I'm With the Bears: Short Stories from a Damaged Planet

by Mark Martin (Editor), Kim Stanley Robinson (Contributor), Nathaniel Rich (Contributor)

The magnitude of the global climate crisis is such that even the most committed environmentalists are liable to live in a state of denial. The award-winning writers collected here have made it their task to shake off this disbelief, bringing the incomprehensible within our grasp and shaping an emotional response to mankind’s unwitting creation of a tough new planet. From T. C. Boyle’s account of early eco-activists, to David Mitchell’s vision of a near future where civilization dwindles as oil sells for $800 a barrel—these stories blend speculative and literary fiction and range across time. The aim is to make the danger posed by climate change as accessible to the imagination as subjects more common to the best of contemporary fiction.

Royalties from I'm With the Bears will go to 350.org, an international grassroots movement working to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Environment, Climate Change, Climate Change Fiction, Nature, Anthologies

199 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Chris Blocker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories focusing on climate change, I'm With the Bears boasts an impressive list of writers and supports a worthy mission. Despite its initial promise, I'm With the Bears isn't all that impressive. Some of the stories revolve around an interesting subject, while others disappoint. What really plagues this collection is that almost all of the stories feel incomplete. There are some great sketches or drafts of stories here, but they never quite deliver.

The cover states that royalties from the sale of the book go to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere. I can't help but wonder, however, how much damage was done to the planet to manufacture this lackluster effort? Cut down enough trees to manufacture a first printing, box it up, ship it out to every major book retailer and library across the country and elsewhere. Committed fans of the ten authors represented may buy the book, but it seems unlikely it will sell much more than that. Rip the cover off the unsold copies, send it back to the distributor and throw the remaining 200 pages in the trash bin. Couldn't it at least have been printed on recycled paper or eco-friendly paper alternative? Like the stories themselves, I'm not sure this project was very well thought out.

[Renata · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m With the Bears: Short Stories from a Damaged Planet is a compilation of ten short stories written by ten different authors: Margaret Atwood, Paolo Bacigalupi, I.C Boyle, Toby Litt, Lydia Millet and David Mitchell, just to say some. Although each one of them has its own style they are all written in short and mostly simple sentences to create an effect of urgency, anxiety and fear in the reader. That, I believe is the success of the book. It does create an atmosphere of shock and fear by which it intends to scare the reader into real action. However that atmosphere gives away the utilitarian purpose since the very beginning, which makes it also its biggest flaw.
The introduction is interesting. It gives the reader a brief panorama of what has happen in environmental studies for the past decade and basically says the book’s purpose is to open people’s eyes about the importance and severity of the Global Warming situation. The reader might get interested and read beyond it but when the first chapter comes along it becomes clear that the book has little to do with literature. In fact, it shows more effort in making the radical environmentalist message go through than in trying to tell a good story. It is the same message and the same atmosphere throughout the whole book. In my opinion, it makes it lose readers. That shocking and fearful tone loses strength very easily and the reader starts asking for something worth for he/she to keep reading; something that can’t be delivered due to its utilitarian treatment of literature. Which brings us its biggest failure: the lack of literary means beyond its environmental purpose. This limits the possibilities of creating something worth reading, the language variables and all the different connections that could be made with other aspects of life. For example, one of the characteristics that I thought could’ve been explored deeper, was the relationship between nature and human beings. The relationship that comes across most of the stories is that in which the humans need and must protect nature by standing with it (like the title suggest “to be with the bears”) against all those who intend to damage it. Which takes the reader back to an anthropocentric point of view. Humanity’s existence depends on nature and therefore it is a human duty to defend it. This statement looks at nature as an object needed to preserve humanity and not as a part of the same web in which all living beings interact.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

ohhh man short story collections are not a fun read! A few real gems in here, but mostly they varied between okay or straight-up not enjoyable - climate change is something I'm passionate about and also something criminally under-written (an exciting combo for finding something cool!), but idk if this is the right medium to do it any justice. The stories are so stop-start that ideas don't get expanded, picked apart, explored; instead they quickly start to repeat themselves. A few stories were only distinguishable by transplanting the same semi-post-apocalyptic tropes into a different part of the western hemisphere. Governments, gangs, ecosystems and habitats are all background noise to intimate human stories, but when the stories are geared to exploring this all-encompassing social/ecological background material the intense character-focussed obsession of the short story really misses the mark. You'll get something vague about drought and water rations explained at the start, then four pages of a man saying how hot it is. There was a very good story with a talking frog, and one called Diary Of An Interesting Year which was indeed interesting (and also v urgent and moving). There was also a story where three blokes climb a mountain and get sad.

[Georgia Zarola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone should read this collection of stories. The comparison of what is happening to our planet now and the imagined future of devastation that seems more plausible by the day is blunt frightening. Beautifully written by a diverse group of authors.

[Antonio Ceté · Rating 3 out of 5]

Varios relatos bien reguleros (el de Margaret Atwood en fin, bueno, no cobró la señora por escribirlo), pero otros bien de ideas y de cambio climático contado con gracia. KSR -> guapo, torero.

[Miss Bookiverse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed half the stories (Boyle's, Millet's, Rich's, Mitchell's, and Atwood's) and was very bored by the other half. Also, I don't think the editor did a very good job with the overall composition of the collection. First of all, two of them are actually extracts from novels and I hate it when these are included in short story collections, especially if you only figure this out after looking at the imprint text. Second of all, for a collection about the environment, with an introduction that mentions Pakistan and Australia, it's terribly white and US/Eurocentric. There are no PoC authors, no voices from Australia, Asia, Africa or South America, only 3 out of 10 authors are female and we only get 3 female protagonists (out of which one is raped), no representation of queer people or the disabled either (Mitchell's story deals with Alzheimer's and ageism though). So yeah, considering that climate change concerns us all and is something we should all work against together this book does a very poor job at implementing the values that should go hand in hand with saving the environment.


The Siskiyou, July 1989 by T.C. Boyle ★★★★☆
I don't think I've ever read a story about environmental activism, so this one felt like a fresh topic to me. The excitement and also the fear and stress behind such an endeavor was palpable and I enjoyed the writing a lot, especially the last line.

Zoogoing by Lydia Millet ★★★★☆
Very little plot but I liked the observations and rumination about animals and the last of a species a lot. I didn't even notice that it was an extract from a longer novel.

Sacred Space by Kim Stanley Robinson ★★☆☆☆
Wow, this was boring. Too much description for my taste and only vague hints about what's going on with certain characters which is not surprising considering this is an extract from a novel >.>

Hermie by Nathaniel Rich ★★★★☆
My favorite so far! It's about a scholar reuniting with a hermit crab from his youth, and it broke my heart into tiny little pieces.

Diary of an Interesting Year by Helen Simpson ★☆☆☆☆
A diary written after an environmental apocalypse in 2040. The entries are very short and don't do justice to certain topics (sexual assault). The aloof manner in which the character writes about this could be a sign of trauma but I didn't appreciate the way such a serious topic is treated.

Newromancer by Toby Litt ★★☆☆☆
Futuristic story about an underground party. Wasn't for me. I felt like I didn't catch most of the references the story plays with. Also, this seemed to have very little to do with the environment?

The Siphoners by David Mitchell ★★★★☆
Finally another one to my tastes! A futuristic story about an old married couple that only wants to survive in a world marked by catastrophes. I enjoyed how it weaved together its 2 storylines and that it dealt with an uncommon topic such as ageism.

Arzèstula by Wu Ming1 ★★☆☆☆
A bit similar to Sacred Space but I liked Arzèstula better because the characters were more likable and because it explored the loss of a language.

The Tamarisk Hunter by Paolo Bacigalupi ★★☆☆☆
Once again, kind of similar to Sacred Space and Arzèstula, i.e. a bit boring and dry. A lot of the political water terms also went straight over my head.

Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet by Margaret Atwood ★★★★☆
Short but chilling and effective.

[Christopher Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well unlike a lot of other reviewers I found this collection an engrossing introduction to the climate fiction genre. Starting with Bill McKibben’s excellent short introduction, nearly all of these short fictional accounts are emotionally and conceptually engaging. High points for me were T.C. Boyle’s ‘The Siskiyou, July 1989’ – a powerful story of a thwarted environmental protest and a father’s love for his daughter; Helen Simpson’s ‘Diary of an Interesting Year’, a convincing and ghastly imagining of a young woman’s attempts to survive in an environmentally despoiled England; David Mitchell’s ‘The Siphoners’, a playful yet shocking imagining of a retired couple adapting to the breakdown of society; and Paolo Bacigalupi’s ‘The Tamarisk Hunter’, a beautifully rendered vision of a drought stricken southern US in which states now compete for the scarce water of the Colorado River. Nor is the collection all dystopian angst. Other stories in the collection such as Nathaniel Rich’s ‘Hermie’ or Lydia Millett’s ‘Zoogoing’ adopt a more light-hearted sardonic tone. However the consistent message of environmental collapse, human frailty and the powerful emotional meanings of loss, grief and solastalgia are recurring themes. Many people have clearly been underwhelmed by this collection, but for those of you familiar with the worsening projections of climate science, this collection is a must-read in engaging the emotions around our possible future and hopefully galvanising action towards change.

[Ran Prieur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although some of the money from this book is going to fight climate change, there is not a single story about climate change being stopped. I suppose that would be too implausible. Instead the stories are arranged to form a bleak narrative in which we first fail to prevent climate catastrophe, and then we suffer from it, and then (with a few exceptions) we fail to recover.

I thought there were a lot of boring bits and preachy bits, but also some great stuff. My favorites are the four in the middle of the book: "Hermie" is a gut punch of a story about a hermit crab who was a boy's imaginary friend, and reappears years later to seek his help. "Diary of an Interesting Year" is a very well written story of a woman surviving horrible times. "Newromancer" is the most alive story in the book, about young people having forbidden fun under a decrepit police state that justifies itself with ecology. And "The Siphoners" combines a story of the future with an ancient folk tale, both about the culling of old people. "Arzestula" is uneven, but I appreciate its optimism, and it should have gone at the end of the book.

[richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this was the state of 'climate fiction' ten years ago, no wonder we're in trouble. McKibben sets the expectations well in his introduction, but then the contributors consistently fail to meet those expectations. Some (I particularly enjoyed the stories from Mitchell and Litt) are interesting trifles, keyholes through which to peer at the wider work of those authors. But as a whole that's what this feels like - a marketing opportunity rather than a serious endeavor.

[Leonard · Rating 2 out of 5]

The introduction by Bill McKibben is great with some eye opening information about climate change. for example: 2010 - the warmest year on record. Nineteen nations set new all time temperature records. In all of recorded time the temperature had never hit 100 before in Moscow, but in August, 2010 it happened eight times. Normal annual rainfall in Pakistan averags three feet a year, but twelve feet fell in one week! The Indus river swelled until it coverage an area the size of Britain.

But the stories that follow this powerful introduction did not have near as much punch, except for Margaret Atwood's "Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet. Perhaps we haven't yet learned how to effectively write about such a phenomena as a dying planet. But we will keep trying, because it's a story that writers and other artists will have to tell, and we will have to tell it before it happens if we have any hope of survival.

[Karl-Friedrich Lenz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't like giving less than three stars to any fiction dealing with global warming, but this was just too awful.

The only story I halfway liked was the piece by Bacigalupo, which I had already read in his own collection "Pump Six".

The story by the Italian collective was annoying as hell. The story by Margaret Atwood wasn't a story, but only a couple of paragraphs of mildly interesting prose. I know she can do better than that.

Not one story in the whole volume gave an idea of what to actually do about global warming. If that's all the Bears got for friends, there doesn't seem to be much hope.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A great concept - an anthology of climate-change themed stories - with an impressive list of writers but mediocre results. Not a single stand-out among the pieces. Particularly problematic were those excerpted from novels (about a third of the collection) as they lacked the tension and closure of actual shorts.

While I'm glad that the proceeds for the book's sale went to McKibben's 350.org, the emissions required for the paper, printing and distribution of the book seem counterproductive. Perhaps a download only? If the stories were powerful or provocative enough to be wake-up calls for a wide audience, it might be worth it. These, though, preach uninspiringly to the choir.

[Borum · Rating 4 out of 5]

한달동안 민음사의 밑줄긋고 생각잇기 이벤트로 함께 한 책.
처음에는 솔직히 생각보다 얇아서 아, 이 책을 어떻게 한 달동안이나 읽지?했다.
하지만 짧은 이야기들이 의외로 묵직한 무게로 다가와서 이야기 하나하나마다 숨돌리기와 곰씹기가 필요했다.
디스토피아 소설을 좋아하는 나로서도 어떤 이야기들은 너무 잔인하고 참혹했다.
무엇보다 좀비물이나 황당한 공상과학소설이 아닌 좀더 현실성이 와닿는 이야기들이어서 그런 듯하다.
심지어 어떤 소설들은 2040년 등 연도까지 명시되어 있고
모르는 공간이 아닌 바로 우리가 알던, 하지만 더이상 알던대로가 아닌 공간이 나오고
동물원 속에 갇힌 동물들처럼 침몰하는 자연계와 약육강식의 법칙 속에 갇힌 채 인간성을 잃고 그들이 무시하던 '짐승'이 되는 것을 드러낸다.

​환경문제에 대한 여러 측면을 다룬 이 이야기들은 크게 현재를 배경으로 삼는 이야기들과 미래를 배경으로 삼는 이야기들로 나뉜다.
현재는 미래에 대한 불안감이 엄습하는 것을 애써 눌러버리는 모습들이 주로 보이고
미래는 그 불안감이 현실이 되어 뒤늦게 후회하고 절망하는 모습들이 보인다.

옮긴이의 말에서 나온 고은 시인의 시구

내려갈 때 보았네
올라갈 때 보지 못한 그 꽃

옮긴이가 후기 쓸 때에서야 좌파 출판사인 Verso에서 만든 책이라는 것을 깨달았다는 걸 표현하기 위에 언급한 것이지만 이것은 일이 닥치고 지나가서야 후견지명이 생기는 인간의 어리석음을 빗댄 게 아닐까.
뒷간 들적과 날적이 다른 여측이심처럼 꽃을 둘러볼 여유가 생기면 차라리 다행이지
그냥 사태가 터진 후에야 후회하고 잃어버린 것을 그리워하는 인간의 모습을 그리기 위해 현재와 미래 간의 대조를 위해 이 책을 구성한게 아닐까 싶다.

찬란한 경력을 가진 작가들의 작품답게 모든 단편들이 각자의 매력과 고민거리를 안겨주었지만 그 중 가장 돋보인 것은 여태껏 몰랐던 Wu Ming Foundation의 작가 중 하나인 우밍1
그의 작품은 작가 자신도 이 책에 어울리는지 모르겠다고 할 정도로 독보적인 시점에 놓여있다.

의사가 이론만 알고 실습 없이 환자를 볼 수 없듯이
과학자들이 환경변화의 과학적 원리와 단서를 보여주는 것만으로는 부족하고
문학과 예술이 그런 환경변화의 위기를 실체로 와닿게 하는 경험을 제공한다면
우밍1은 이미 환경의 변화는 이루어지고 있고 앞으로도 계속될 것이 거의 확실한데
그 가깝고 불안한 미래에 대한 경각심을 불러일으키기만 하는 것이 과연 작가들의 일인가 하고 자문한다.

그는 그 너머 우리가 어떻게 해야할지에 대해서도 예술이 방향을 제시해야 한다고 생각하는 듯하고
그의 작품에서 말이나 눈이나 정신을 잃어도 또다른 방식으로 보고 소통하는 사람들이 매일 새로운 하루의 일과를 담담히 시작하는 것으로 변화 이후에도 좌절하지 않고 나아갈 길을 보여준다.

과거도 미래도 넘어서는 그 후의 더 먼 미래, beyond the insignificant future인 future perfect를 바라보고 있다. 그리고 환경문제를 넘어서서 언어와 서사, 그리고 시간의 서사인 역사 속의 영혼과 생명과 가능성을 다루며, 인간들과의 소통, 과거와 미래 간의 연결을 다루는 점에서 이 책에서 다른 분위기와 관점을 갖는다.


그리고 마지막으로 Margaret Atwood는 마치 예언 또는 후세에게 보내는 편지처럼 책 전체를 정리하고 마무리해준다.

포크송 가수 Joni Mitchell의 노래 Big Yellow Taxi의 유명한 가사도 이런 점을 노래하는데 이 노래가 70년대에 만들어졌지만 지금도 여전히 유효하다는 것과 책에서 나온 2040년이 너무나도 가까운 것이 참 슬프다.

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?

민음사 책이 표지도 이쁘고 편집도 깔끔하지만 아쉬운 점을 두 가지 들면
환경에 관한 책인데 앞의 반짝이는 표지가 소비욕구를 펌프질하긴 하는데 과연 재생이 쉬운 종이인가?
종이책을 사는 것이 미안해서 안그래도 거의 다 전자책으로 바꾸는 와중에 재생지를 책에 사용하는 출판사가 별로 없고 심지어 불필요한 띠지까지 제작해서 종이가 더 소모된다.

그리고 원서는 350.org라는 이산화탄소를 줄이고자하는 환경단체에 책의 로열티를 전부 기부하고 있다.
그렇기 때문에 원서의 느낌을 알기 위해서도 영어로 다시 샀지만 무엇보다 이런 점 때문에 영어전자책으로 샀다.
영어원서 뒤에는 350.org 단체를 소개하는 글도 있다.
한국에서도 이런 후원이 있으면 좋겠다.

책을 덮으며 얼마전 그린피스 후원을 하게 되며 받은 북극곰 뱃지를 보며 인간과 곰이 함께 살 수 있는 세상을 꿈꾸어본다.

[Albert Faber · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short stories from a damaged planet is an apt subtitle for this collection. The general theme is dystopia, introduced by Bill McKibben so we know it all has to do with climate change spiralled out of control. Most stories picture a Mad Max-scape, a world of subsistence survival in a world of natural poverty, often overseen either by rambling gangs of thugs or a 1984-type autocratic government. These dystopian worlds are about loss and regret, very much variations on the end-scene of Planet of the Apes, crying out "where did we go wrong?"

The stories are generally fair enough. David Mitchell is good as ever, with a story that is basically a pre-study for the last chapter of The Bone Clocks. I liked Toby Litt, who shimmers more hope and humanity in his story than the others do. I also liked Wu Ming 1, who I'd never heard of but who is one of an Italian writer collective. Curious to read more from that. Margaret Atwood is prominent on the cover, but only offers a disappointing three pages of naive capitalist critique, so don't be fooled by that. Two stars may be a little under-rated, but three really is too much. 2 1/2 then.

What I said: fair enough, but this type of end-of-world warning has more than done it's job. This offers no inspiration whatsoever. I would suggest Jamieson/Nadzam with Love in the Anthropocene on find ideas on living in an altered world, rather than these stories on survival in a damaged world.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a useful collection for teaching cli-fi and it was thoroughly enjoyable, though it suffered some for its breadth; I wish it had focused more narrowly on a single environmental theme. The stories didn't hang together to form a coherent anthology, and each seemed invested in its own agenda in a disconcerting way. I enjoyed David Mitchell's contribution the most, perhaps because he used it to flesh out the best part of The Bone Clocks. I also loved T. C. Boyle's story of Earth Firsters, "Sacred Space" by Kim Stanley Robinson, "The Tamarisk Hunter" by Paolo Bacigalupi, and "Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet" by Margaret Atwood. I enjoyed Nathaniel Rich's "Hermie," an absurdist experiment designed to evoke environmental refugees, mass extinctions, and toxic nostalgia all at once.

Lydia Millet's writing is always beautiful, but I didn't feel like the consideration of animality in "Zoogoing" was particularly fruitful, and while I enjoyed the attempt to conceptualize an alternative method of community and kin-making in "Arzèstula," the end result lacked something. My least favorite contributions were "Newromancer" and "Diary of an Interesting Year," both of which struck me as being simultaneously contrived and overly didactic.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second volume for my global environmentalism book group. I won;t be able to attend the meeting this week, which is too bad, as I have MANY questions about these stories. To me, they seem a bit "uneven", and the speculative nature of them is curious when we know so much about what IS happening to the environment. I guess the wild card is that we don't know how humans will always respond, and these stories attempt to show that. My favorites were TC Boyle's "The Siskiyou, July, 1989" and Margaret Atwood's "Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet". Perhaps I like these because they are written by 2 of my all time favorite authors. Atwood, I can see using in the classroom--have students make a "timeline" according to her descriptions in the story, and see where we are at, and how we are currently making her predictions described in the capsule a reality. Boyle's I like because it shows how well-intentioned activists can make matters worse.

[Szymon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tematyka ważna, ale literacko te opowiadania są bardzo, bardzo nierówne, skażone zbytnim udziwnianiem rzeczywistości niestety, dziwnymi konstruktami i wizjami przyszłości. Najlepiej wychodzą te najmniej udziwnione - Zoogoing, Tamarisk Hunter. Pięknie kończy książkę Atwood króciusieńkim tekstem. Przy "Hermie" miałem oczy pełne łez. Większość jednak jest mocno przeciętna. Z jednym wyjątkiem.

Ale najbardziej chciałbym wyróżnić fenomenalne, intymne, proste i naprawdę głęboko poruszające opowiadanie "Sacred Space" Kima Stanley'a Robinsona. Gdyby z takich tekstów składał się cały zbiór, byłoby 10/10, bo ma wszystko, czego potrzeba - prostą historię, piękny klimat, melancholię i namysł nad rzeczywistością (oraz, jako jedno z niewielu opowiadań tutaj, jakieś większe tło psychologiczne dla bohatera głównego). Nie opiera się na łatwym straszeniu postapokaliptyczną wizją przyszłości gdzie bellum omnium contra omnes, a raczej na daniu możliwości samodzielnego poczucia sprawy. Perełka.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had this book on my shelf for 13 years before finally getting around to it! As a passionate 'Greenie' this is a great collection of pulp-style stories, pretty much all of them being in the science-fiction/speculative/dystopian fiction format. And pretty all of them could be expanded into novels. In many ways this short story collection reminds me of the seminal 'cyberpunk' anthology which came out in the late 80s..

While I enjoyed all the stories including Helen Simpson's Cormac McCathyesque 'diary of an interesting year' and the Italian collective Wu Ming 1's 'Arzestula', my favourite story was 'Zoogoing' by Lydia Millet, a Ballardian or Palahniukian story about a sexually repressed Corprorate stooge who finds liberation and meaning breaking into zoos to hang out with endangered species, where the 'death' drive of Ballard's Crash or Pallanhniuks 'fight club' is replaced with a 'life force' of feral nature.

[Dani Pergola · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge 2022 #5: Read an anthology featuring diverse voices, which I regret because it became clear that this actually did not feature diverse voices at all. All authors were from white from the US or Europe (even Wu Ming1, which is a pseudonym for a collective of Italian authors) and only 3/10 authors were women. Beyond that, all stories were written in the same, vaguely depressing apocalyptic style of realistic fiction. My favorite was Arzèstula because it broke that mold a little bit with some vague hopefulness and a story that bordered on SFF. Honestly, the stories as a whole were boring. For the world class authors represented here, I was not impressed with the quality. I love environmental fiction but this book was a flop. Would not recommend.

[Nihal Vrana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that it was a very good idea as a story collection, although in the end, it was a bit loose how people took the concept, and they didn't get the same level of commitment from each writer (which can be said for 90% of story compilations, though). The first story by TC Doyle is my favourite in the compilation, it is very original. Some big hitters like Robinson and Mitchell turned in high-quality work, which is maybe not at the quality of their masterpieces but still quite strong (the rather positive angle of Robinson's is something I appreciated). Litt's is the most quirky entry, and the one I like the least is Atwood's. All in all, it is a good collection on environmental issues, has interesting approaches in the stories, not really preachy.

[Albertus Januardy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm With the Bears

Falls a bit short despite its intriguing premise, a collection of short stories by some of my favourite author, (Atwood, Mitchell, Bacigalupi).
Some of the stories are really good, some of them don't really leave the same impression.
But nonetheless, I found it sad and impressive at the same time that these dystopian stories about environmental and climate changes, some of them from few decades ago, feels even more and more relevant nowadays. It really does provoke us to think "Where do we go from here?"

Time Capsule Found on a Dead Planet by Atwood is definitely the highlight for me.

[Darian Lorrain · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoy climate fiction, and short stories, so I'm not exactly sure how this collection went so terribly wrong. There are a few stories I enjoyed, but overall the book was painfully boring and failed to engage me in a subject (climate change) that I am already deeply passionate about, so I consider that a major flop. Especially surprising given the impressive assortment of writers (of course they boast that Margaret Atwood is featured but she wrote a 2 page story, so maybe don't let that entice you into buying the book). Definitely would not recommend this as a book to convince someone of the severity of climate change.

[Sheehan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked it up because I recognized and had read a few of the contributing authors, like all short story comps there were some hits and some mehs.

The Kim Stanley Robinson short story was a fun breakout version of an episode from on of his longer novel length stories, so I enjoyed that greater detail on another tale. The book circles various aspects of a challenged future, what these stories do really well is getting at the personal level of experience of impacted futures, the things I guess fiction does best.

It was an interesting quick read for those who want to dip a toe in a variety of Climate Fiction, but not commit to any one lengthy narrative.

[Bradford D · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book of short stories is notable for the Bacigalupi story that led to his book “The Water Knife” and for a short piece by Margaret Atwood which is, as always, brilliant. There are a couple more stories that are at least interesting, but the rest of the book is filler crap that barely even conforms to the theme of the book, which is the consequences of global climate change; they are more interested in talking about kids and god and relationships. Yuck, save it for the romance novel section.

[Izzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars because a few of the short stories bored me to death. Here are the ones worth reading:

Hermie by Nathaniel Rich — funny interaction between a marine biology researcher and a nostalgic hermit crab from his childhood

Newromancer by Toby Litt — an unlikely couple ends up on a risky date in a post apocalyptic world

The Siphoners by David Mitchell — explores wisdom-narratives, geronticide, and scarcity through the lens of a 60-something year old professor

Time Capsule Found on the Dead Planet by Margaret Atwood — iconic, short and simple, self-explanatory

[Rob Caswell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately I found this a disappointing and forgettable read. Most of the stories lacked a solid structure and compelling message. Instead most of the works seemed like prosaic mood exercises, providing vaguely climate change themes woven into a setting in search of a story. Even the SF headliners here - Kim Stanley Robinson, Margaret Atwood, and Paulo Bacigalupi - left me underwhelmed.

I guess the consolation is that at least a portion of this purchase went to a good cause: 350.org

[Edmund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of uneven, but not unexpected as a collection of short stories from various authors. TC Boyle's is the best written overall. Helen Simpson's post-apocalyptic "Diary of an Interesting Year" is surely, and appropriately, no Bridget Jones's Diary. Stark and sadly plausible. Margaret Atwood's contribution, while fleeting, is also quite affecting.

[Erika Janet · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you don't mind, would you be able to check out my blog. I post book reviews on there and we have discussions on my Instagram - thank you!

Bottles of Books
I’m With the Bears by Bill McKibben and Others is a collection of short stories surrounding the planet and the ecological crisis it is currently in, a crisis that is being exacerbated by humans. This collection of ten short stories are written by authors, economists and those passionate about the environment, the most well-known author being The Handmaid’s Tale Margaret Atwood.
I was thoroughly excited to read this book, especially because it had well-known authors and economists, and I was desperate to read something about the environment. Bill McKibben states in his introduction that perhaps fiction authors writing about the environment would be one way in which the crisis reaches people, and I could only hope so.
The first story was interesting and dealt with issues that I think are often not talked about, for example, the fact that environmentalists and activists can often themselves be out of touch with the reality they are fighting for.
Another aspect which I was heavily pleased to see was the discussions of topics both in the present and the future. This presented the reader with the context of what the world is like currently, and compared it to a hypothetical vision of what the future may hold, with war, rationing of resources, and further disasters like flooding. The book makes every effort to ensure the reader is sure to grasp the dire situation the world is in, and hopefully feel more inspired to act now.
As for the weaknesses of the book, I felt like most of the stories were boring or dealt with the stereotype of radical activists. For a discussion about the environment, I was hoping some of these stories would move me or stimulate me to do more than I already do, but I never really felt like this book had that impact.
Overall, if you’re someone who doesn’t know much about the environment, or doesn’t read about the crisis, then perhaps this book may be for you. I think if you’re someone already heavily involved in the fight for climate change then this book might not inspire you as much as it could’ve done. This book, however, is still a step forward in the right direction as everyone should be taking about the climate crisis. There is information below on further information regarding climate change and what you can do to help.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compilation of 10 writers, including Margaret Atwood. Got this from Orion Magazine but it sat (for years) in my bedroom book pile. Very futuristic stories, all (of course) making an environmental statement. Despite Margaret Atwood’s presence, and Bill McKibben’s introduction, it was sort of “ho-hum” for me. Giving it away.

[Courtney · Rating 2 out of 5]

2-3 stars idk, i wouldn’t recommend it.

There were a couple of good stories, but as a whole collection, it wasn’t particularly impactful, and it does feel outdated. Nothing about the stories, characters, or problems felt imaginative. Perhaps readers (me) in 2023 (a decade after this was published) just expect more from eco/climate fiction now (a good sign, I think).