The Deluge

Book Review: The Deluge by Stephen Markley

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The Deluge

What will the climate crisis and the world’s response to it look like over the course of the next decade or two?

The Deluge by Stephen Markley offers one of the most thorough and compelling answers to this question that I’ve read to date. This novel explores almost every facet of the climate crisis in amazing and terrifying detail. Even after reading dozens of other climate fiction classics like Ministry for the Future, Termination Shock, and Parable of the Sower, I found myself blown away by both the sheer scope of this novel and the many skillful ways Markley drew me in and kept me reading throughout the entire 896-page journey.

This novel covers so much ground that it could easily be the subject of an entire semester-long course on climate fiction. Since this isn’t a climate fiction course, I’ll narrow the focus of this review to three themes: climate catastrophes, climate solutions, and narrative structure.

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Would You Read Interactive Climate Fiction?

Would you read interactive climate fiction?

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Would You Read Interactive Climate Fiction?

Climate fiction is going mainstream. A growing number of novels, movies, TV shows, and other works of fiction are referencing the climate crisis as a significant or even central part of the plot and setting. There’s a Climate Fiction Writers League, climate fiction writing contests like Imagine 2200, and groups like Good Energy working to improve the quantity and quality of climate fiction in print and digital media.

But what about interactive climate fiction?

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Which Climate Music Sounds Better?

Which climate music sounds better?

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Did you know that you can use climate data sets to create music?

Climate data sonification is the process of turning climate data sets into sound — in this case, music. I wrote a blog entry about this back in April of 2023 titled Turning Climate Data Into Music. Now that I’m delving into the world of audiobook production, I’ve decided that it’s also time to revive my interest in creating music using climate data sets.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, anyone with internet access can make instrumental music tracks based directly on climate data sets (or any other data sets). All you have to do is find, convert, or create a data file (.xls, xlsx, .csv, .ods) and upload it to a web-based tool called TwoTone that translates the data into music. You can choose among several computer-generated instruments, combine multiple tracks, use the arpeggio settings to give the data a more musical sound, preview the results in your browser, and export the results in .mp3 or .pcm format.

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