KRILL: When the Good Choices are Gone

by Susan Hasler

What would you be willing to do to humanity to save humanity? Seas are rising, ice caps melting, and the world’s population growing increasingly desperate and violent. A back-up U.S. government has taken to sea on a handful of refurbished aircraft carriers. Mary Campbell, a CIA expert on the refugee crisis, and Sam Bostock, a Navy pilot, struggle with love, End-Times ethics, and a batshit crazy billionaire selling solutions to the world’s climate crisis.


KRILL is speculative fiction with a dose of dark humor from the author of Intelligence, The Flat Bureaucrat, and Project HALFSHEEP.

Winner of the 2022 IPPY Gold Medal for science fiction.

Next Generation Independent Book Awards finalist for science fiction.

226 pages, ebook

First published July 10, 2021

About the author

If Susan Hasler had her druthers, she would have preferred to be the person who entertains others, brings joy to others, or heals others. Unfortunately, she lacked talent in areas of entertainment, joy-bringing, and healing. This, combined with poor planning and the need for a job when only the CIA was hiring, led her to become a person who warns others. In other words, the least popular person at any party. As a CIA analyst, Hasler worked the Soviet threat, proliferation, and terrorism. Warning is a grim business that eventually warps the mind. She has always been aware of this and countered it with warped humor. Seventeen years after leaving the CIA, she still can’t escape the warning mentality or the warpage. So cautionary tales it is. Go elsewhere for fairytales.

Reviews

[Dave]

Thank you to author Susan Hasler for this FREE Kindle copy of KRILL: When the Good Choices are Gone. And thanks to Goodreads for hosting the opportunity.

Very Nicely Done. VND. Well written and edited, nice cast of characters, good pace and visuals. At its core, a look at human animal greed and need for control, with a sprinkle of humor. A good read.

Hope all is well.

[Cindy]

Excellent read

A new and fresh concept for saving humanity from the extreme and destructive forces of climate change. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

[Carol & Russell]

A really good book

[Grace Agnew]

Hasler's book is a scary “strap yourself in” thrill ride —a grim dystopian novel you can't put down--that also manages a sliver of hope. It is a scarily prescient look at a climate changed world in the very near future. I can't find any fault with the savage accuracy of her depiction of our damaged planet. The book is worth reading if only as a preview of things to come. But what lifts the book from being a just frightening forecast, what has kept me thinking about the book and rereading parts of it, is also what will sustain us on a collapsing planet--Hasler's depiction of the unquenchable humanity of our species. The damage done is limitless, but so is the human capacity to invent, devise, above all, to love. Ultimately Hasler's novel makes a lie of her title. When everything else is failing around us, love and the ability to sacrifice everything for those we love, remain the final good choices.
Thank

[Liz]

Writing a summary of a book where you know the author is always a bit disorienting. It is so easy to see the person in the words. What I like about Susan’s work is that she puts the first half of the book in the service of the second. She brings home fabulous endings, or in this book’s case one senecio of “the” end. It is clear that she lived the analyst’s life and has been trained to intelligently break down all the ways it can go so very wrong. In the face of devastating possibilities of climate change and political ineptitude governed populous sentiment and manipulation, the human spirit does continue, just not in ways we can predict.

[Kirk Weikart]

What would you do to avoid climate change when it becomes inevitable? This futuristic dystopian novel takes a wild swing at what might happen. The plot involves the normal guesses like politics, power and greed. The characters are extreme to the point that they become caricatures. One of the main characters constantly uses vulgar language and is quite unlikable. The number of characters is so slim that the plot becomes very predictable.

All that said, the book is entertaining and easy to read.

[Jess]

Absolutely excellent read. Very well written, with characters you fall in love with. Given the time frame of the book, it is a little scary but I think that adds to how invested in the book you get. Highly recommend this read to anyone who enjoys apocalyptic books.