the corrupt leaders of the South Asian Province. With their hacking skills and mecha appendages, these teens use the SAP’s own technology against them. A dystopian future that still keeps hope at its core. (Erewhon Books, 2021)
A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger
Indigenous futurism doesn’t get nearly enough attention in the traditional publishing landscape, but leave it to Lipan Apache author Darcie Little Badger to bring it to the young adult market. Nina, a human girl, and Oli, a snake from the Reflecting World, collide in Texas. The two worlds are bound together, so the climate disasters and ecological destruction of the real world are causing dangerous ripples in the Reflecting World. They turn to Indigenous science and modern technology to attempt to undo the harms of Western ideologies. The future doesn’t have to be hover cars and super smart phones. It can also be reconnecting with your ancestors and cultural heritage. (Levine Querido, 2021)
Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi
This is probably the most realistic of all the books on this list, in terms of what is most likely to come true. Very broadly, Tochi Onyebuchi depicts a near future where the rich fled to the moon and now their poverty tourism is gentrifying the neighborhoods that remain. What do you do when the technology that is supposed to save the world is used instead to line the pockets of the already exorbitantly wealthy? The novel is both bleak and hopeful, a scathing critique and a call to action. (Tordotcom, 2022)
The Sleepless by Victor Manibo
Like Goliath, The Sleepless shows what happens when technology meant to help people becomes a tool of oppression and an expression of capitalistic greed. Journalist Jamie Vega lives in a near-future that’s more like what we were once promised, one with technology that makes life more convenient and expands our possibilities. But a not insignificant chunk of the population is also Sleepless, meaning they never sleep anymore. Victor Manibo asks us to consider what we are willing to accept and what it will take to get us to fight for something better. (Erewhon Books, 2022)
