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Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future
An imaginative anthology of climate fiction from emerging new voices, curated by the editors of Grist Magazine.
For many of us, the thought of our planet centuries in the future signals a volatile our world devastated by climate change, our people bitter and broken. But this shining anthology presents an alternative future. These twelve winning selections from Grist’s Imagine 2200 short story contest shirk the fear and mourning that often mark speculative climate fiction, daring instead to dream of humanity’s varied communities meeting planetary challenges in fascinating and novel ways.
Imagine 2200 was founded to counter the dominance of the dystopian in futurist writings, and to “ensure climate stories and characters represent diverse voices, authentic cultures, and the intersectional reality of the climate crisis.” Metamorphosis beautifully elucidates those themes, featuring a wide array of thought—Afro-, Asian, Indigenous, Latinx, disabled, feminist, and queer futurisms, hopepunk, solarpunk, and more. In “To Labor for the Hive,” a beekeeper finds purpose and new love after collaborating on a bee-based warning system for floods. “Cabbage A Prognostic Autobiography” presents an ecologically rebalancing California where an Indian family preserves traditions through food and dance across generations. And in “And Now the Shade,” a Mexican bioengineer finds the answer to a perplexing problem in the dreams of her dying grandmother. Each of these powerful stories offers a glimpse of a future built not on cynicism, but on “sustainability, inclusivity, and justice,” testifying to the power of human courage and collective resilience.
Edited by Grist and introduced by Sheree Renée Thomas, a New York Times best-selling author and editor of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Metamorphosis will electrify and activate readers concerned about our “future ancestors” and the fate of all our attending flora and fauna. These stunning stories imagine a tomorrow in which we do more than we thrive—together.
For many of us, the thought of our planet centuries in the future signals a volatile our world devastated by climate change, our people bitter and broken. But this shining anthology presents an alternative future. These twelve winning selections from Grist’s Imagine 2200 short story contest shirk the fear and mourning that often mark speculative climate fiction, daring instead to dream of humanity’s varied communities meeting planetary challenges in fascinating and novel ways.
Imagine 2200 was founded to counter the dominance of the dystopian in futurist writings, and to “ensure climate stories and characters represent diverse voices, authentic cultures, and the intersectional reality of the climate crisis.” Metamorphosis beautifully elucidates those themes, featuring a wide array of thought—Afro-, Asian, Indigenous, Latinx, disabled, feminist, and queer futurisms, hopepunk, solarpunk, and more. In “To Labor for the Hive,” a beekeeper finds purpose and new love after collaborating on a bee-based warning system for floods. “Cabbage A Prognostic Autobiography” presents an ecologically rebalancing California where an Indian family preserves traditions through food and dance across generations. And in “And Now the Shade,” a Mexican bioengineer finds the answer to a perplexing problem in the dreams of her dying grandmother. Each of these powerful stories offers a glimpse of a future built not on cynicism, but on “sustainability, inclusivity, and justice,” testifying to the power of human courage and collective resilience.
Edited by Grist and introduced by Sheree Renée Thomas, a New York Times best-selling author and editor of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Metamorphosis will electrify and activate readers concerned about our “future ancestors” and the fate of all our attending flora and fauna. These stunning stories imagine a tomorrow in which we do more than we thrive—together.
221 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 22, 2024
26 people are currently reading
2502 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
November 10, 2024
“Always, we have survived, bobbing, weaving, and sometimes forcing our way into a brighter and more joyful existence.”
this 2024 collection can be read free online: https://grist.org/imagine2200-climate...
4.5 so so glad i came back and tried these stories again because i wasn’t going to after being disappointed with the 2021 collection - but i personally found this collection a lot stronger (though unlike the 2021 collection, my favourites weren’t the top 3!). perhaps partly bc i learned to enjoy reading the stories at a slower pace, letting them be what they are - they don’t always have a big plot etc. so many emotions are evoked reading these stories - calmness and hope, but also sadness, grief, hopelessness, anger….
(also just want to note i absolutely adore the illustrations - such a small but beautiful addition which i think is fitting given the themes <3)
with that being said, there were definitely some stand outs and some others i found pretty meh - but nonetheless, i am keen to now read the 2022 and 2023 collections, and perhaps even give the 2021 stories a second chance
- favourites - accensa domo proximi, the imperfect blue marble, cabbage koora
- 4 stars - la sirene, the blossoming
- 3-4 stars - to labor for the hive, gifts we give to the sea, a gift of coconuts
- didn’t love - the last almond, a seder in siberia, the long in-between, stasis
some core themes i enjoyed
- working with nature, not above/over it - “nature is very wise, we just have to listen” (to labor for the hive)
- a reminder of loss and sacrifice climate change will result in, of what we take for granted now that we won’t have in the future (e.g., dying of natural causes in old age, flying, food, nature)
- “Nothing is created fully formed, Madina thought to herself. Every living thing is in a constant process of change, transforming from one state to another. Zhan was right, the sea would probably never come back to what it once was and reclaim all its stolen territories. But it could still be something good. With a little help and a little love, it could come closer to its new true self.” (gifts we give to the sea)
- “Every person is different, and it’s not like people need a calling to be complete. Being alive and experiencing life is purpose enough, don’t you think?” (the blossoming)
- “But it makes me smile, looking out onto my misshapen kingdom, a kind of patchwork quilt knit by no one in particular.” (the long inbetween) - it’s not perfect or beautiful but it is loved and doing good - and that is beautiful in its own way
some other interesting things from the different stories
To Labor for the Hive - Jamie Liu
- personhood of AI v trusting tech
- impact of loss of jobs: “And yes, shutting down the coal mines was a good thing. But the government had not made sure she’d had another livelihood to jump to after the transition… No. Ms. Chen’s eyes were watery. She’d been forgotten. Abandoned. She wanted to know her abandonment was worth it. It wasn’t the income she would have missed the most; the country’s social programs meant no one needed to work to survive. But Huaxin knew that for Ms. Chen, her job had also provided her a sense of routine, of camaraderie. Ms. Chen mourned the loss of that.”
Accensa Domo Proximi - Cameron Neil Ishee
- found this story so beautiful
- “Slowly, carefully, he reached out. Dario rolled the pad of his thumb over the spot where Halstead Bayou used to be, leaving behind a faint ridged whorl.”
- “What it’s like. When the death of your home is someone else’s lesson learned?”
- the solidarity and support of his friends, even when they didn’t understand what was going on
The Imperfect Blue Marble - Rae Mariz
- I loved the way this story was told (by a non-human? breaking the fourth wall etc)
- “Hierarchical thinking isn’t actually natural to human cognition, and there isn’t any scarcity of resources to compete over. Especially in regards to a person’s capacity for love.”
- “I don’t want to make this telling of a slight, autistic Black boy to sound unnecessarily mystical or mythical. He’s a person.”
- the emphasis on talking to discuss, not be heard, and valuing everybody’s voices - including childrens
- i liked the way we, the audience, are framed - our natural opinons as superio subverted - in terms of the stories we prefer and how we understand concepts (”Do not feel bad about your disability, we see it as a failure of education”)
- his first ‘words’ being caring for other people <3
- “But could those things really be considered *language*?” I hear one of you say. Your white sciences change the definitions and shift the goal posts every time a community of creatures approximates those arbitrary markers for intelligence, sentience, life. Every time. To ensure that only human people stand in the circle — and terrifyingly often, it’s only the people with similar qualities of those enforcing the definitions who are allowed in.”
Cabbage Koora: A Prognostic Autobiography - Sanjana Sekhar
- loved that this was multi-generational - seeing the parallels across the different generations and times
- “The thought fills me with pride. With longing. With wonder at the fact that so many generations, so many geographic locations and climate-related disruptions later, we preserve this art purely because it makes us happy.”
La Sirène - Karen Engelsen
- “Technology’s never been the answer, has it?… We’re still standing apart, applying our heroic measures to “fix” Nature. And it’s not working… She doesn’t want to be “managed” by drones. She wants mutuality. A co-equal relationship, man and sea. She even mentioned “her” babies — the sirenomeliacs?”
- The religious aspect of this was also really interesting - a sort of reimagining on how religion can be helpful in fighting climate change - but also its roots never seem to change :/
- important lessons regarding disability and working with nature
ETA: ok i found 4 more stories from this year but weren’t part of the 2024 collection - including my thoughts on them here anyway
- Who Walks With You - Premee Mohamed - 3/5 - interesting ideas re. not feeling like belonging, even in this seemingly better world, how we all need other people, i felt her heartbreak at not wanting to give up her home and things! but idk story itself felt like it was missing something
- Request for Support: Hot Mamas Garage - Sam Milligan 4.5 - god i loved this one!! such a cool format too i’m obsessed. such a sweet story - both in terms of caring for rural/marginalised populations and how such small things can empower people so much - but of course also in terms of the relationship between the mother and child - hearing the mums story but getting some hints at the sons experience also - i do wish this (their perspective) was fleshed out more though…
- Earthbound - Logan Dreher - 3.5 - another of interesting concepts but lacking something in terms of the actual story imo - the stuff about green burials (and other different solutions) and what it meant to do those things with her mums body were especially meaningful - as was her general love for the land
- Heirloom - Joy Donnell - 3.5 - another where i liked the message more than the story - what do we count as acts of resistance (re. pleasure and joy), how giving the dress over wasn’t its end but a rebirth, becomes something else sacred etc.
this 2024 collection can be read free online: https://grist.org/imagine2200-climate...
4.5 so so glad i came back and tried these stories again because i wasn’t going to after being disappointed with the 2021 collection - but i personally found this collection a lot stronger (though unlike the 2021 collection, my favourites weren’t the top 3!). perhaps partly bc i learned to enjoy reading the stories at a slower pace, letting them be what they are - they don’t always have a big plot etc. so many emotions are evoked reading these stories - calmness and hope, but also sadness, grief, hopelessness, anger….
(also just want to note i absolutely adore the illustrations - such a small but beautiful addition which i think is fitting given the themes <3)
with that being said, there were definitely some stand outs and some others i found pretty meh - but nonetheless, i am keen to now read the 2022 and 2023 collections, and perhaps even give the 2021 stories a second chance
- favourites - accensa domo proximi, the imperfect blue marble, cabbage koora
- 4 stars - la sirene, the blossoming
- 3-4 stars - to labor for the hive, gifts we give to the sea, a gift of coconuts
- didn’t love - the last almond, a seder in siberia, the long in-between, stasis
some core themes i enjoyed
- working with nature, not above/over it - “nature is very wise, we just have to listen” (to labor for the hive)
- a reminder of loss and sacrifice climate change will result in, of what we take for granted now that we won’t have in the future (e.g., dying of natural causes in old age, flying, food, nature)
- “Nothing is created fully formed, Madina thought to herself. Every living thing is in a constant process of change, transforming from one state to another. Zhan was right, the sea would probably never come back to what it once was and reclaim all its stolen territories. But it could still be something good. With a little help and a little love, it could come closer to its new true self.” (gifts we give to the sea)
- “Every person is different, and it’s not like people need a calling to be complete. Being alive and experiencing life is purpose enough, don’t you think?” (the blossoming)
- “But it makes me smile, looking out onto my misshapen kingdom, a kind of patchwork quilt knit by no one in particular.” (the long inbetween) - it’s not perfect or beautiful but it is loved and doing good - and that is beautiful in its own way
some other interesting things from the different stories
To Labor for the Hive - Jamie Liu
- personhood of AI v trusting tech
- impact of loss of jobs: “And yes, shutting down the coal mines was a good thing. But the government had not made sure she’d had another livelihood to jump to after the transition… No. Ms. Chen’s eyes were watery. She’d been forgotten. Abandoned. She wanted to know her abandonment was worth it. It wasn’t the income she would have missed the most; the country’s social programs meant no one needed to work to survive. But Huaxin knew that for Ms. Chen, her job had also provided her a sense of routine, of camaraderie. Ms. Chen mourned the loss of that.”
Accensa Domo Proximi - Cameron Neil Ishee
- found this story so beautiful
- “Slowly, carefully, he reached out. Dario rolled the pad of his thumb over the spot where Halstead Bayou used to be, leaving behind a faint ridged whorl.”
- “What it’s like. When the death of your home is someone else’s lesson learned?”
- the solidarity and support of his friends, even when they didn’t understand what was going on
The Imperfect Blue Marble - Rae Mariz
- I loved the way this story was told (by a non-human? breaking the fourth wall etc)
- “Hierarchical thinking isn’t actually natural to human cognition, and there isn’t any scarcity of resources to compete over. Especially in regards to a person’s capacity for love.”
- “I don’t want to make this telling of a slight, autistic Black boy to sound unnecessarily mystical or mythical. He’s a person.”
- the emphasis on talking to discuss, not be heard, and valuing everybody’s voices - including childrens
- i liked the way we, the audience, are framed - our natural opinons as superio subverted - in terms of the stories we prefer and how we understand concepts (”Do not feel bad about your disability, we see it as a failure of education”)
- his first ‘words’ being caring for other people <3
- “But could those things really be considered *language*?” I hear one of you say. Your white sciences change the definitions and shift the goal posts every time a community of creatures approximates those arbitrary markers for intelligence, sentience, life. Every time. To ensure that only human people stand in the circle — and terrifyingly often, it’s only the people with similar qualities of those enforcing the definitions who are allowed in.”
Cabbage Koora: A Prognostic Autobiography - Sanjana Sekhar
- loved that this was multi-generational - seeing the parallels across the different generations and times
- “The thought fills me with pride. With longing. With wonder at the fact that so many generations, so many geographic locations and climate-related disruptions later, we preserve this art purely because it makes us happy.”
La Sirène - Karen Engelsen
- “Technology’s never been the answer, has it?… We’re still standing apart, applying our heroic measures to “fix” Nature. And it’s not working… She doesn’t want to be “managed” by drones. She wants mutuality. A co-equal relationship, man and sea. She even mentioned “her” babies — the sirenomeliacs?”
- The religious aspect of this was also really interesting - a sort of reimagining on how religion can be helpful in fighting climate change - but also its roots never seem to change :/
- important lessons regarding disability and working with nature
ETA: ok i found 4 more stories from this year but weren’t part of the 2024 collection - including my thoughts on them here anyway
- Who Walks With You - Premee Mohamed - 3/5 - interesting ideas re. not feeling like belonging, even in this seemingly better world, how we all need other people, i felt her heartbreak at not wanting to give up her home and things! but idk story itself felt like it was missing something
- Request for Support: Hot Mamas Garage - Sam Milligan 4.5 - god i loved this one!! such a cool format too i’m obsessed. such a sweet story - both in terms of caring for rural/marginalised populations and how such small things can empower people so much - but of course also in terms of the relationship between the mother and child - hearing the mums story but getting some hints at the sons experience also - i do wish this (their perspective) was fleshed out more though…
- Earthbound - Logan Dreher - 3.5 - another of interesting concepts but lacking something in terms of the actual story imo - the stuff about green burials (and other different solutions) and what it meant to do those things with her mums body were especially meaningful - as was her general love for the land
- Heirloom - Joy Donnell - 3.5 - another where i liked the message more than the story - what do we count as acts of resistance (re. pleasure and joy), how giving the dress over wasn’t its end but a rebirth, becomes something else sacred etc.
March 26, 2025
3.5 stars - the stories were overall well-written and it was interesting to see the imagined climate futures, but there was nothing that really stood out to me. Even though the stories were good, none of them met the bar where I would tell a friend, "You have to read this!"
January 14, 2025
2.5 I’m really sad this was a miss for me :(( A lot of telling instead of showing and they just didn’t interest me a ton
December 3, 2024
I picked this book up on a whim at third place books (new, not used) and was just so drawn to the cover. I remembered that books like Sea of Tranquility could be seen as “speculative fiction” and was just sort of like, oh yeah! I think I could really like this especially with the climate focus. I don’t know how I missed the fact that it was a collection of short stories, whoops. But hey! That made it go very quick! I think it’s also the first book I’ve ever taken and read at the gym while walking on the treadmill.
As suspected, I am definitely a fan of climate speculative fiction!
Each of the stories:
1. The woman who dies and turns into a fish. Was kind of confusing and I feel like it didn’t quite land with me.
2. The beekeeper who falls in love with chat support and is unsure whether he is human or AI. Was definitely emotionally invested. I was so worried he was AI the whole time!!! The story felt deeper and the world/history more complex. Liked it a lot!
3. The tea farm where the bots break down and they have to pick the tea. Once again the world and history of the world felt more developed and I enjoyed the story. It made me feel the heat as they picked the tea!
4. The bot and the woman who refused to relocate out of the woods. Interesting perspective, the dynamic of the world/politics were super interesting to me. I felt emotionally invested and it was a story that ended with hope. It was beautiful what she had done to replenish the wildlife.
5. Tonie who lived in the tree after his island flooded. Not quite a hit with me, but I liked the idea of the story and the juxtaposition between nature and “the ship”, the relationship between Tonie and the bird and the snake, and I liked that it ended with the island growing and growing as the ship leaves.
6. Minerva who is trying to gene sequence/grow these plants and also take care of her grandmother from afar who has dementia. This one felt black mirror with its “digivisits” and I liked it. Felt emotionally invested, Minerva’s feelings and frustrations were so valid and I was very sad when the grandmother dies.
7. The one where the friends don’t sell any potatoes (? This felt random) and then go watch a famous sculptor in a park, where one boy realizes he’s sculpting the islands where he is from. I think his emotions were done very well and you could feel the raw emotion that he felt when he realized it was his home that no longer existed. Not my favorite, but it was nice.
8. Following the generations of Indian women trying to grow cabbage. I really liked this one - it felt really developed, I loved how we saw 3 generations of grandmother/mother/daughter pairs and how the world changed in that time. Would gladly read a full size novel about this one. The world was well developed too.
9. Follows the Seder dinner of a family in Siberia. This was so intriguing to me. I liked that what happened in Texas was bad/a tragedy/a mystery that made you really wonder what happened. It was also a nice explanation of Seder too, as I am unfamiliar. I think the family emotions/dynamics were done well and I liked the bits about the mammoths.
10. The one about the nonverbal boy who loves marbles and gives his marble away to a stranger in need. It was sweet, but I feel like I didn’t quite get it.
11. Following the man and woman protecting the sharks in Hawaii. I liked this world as well, the history it refereed to sounded interesting and sad. It was very vivid and lively to me, the story was great and I really enjoyed it. And I liked the little “I’m in love with you!” Ending
12. The guy who didn’t feel like he had a calling and didn’t want to move away even though his friends were (aahahahh), I thought the ending of him finding the plants his friends needed and racing to tell her was exhilarating and sweet. Not my favorite, but it was nice.
I’m not sure which was my favorite, I think I really enjoyed maybe half of them and then the other half were fine just didn’t quite land with me. I really started to appreciate the form that is the short story - I have a lot of respect for these authors who were able to build a complex world with a rich history and also futuristic technology/problems, while also creating an emotional connection with such a short amount of time. It was interesting seeing the common themes between them, like flooding was huge, heat was huge, humans and bits working together was big. It was interesting but also sad, obviously. Many of them had a theme of the world got way worse and now they are trying to go back and fix it, which is sad because obviously we are in the “got way worse” part in real life. Some were very Wall-E reminiscent and made me want to go watch it!
I would like to read more speculative fiction, and this was an interesting read for sure.
As suspected, I am definitely a fan of climate speculative fiction!
Each of the stories:
1. The woman who dies and turns into a fish. Was kind of confusing and I feel like it didn’t quite land with me.
2. The beekeeper who falls in love with chat support and is unsure whether he is human or AI. Was definitely emotionally invested. I was so worried he was AI the whole time!!! The story felt deeper and the world/history more complex. Liked it a lot!
3. The tea farm where the bots break down and they have to pick the tea. Once again the world and history of the world felt more developed and I enjoyed the story. It made me feel the heat as they picked the tea!
4. The bot and the woman who refused to relocate out of the woods. Interesting perspective, the dynamic of the world/politics were super interesting to me. I felt emotionally invested and it was a story that ended with hope. It was beautiful what she had done to replenish the wildlife.
5. Tonie who lived in the tree after his island flooded. Not quite a hit with me, but I liked the idea of the story and the juxtaposition between nature and “the ship”, the relationship between Tonie and the bird and the snake, and I liked that it ended with the island growing and growing as the ship leaves.
6. Minerva who is trying to gene sequence/grow these plants and also take care of her grandmother from afar who has dementia. This one felt black mirror with its “digivisits” and I liked it. Felt emotionally invested, Minerva’s feelings and frustrations were so valid and I was very sad when the grandmother dies.
7. The one where the friends don’t sell any potatoes (? This felt random) and then go watch a famous sculptor in a park, where one boy realizes he’s sculpting the islands where he is from. I think his emotions were done very well and you could feel the raw emotion that he felt when he realized it was his home that no longer existed. Not my favorite, but it was nice.
8. Following the generations of Indian women trying to grow cabbage. I really liked this one - it felt really developed, I loved how we saw 3 generations of grandmother/mother/daughter pairs and how the world changed in that time. Would gladly read a full size novel about this one. The world was well developed too.
9. Follows the Seder dinner of a family in Siberia. This was so intriguing to me. I liked that what happened in Texas was bad/a tragedy/a mystery that made you really wonder what happened. It was also a nice explanation of Seder too, as I am unfamiliar. I think the family emotions/dynamics were done well and I liked the bits about the mammoths.
10. The one about the nonverbal boy who loves marbles and gives his marble away to a stranger in need. It was sweet, but I feel like I didn’t quite get it.
11. Following the man and woman protecting the sharks in Hawaii. I liked this world as well, the history it refereed to sounded interesting and sad. It was very vivid and lively to me, the story was great and I really enjoyed it. And I liked the little “I’m in love with you!” Ending
12. The guy who didn’t feel like he had a calling and didn’t want to move away even though his friends were (aahahahh), I thought the ending of him finding the plants his friends needed and racing to tell her was exhilarating and sweet. Not my favorite, but it was nice.
I’m not sure which was my favorite, I think I really enjoyed maybe half of them and then the other half were fine just didn’t quite land with me. I really started to appreciate the form that is the short story - I have a lot of respect for these authors who were able to build a complex world with a rich history and also futuristic technology/problems, while also creating an emotional connection with such a short amount of time. It was interesting seeing the common themes between them, like flooding was huge, heat was huge, humans and bits working together was big. It was interesting but also sad, obviously. Many of them had a theme of the world got way worse and now they are trying to go back and fix it, which is sad because obviously we are in the “got way worse” part in real life. Some were very Wall-E reminiscent and made me want to go watch it!
I would like to read more speculative fiction, and this was an interesting read for sure.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 15, 2024
This is a neat story collection. The cover art is gorgeous, and while each author has a unique writing style, there is a satisfying cohesion to all of the stories combined. The overall tone is hopeful, but there is still a bit of climate anxiety that comes with reading these stories—at least, there was for me. I would love to check out many of these authors' other works.
January 4, 2025
Great collection of climate fiction pieces, including my now favorite short story ever. :)
January 1, 2026
This collection as a whole was excellent. These kinds of hopefully imaginative stories are exactly what the collective consciousness needs right now.
There were several times throughout the book that I found the scientific jargon a bit overwhelming, but that also gave it a certain credibility. All of the stories retained the theme suggested by the cover- colorful and vital- and yet they each very much had their own voice. Several of the stories moved me to tears. The images this book brought to mind will stay with me for a long while, I think.
There were several times throughout the book that I found the scientific jargon a bit overwhelming, but that also gave it a certain credibility. All of the stories retained the theme suggested by the cover- colorful and vital- and yet they each very much had their own voice. Several of the stories moved me to tears. The images this book brought to mind will stay with me for a long while, I think.
November 12, 2024
Metamorphosis is a truly captivating collection of fictitious short stories that offer a unique perspective on the future of our planet. These climate stories are told in such an innovative way.
The ability of these authors to capture emotional, hopeful, and joyful moments in a world impacted by climate is astounding. By blending science fiction with realism, they create a world that feels both familiar and strange, both hopeful and somewhat unnerving. Their use of fiction beautifully complements the use of real climate scenarios and terminology.
These stories have been wonderful to read and are such a great way to incorporate climate into literature.
The ability of these authors to capture emotional, hopeful, and joyful moments in a world impacted by climate is astounding. By blending science fiction with realism, they create a world that feels both familiar and strange, both hopeful and somewhat unnerving. Their use of fiction beautifully complements the use of real climate scenarios and terminology.
These stories have been wonderful to read and are such a great way to incorporate climate into literature.
December 16, 2024
I've long been an admirer of the work Grist does with their Imagine 2200 climate fiction contest, and was thrilled when Metamorphosis came out. Now more than ever we need courageous, hopeful, justice-oriented stories like the ones contained within this anthology. They are beautifully written, but perhaps more importantly, they are thought-provoking. They prompt readers to contemplate what the world would look like if we did get it right, if we did change the narrative of our current trajectory. We need this kind of inspiration, and Metamorphosis has entered the literary arena as a catalytic addition to the genre of climate fiction.
July 31, 2025
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25/5
Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future is a powerful, hopeful, and creative anthology.
I loved this anthology. Each story was delightfully creative and powerful. I appreciated each story's hopeful message and the beautiful incorporation of culture and diversity. These stories took me on an adventure, transporting me to familiar yet foreign futuristic worlds. The variety of writing styles was engaging and entertaining, and I enjoyed the satisfying length of each story. I would absolutely recommend these delightful stories!
Thank you to the publisher for the free copy!
Metamorphosis: Climate Fiction for a Better Future is a powerful, hopeful, and creative anthology.
I loved this anthology. Each story was delightfully creative and powerful. I appreciated each story's hopeful message and the beautiful incorporation of culture and diversity. These stories took me on an adventure, transporting me to familiar yet foreign futuristic worlds. The variety of writing styles was engaging and entertaining, and I enjoyed the satisfying length of each story. I would absolutely recommend these delightful stories!
Thank you to the publisher for the free copy!
December 12, 2024
It's an interesting exercise to write a book about joy in the climate crisis, and one that requires a certain amount of acceptance on the reader's part to get into. These stories were interesting, for sure, but varied in their levels of impact (as do all anthologies). Many fell prey to the difficulty of fitting too much exposition into too small of a story; many other were deeply impactful. None of the stories struck me particularly while reading, but after the fact their ideas stayed with me. Overall, it was fine!
August 25, 2025
I should have taken this more slowly, because every sci-fi story requires re-adjusting one's mind to a different world and a different set of characters. It was hard to stay engaged when reading the book straight through for that reason. I also find short stories very difficult to remember once I've finished a book. I will say that climate fiction is always interesting to me, and I thought it was fascinating to realize that hopepunk-ish stories often involve some kind of creature that plays an important role in human lives, often having been engineered by them.
November 12, 2024
Overall, I found all the stories to be engaging in their own ways (some more so than others), and I really appreciated the diverse voices and perspectives as they all looked toward the possibilities of how we can work with nature. With that said, I thought the story that shone the brightest in this collection was Sanjana Sekhar’s “Cabbage Koora: A Prognostic Autobiography,” which beautifully explored the relationship between humans and nature through a nuanced multigenerational story.
December 21, 2024
I received a copy of this book as a GoodReads giveaway contest winner.
I thoroughly enjoyed this anthology of post climate change stories. Tinged with sci-fi, each story brings hope and joy in a world where sometimes those things seem impossible.
An absolute must-read. Thank you to the publisher for sending this to me.
I thoroughly enjoyed this anthology of post climate change stories. Tinged with sci-fi, each story brings hope and joy in a world where sometimes those things seem impossible.
An absolute must-read. Thank you to the publisher for sending this to me.
December 13, 2024
An anthology, so it's not surprising it was hit or miss. Frankly overall it was more on the "miss" side for me. But I liked the cabbage story and the one with the Seder, which then got even better when a grolar bear showed up! (personal highlight of the book) Also the cover was very pretty. Otherwise the stories were meh-ok and I wasn't a big fan of most of the writing.
January 22, 2025
A lovely collection of short stories! Favorites include:
The Metamorphosis of Marie Martin
A Holdout in the Northern California Designated Wildcraft Zone
Accensa Domo Proximi
Cabbage Koora: A Prognostic Autobiography
A Seder in Siberia
The Metamorphosis of Marie Martin
A Holdout in the Northern California Designated Wildcraft Zone
Accensa Domo Proximi
Cabbage Koora: A Prognostic Autobiography
A Seder in Siberia
January 30, 2025
This book satisfied every dusty corner of creativity that has not been filled within myself. It shown sun on my general pessimistic, depressive self. I am going to buy this book as a gift for everyone who might be down about climate collapse.
February 2, 2025
A series of climate fiction of a variety of short stories. I really want Kim Stanley Robinson to write a climate fiction story based on “what if we get it right” and it is all uplifting highlighting the miracle of coming together and getting it all right.
March 29, 2025
I don't read a lot of short stories so I was surprised by how much I loved this collection. A surprising number of them managed to make me tear up. And I managed to finish it with over an hour to spare before the book club meeting on it lmao
August 29, 2025
No reflection on the writers here. I’ve tried several short story anthologies, particularly dystopian/utopian stories, and I just don’t personally seem to enjoy short stories. They were a couple that I enjoyed, but otherwise this one wasn’t for me.
November 4, 2024
Wonderful book great author
May 8, 2025
this was SO good. and almost all the stories were accessible enough to teach at an 8th grade + level
October 26, 2025
I sincerely hope that none of these "authors" ever get published again.
December 20, 2025
A 3.5
A solid collection of stories. A Seder in Siberia was the standout. Accensa Domo Proximi also very good.
A solid collection of stories. A Seder in Siberia was the standout. Accensa Domo Proximi also very good.
October 26, 2025
*I read the stories online so i really don't know which ones belong in each series
I still have to read some of the stories, but i wanted to write about this collection of short stories anyways. First of all, even though some stories are a lot weaker than others, they are all written due to the authors radical imagination. Both Afterglow and Metamorphosis really emphasize the importance of utopias, not as a medium for escapism, but as a way to imagine a better world.
It is said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. There is power in envisioning a better future, finding something to fight for. What I really like of these collection is that those futures aren't perfect, all suffering isn't erradicated and not everything is perfect, but it is still a future beyong what most people usually imagine. A future where problems (usually caused by climate change) are fixed by creating strong communities and helping each other.
"The goal of oppressors is to limit your imagination about what is possible without them. Imagine something better. Get curious aboyt what it actually takes to make it happen. Then fight for it every day" -Ashley C. Ford
I still have to read some of the stories, but i wanted to write about this collection of short stories anyways. First of all, even though some stories are a lot weaker than others, they are all written due to the authors radical imagination. Both Afterglow and Metamorphosis really emphasize the importance of utopias, not as a medium for escapism, but as a way to imagine a better world.
It is said that it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism. There is power in envisioning a better future, finding something to fight for. What I really like of these collection is that those futures aren't perfect, all suffering isn't erradicated and not everything is perfect, but it is still a future beyong what most people usually imagine. A future where problems (usually caused by climate change) are fixed by creating strong communities and helping each other.
"The goal of oppressors is to limit your imagination about what is possible without them. Imagine something better. Get curious aboyt what it actually takes to make it happen. Then fight for it every day" -Ashley C. Ford
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