Top Adult Cli-Fi NovelsLike this list

25 items

• Dune

  Herbert, Frank

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  The classic space opera that helped to define what Sci-fi is today. The harsh conditions of Dune, the scarcity of water, the power of nature on full display: it's a cli-fi novel through and through.

• The Fifth Season

  Jemisin, N. K.

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  A fantastical story of a world ruled with an iron code all to prepare for and prevent the coming of the world's dreaded "5th Season" when the sun goes dark and the world becomes nearly uninhabitable.

• Hummingbird Salamander

  VanderMeer, Jeff,

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  Loved for his Annihilation series, VanderMeer offers a wonderful conspiracy thriller centered on climate change and the history of a now deceased ecoterrorist.

• How High We Go in the Dark

  a Novel

  Nagamatsu, Sequoia,

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  Clearly influenced by the recent pandemic, How High We Go in the Dark imagines a world rocked by a plague set free when the ice caps melted. Similar in many ways to Cloud Atlas, this story is told through several small stories and wildly…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Light Pirate

  Brooks-Dalton, Lily, 1987-

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  A story of climate change and its effects on humanity told through the lens of a young Floridian girl named after the hurricane that brought society to the brink as she grows up in world that only continues to spiral out of mankind's…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Trashlands

  Stine, Alison, 1978-

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  Similar in many respects to Ship Breaker, Trashlands follows the story of a mother trying to eke out a living and save her son in a world that has turned trash into a currency since the production of new plastics has been banned worldwide.

• Ship Breaker

  Bacigalupi, Paolo

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  Following the melting of the icecaps, humanity has been struggling to survive, turning to scavenging old shipwrecks for treasures and materials to survive in their post-flood economy.

• Blackfish City

  Miller, Sam J.,

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  Set on an already ravaged Earth, one of the last few civilizations is located in the defrosted Arctic north. Despite barely surviving this apocalypse, though, humanity continues to stratify between rich and poor. But then a strange woman…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Windup Girl

  Bacigalupi, Paolo

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  Paying dearly for the sins of their forefathers, a city in Thailand remains standing only because of the flood walls that hold back the rising ocean. Starved for clean water and edible food, many individuals work to eke out or even…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Something New Under the Sun

  a Novel

  Kleeman, Alexandra,

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  Corporate greed, conspiracy, and climate change abound in a mystery centered in an all-too-real imagining of a Hollywood and California that have been ruined by draught and wildfires.

• Gold Fame Citrus

  Watkins, Claire Vaye,

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  A post-apocalyptic vision of a future where California has turned into a savage desert. Yet, in spite of the danger, those who still call this land home haven't really seen the error of their ways, living freely and dangerously.

• The High House

  a Novel

  Greengrass, Jessie, 1982-

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  Following the story of a family trying to eke out a living on the titular house on the high hill, isolated from any other potential survivors of the great flood that has turned a community into an island.

• Dry

  Shusterman, Neal,

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  An often ignored aspect of your standard cli-fi fantasy, Schusterman uses Dry to explore the fall of society through the threat of water scarcity from a very direct and personal angle.

• Clade

  Bradley, James, 1967-

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  A story of desperate survival as a young couple, initially only concerned with getting fertility treatment, are swept up in the threat of massive storms, a civil war, and a global pandemic that individually could have ended all human life.

• Who Fears Death

  Okorafor, Nnedi

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  An expansive and thoughtful fantasy detailing the life of a human named Onyesonwu as she struggles to survive in a segregated, post-apocalyptic Africa.

• Oryx and Crake

  a Novel

  Atwood, Margaret, 1939-

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  Potentially the last human on earth, "Snowman" tours the remnants of his destroyed world, reminiscing and mourning the loss of his best friend, Crake; the woman they both loved, Oryx; and the rise of genetic experimentation that destroyed…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The End We Start From

  Hunter, Megan, 1984-

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  The debut novel of Megan Hunter tells the story of a mother and her newborn traveling and surviving in the chaotic British countryside, made dangerous now that London has been claimed by the sea.

• Flight Behavior

  Kingsolver, Barbara

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  Though not originally written as a Cli-fi story, Flight Behavior is lauded as a must-read in the genre. Following the struggles of a family as they notice the irregular behavior of some monarch butterflies, seeing it as a sign of the…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• We Are Unprepared

  a Novel

  Reilly, Meg Little,

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  Part of the growing prepper movement, this story tells the story of a couple and their friends who move to Vermont in hopes of surviving the effects of global warming. In spite of their plans, though, it becomes clear that they were…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Ministry for the Future

  Robinson, Kim Stanley,

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  A story of the not-too-distant future told from anecdotes and fictional eye witness accounts detailing how climate change the lives of individual people.