Climate Fiction is increasingly seen as a way to raise awareness about environmental issues while also engaging readers through compelling storytelling, and here at LoveReading we’ve collected some of our favourites in the genre.

What is Cli-Fi?

Cli-Fi, short for climate fiction, is a genre of literature that focuses on themes related to climate change, environmental issues, and the impact of global warming. These stories explore how these environmental changes might affect individuals, societies, and the planet in the future, often blending speculative fiction, dystopian settings, and environmental activism.

Key Features of Cli-Fi

Stories often centre around the consequences of environmental degradation, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, or a changing climate.

Some books project current climate issues into a future world or present alternate versions of reality shaped by environmental collapse. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam is set in a future that feels as though it really could be just around the corner, this eloquent, intense, and chilling novel merges literary psychological thriller with dystopian apocalyptic fiction. Touching family, race, and human nature in the most precarious of moments, Leave The World Behind is an incredibly penetrating and surprising read, and a star of Star Books.

Characters often struggle to survive in altered landscapes or adapt to new environmental conditions, providing a sense of urgency and hope.

In Spring 2023 our Guest Editor Stephen Ellcock shared his thoughts on Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler: 

Born in California in 1948, African-American author Octavia Butler was the first science fiction writer to ever receive a MacArthur Fellowship (aka "the Genius Grant") and one of the few women of colour to achieve success and recognition in a genre traditionally dominated by white men. Her startlingly original and astonishingly prescient work transcends the conventions of her chosen genre, exploring issues such as social justice, real-world power structures, empathy and ecology [...] Butler’s tenth novel Parable of the Sower was originally published in 1993 and is set in an all -too-plausible version of 2024 ravaged by climate change, the depredations of disaster capitalism, religious fanaticism and a collapsing infrastructure [...] As a nightmarish vision of a dystopian future, the novel is chilling and prophetic but, inspired by her own history and the struggles of those around her,  Octavia Butler never allowed herself to surrender to total pessimism and Parable of the Sower ends on a note of optimism and hope for a better future through collective effort, community and mutual support.

In The Wager and the Bear, Fly on the Wall Press’ new cli-fi read we find a heart-stopping tale of anger, tragedy and enduing love, cast against the long unfolding backdrop of an irreversible global crisis. Our Editorial Expert Joanne Owen says "This remarkable novel sees a spirited environmentalist and a cynical politician feud and come face to face with the impact of climate change (and a bear) across decades and continents [...] I adored every word"

Many cli-fi novels reflect or critique current social, political, and economic systems, emphasizing the need for action to combat climate change. Chosen by Barak Obama as one of his favourite reads of the year, The Ministry of the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson will change the way you think about the climate crisis. using fictional eyewitnesses in order to show how climate change will affect us all, this book is a masterpiece of the imagination.

In 2024 Booker Prize winning Orbital by Samantha Harvey, six astronauts rotate in their spacecraft contemplating the world below. Soulfully beautiful, this majestic novella explores the magic, meaning and fragility of life.

LoveReading Star Book The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley is set in the near future, where a disaffected civil servant is offered a lucrative job in a mysterious new government ministry gathering 'expats' from across history to test the limits of time-travel. When a secret service agent is assigned to a ‘time immigrant’ – an Arctic Explorer from 1847 – she risks everything by falling in love with him. Although it's not explicitly focused on climate fiction, it touches on themes relevant to climate and environmental concerns in an indirect, nuanced way. And it's an incredible read.

You might also want to check out our collection: 25 Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures

And if you’d like non-fiction focussed books on climate change, check out the category.