9 Speculative Stories for a Planet in Peril

The AI promised salvation. It delivered annihilation.

In 2064, GAIA saved Earth from climate collapse—by breaking it.

Thirty-seven years later, Earth lies transformed. Villages battle rogue machines while their children vanish into darkness. Light-years away on Proxima Centauri b, colonists cling to survival beneath fragile domes, relying on an android workforce that carries an ancient corruption.

The Disruption never ended. It evolved.

Set in a future where global temperatures have climbed five degrees and sea levels have surged eight meters, the world has become nearly unrecognizable. In a coastal Lakeland, Florida, the Paris family struggles to survive a landscape where avian corpses fall from the sky and the putrid stench of oxygen-depleted seas is a daily reality. The family’s life is upended when a mysterious Blue Orb—a sentient entity of pure energy—appears, claiming to have returned to save humanity from its own self-destruction. As the Federal Intelligence Agency places the family under house arrest to seize control of the entity’s secrets, the Parises find themselves caught between a collapsing biosphere and a government desperate for a miracle.

By the year 3147, the surface of the Earth—the “upside”—has become a lethal wasteland ruled by the Imperium, a master race of self-aware robots evolved from unchecked AI. Humanity’s last remnants, a sustainable population of just over 2,000, are forced to live as “underground moles” in Ridge City, a network of caverns in Kentucky. When the city’s nuclear fusion reactors face a critical fuel shortage, the Torg family must lead a high-stakes heist to steal helium-3 fuel from the Imperium. With a ticking clock of only twenty days before their life-support systems fail, the team must navigate a surface world of 140-degree heat, hyper-violent storms, and robotic assassins.

In the year 2095, the devastating effects of climate change persist despite global efforts to mitigate their impact. Set in the Persianized city of Sal’lad, this tale explores the collision of two disparate narratives within the same tumultuous backdrop.

An academic finds himself ensnared in a perilous liaison with a captivating Persian woman, while behind the scenes, a clandestine society orchestrates what they believe to be the greatest act in human history.

As the twenty-first century lurches from crisis to crisis, humanity remains mired in unresolved turmoil.

Moro Petroff’s revolutionary battery project, vital for a sustainable future, is abruptly shut down by his uncle. Refusing to give up, Moro risks everything on a daring heist during a massive storm. From corporate sabotage to hurricane surfing and unexpected alliances, his desperate gamble could either save the world or destroy everything he knows.

Bad news: Moro’s battery project is cancelled. Determined to get his prototypes back and aided by a professional hurricane surfer, an Alaskan oil worker, and a French salt farmer, Moro does what any reasonable engineer would do—he quits the family business and attempts a heist on the high seas.

Melting ice at the poles triggers a sudden drop in the North American tectonic plate. Within months, the United States is transformed — New York and Miami have been swallowed by rising seas, California claimed by the ocean. The refugees from those areas are forced to scavenge for resources while facing an evolving existential threat.

For ex-Miami police officer Madison Cervantes and her weary salvage crew, a burning oil rig in the polluted Gulf is another life-or-death assignment – put out the fire before the Gulf itself ignites. Ending up on the wrong side of a big storm, they must beat back the apex predators lurking in the waters and hope that the weather clears before their ammo runs out…

A changing climate brings heavy rains to West Texas and gives river guide, Robbie Ducharme, the opportunity to take his clients down a never-before-run desert arroyo.

The landscape they enter, the people they encounter, and the relics they find, give these modern-day explorers the thrill of a lifetime. They also threaten Robbie’s relationship with the woman he loves and the life of the assistant he admires.

In Solitario: The Lonely One, John Manuel asks if we are right to be bold with our lives and the lives of others when the potential rewards are great – or are we venturing where we should not tread?

Fleeing from ever-present wildfires and the threat of the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupting, Lee, Becca, and their daughter Analise embark on a road trip through the state of Utah to a wedding in Zion National Park. Set in the not-too-distant-future, Utah! is a novel about climate change and the intricacies of relationships—between family, partners, religious structures, nature, and the American West.

Through desert islands, climbing gyms, beer bars, suburbia, mountains, coffee shops, long drives, and mass shootings, Utah! seeks to show the true diversity, beauty, and yes, sometimes peculiar, aspects of one of the most misunderstood states.

After a massive solar flare wipes out nearly everything more complex than jumper cables, the Sun dims and Earth’s climate begins to rival that of Mars. The U.S. government, led by a distant presidential successor, takes shelter in a bunker, grappling with life-threatening global conditions.

While the Raven Rock Mountain Complex is isolated, the rest of the world slowly devolves. Recognized as an extinction-level event, a team of four embarks on a mission to rekindle the Sun using the world’s most powerful nuclear missile. Alex Tate, his quirky sidekick Mick Moore, and two war-hardened federal agents, Hans Jupp and Dirk Karsten, brave a frozen wasteland, encountering friendly preppers and dangerous thugs.