Breakaway Books

Authored by Joe Mungo Reed; Published April 2024; Science Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️

Terrestrial History is a look back from the future, giving the reader an excruciatingly comprehensive view of how climate change drives the human race off of earth. Trigger warning: It is almost certainly as anxiety inducing as you think it is.

Terrestrial History tells the story of Earth’s collapse through four generations of a Scottish family. Two scientists, a politician, and a Mars explorer each share how they have contributed to trying to save humanity, from the race to discover fusion to the attempt to foster collaboration in humanity to building a new society on Mars. When Roban, the Mars explorer, discovers a glitch in time, he can’t help but go back and try to save the planet that he has never seen.

Perhaps what I enjoyed most in this novel was how the author used the different generations to exhibit the tension between science and politics when it came to preventing and then mitigating climate catastrophe. Andrew, the politician, and his daughter, Kenzie, end up on opposite sides of so many climate debates, and it is easy to see that both are trying to do what is best for humanity. I couldn’t help but think that Andrew came off as a little too naive for what politics requires and at times, overly preachy, but I never doubted his intentions—which, at their heart, are to improve the world for Kenzie. But climate disaster creates aggressive, even violent, political factions, with those individuals permitted to leave for Mars (including Kenzie) besmirched in the public eye as lacking honor. It brings the global tragedy to a very personal, tragic climax when Kenzie and Andrew are cut off from each other for good.

In an effort to effectively tell the story of this family, some of the key details blur maddeningly into the background. Has anyone survived on earth? What exactly makes Roban’s time travel possible? The consequences of his excursion through time appear to be minimal, leading the reader to consider the conundrum of the pretzel of time. Regardless, what comes to the forefront in the narrative is the increase in rancor and the breakdown in humanity as global catastrophe approaches—making this a somewhat depressing novel to read. (Incidentally, I did not enjoy the male narrator for this audiobook, who came off as robotic, and may very well have been virtual voice? But, to each his own.) The political questions and the debate between government vs. private industry initiatives were just a little too close to home to avoid anxiety. 

I suppose Terrestrial History could be a way to purge yourself of your climate anxieties by examining the worst case scenario of sorts—but to me, it was just as likely to enhance them. Read with care!