Splinterlands

In this dystopian trilogy opener, an elderly scientist reminisces, wondering why both the planet and his family fell apart. Part Field Notes from a Catastrophe, part 1984, part World War Z, this striking dystopian novel takes us deep into the battered, shattered world of 2050. The European Union has broken apart. Multiethnic great powers like Russia and China have shriveled. America's global military footprint has virtually disappeared, and the United States remains united in name only. Nationalism has proven the century's most enduring force as ever-rising global temperatures have supercharged each-against-all competition and conflict among the now three hundred-plus members of an increasingly feeble United Nations. As he navigates the world of 2050, Julian West offers a roadmap for the path we're already on, a chronicle of impending disaster, and a faint light of hope. He may be humanity's last best chance to explain how the world unraveled-if he can survive the savage beauty of the Splinterlands. Praise for Splinterlands "In a chilling, thoughtful, and intuitive warning, foreign policy analyst Feffer . . . takes today's woes of a politically fragmented, warming Earth and amplifies them into future catastrophe . . . . This novel is not for the emotionally squeamish or optimistic; Feffer's confident recitation of world collapse is terrifyingly plausible, a short but encompassing look at world tragedy." -Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "Feffer's book is a wild ride through a bleak future, casting a harsh, thought-provoking light on that future's modern-day roots." ?Foreword Reviews "A startling portrait of a post-apocalyptic tomorrow that is fast becoming a reality today. Fast-paced, yet strangely haunting, Feffer's latest novel looks back from 2050 on the disintegration of world order told through the story of one broken family-and offers a disturbing vision of what might await us all if we don't act quickly." -Barbara Ehrenreich, New York Times–bestselling author of Nickel and Dimed and Had I Known, and founder of the Economic Hardship Reporting Project

A devious corporation attacks a farm commune in former Vermont where one scientist just might be able to save the planet. Arcadia's defense corps is mobilized to fend off what first appears to be a routine assault, one of the many that the community must repulse from paramilitary forces every year. But as sensors report a breach in the perimeter wall, even eighty-year-old Rachel Leopold shoulders a weapon and reports for duty. The attack, it turns out, has been orchestrated by one of the world's largest corporations, CRISPR International, and it is interested in stopping Rachel's research into stopping global warming. As Arcadia prepares to defend itself against the next CRISPR attack, Rachel contacts Emmanuel Puig, the foremost scholar of her ex-husband's work, to get information that she can use to stop CRISPR. Arcadia intersperses the action with short reports from Emmanuel on his interactions with Rachel as they meet, via virtual reality, in different parts of the world-Brussels, Ningxia, and finally Darwin. The novel concludes with an explosive, unexpected twist that forces a re-evaluation of all that has come before. Praise for Frostlands "A worthy sequel to the thought-provoking Splinterlands, Frostlands is triumphant and absorbing science fiction, full of ecological and societal warnings. It is a unique and imaginative look at a future Earth scarred by environmental neglect." -Foreword Reviews "Feffer expands the urgent environmental warnings of Splinterlands in a slim, standalone sequel that's equally dire and sinister but more leisurely paced . . . . Devotees of near-future science fiction adventures will root for resolute and energetic Rachel on her quest to save Earth." -Publishers Weekly "By taking us on a cautionary journey into a future planetary collapse where the term "one per cent" is redefined in a terrifying way, John Feffer forces us to look deeply at our own society's blindness to ecological apocalypse and greed. But the novel's enchantment goes beyond dystopia: the quest for salvation depends on a crusty female octogenarian who would make Wonder Woman salivate with envy." -Ariel Dorfman

2052. The world is a mess. The climate change meltdown has triggered an endless cycle of natural disasters. Nationalist paramilitaries battle against religious extremists. Multinational corporations, with their own security forces, have replaced global institutions as the only real power-brokers. Waves of pandemics have closed borders with such regularity that travel has become mostly virtual. Aurora, a middle-aged sociologist, tries not to think about how the world has turned so chaotic and dangerous. At university, she focuses on her students. At home, it’s her children. She devotes her spare time to writing poetry. She’s relatively comfortable, but not particularly happy. And she’s angry at how small her life has become. Then one day a strange woman walks into Aurora’s life and, in an instant, the world’s chaos gets personal. Suddenly the obscure professor has a target on her back and the fate of the world in her hands. Her salvation, and that of the planet as well, lies in the mysteries locked inside the head of this enigmatic woman who has appeared on her doorstep. Unlocking those mysteries will take Aurora on a virtual journey around the fragmented globe and up against the world’s most powerful corporation. Songlands, the stand-alone finale to the Splinterlands trilogy, describes humanity’s last shot at solving the world’s problems. Can Aurora assemble a team to reverse the splintering of the international community and avert an even more dystopian future?