8 Best Frozen Cli-Fi Novels

Climate fiction, or cli-fi, revolves around climate changes on Earth and its effects on society and environment and are usually set in the future. Considered a subgenre of science fiction, cli-fi often carries a dystopian overtone. Surviving against harsh elements, changes in ecology, climate and oceans, and learning to live against bleak odds are the main features in these stories. In this list, we list 8 of the best (in our opinion) cli-fi novels (and one film) that are set in frozen futures in order of their publication date.

1) The World in Winter by John Cristopher

In this British 1962 novel the sun has weakened its energy and therefore plunged the world into an ice age. Farming crops has become difficult and thus food is scarce which means that rationing is mandated and martial law has been put in place. Like in Maggie Gee’s The Ice People (1998), unhindered passage to Africa where the sun is the strongest has become the main aspiration for many. Protagonist Andrew Leedon flees with his friend Madeleine to Lagos where European immigrants must live in squalor in the slums, and his new goal is to emigrate back to the UK rather than live through racism towards Europeans. Perhaps a foresight on how heedless the UK is towards modern racism and how unwilling to change even through global climate catastrophe.

2) Ice by Anna Kavan

Published in 1967, it establishes a world in which an ice shelf is engulfing the world due to a nuclear fallout. The protagonist spends time in the freezing landscape searching for an albino-haired girl for whom he holds conflicting and passionate feelings and is often hallucinating throughout his contemplations. The book reads as a dream in which ice is forever encroaching upon both the narrator and the reader’s vision and submerges the narrative in slowly freezing metaphor that sometimes seems unclear.

3) The Ice Schooner by Michael Moorcock

In this 1969 cli-fi novel, the world is plunged into an ice age after a nuclear war has caused a drastic change in atmospheric circulation. Humans can only live in 8 cities carved into ice of the Mato Grosso in old Brazil. Whales have adapted into new creatures that live on land and are now humans’ main food and energy source. It is said that in the north, in the city of New York, resides the deity of the Ice Mother and there is the knowledge to bring heat back to the Earth. The protagonist Konrad Arflane becomes embroiled in the affairs of the dying Lord Rorsefne who leaves him an ice schooner and traverses the ice sheet in order to reach New York and learn the secret of temperature rise. This light read offers an entertaining vision of Earth's future.

4) Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson

Although Kim Stanley Robinson has written newer books that take place in a subzero setting, these books have taken place on planets other than Earth. His 1997 novel Antarctica explores the international politics and renegotiation of the Antarctica Treaty that lead to the corporate distribution of Antarctica for oil drilling. Like Robinson’s Mars Trilogy (1992-1996), Antarctica focuses on the sustainability of adapting to life on Antarctica, the emergence of Antarctic microcultures, ecotourism, and extractivist practices. This book is a rich and immersive imagining of our near future.

5) The Ice People by Maggie Gee

This 1998 novel establishes a futuristic society living through an ice age. The roles of women and men become clearly identified social roles which accept no deviation. The norm is homosexuality and the birth of a child is a rare event. The British setting of this novel gives way into a newfound outlook on race; in this world an African ancestry is the key to allow migration into warmer climate African countries. The protagonist, a Black British man with Ghanian heritage, has a falling out with his political activist partner once he begins to prefer the company of his robotic help Briony. He and his son eventually end up fleeing the frosts of England yet their life is rife with danger and they question the events which have led up to their new lives.

6) Snowpiercer directed by Bong Joon-Ho

Directed by Bong Joon-ho, this 2013 film is based on the 1989 French graphic novel Le Transperceneige by Jacques Lob. In the Snowpiercer film world the planet has endured a major environmental catastrophe which has plunged the world into an ice age and is now called Snowball Earth. Humans have endured by constructing a 1,001 railcar train that encircles the globe and is segregated by class, with lower class individuals in the back of the train and higher class in the front. The back train people live in squalor and starvation while the front train people live in comfort and opulence; the gradual unfairness provokes the start of a revolution. The film differs in plot to the graphic novel—in the comic, the train is slowing down and the engineer considers cutting off the back carriages. It is implied in the film that life does in fact exist outside of the train, yet the humans on board are unable to get off.

7) Early Riser by Jasper Fforde

Published in 2018, Early Riser takes place in Wales and explores a world in which rich humans have access to a hibernation drug which they use for the winter while less privileged people may have the job of taking care of the hibernation towers in which the rich sleep. As much about climate as it is about class struggle, Early Riser describes a rich worldbuilding in the protagonist faces cannibal off-grid survivors and viral hibernation dreams all while surviving in the frost and longing for summer.

8) Iceapelago 2091 by Peter Brennan

Published in 2021, this novel takes place in 2091 Ireland where the Irish counties have turned to islands due to a 30-meter ocean rise. The story follows the micropolitics of each islands and Malahide in particular and their competition for food with other animals and water availability. We catch glimpses of old Irish streets underneath the water and old fauna such as seagulls that have had to become migratory birds. Polar bears and arctic foxes can now be found on Ireland as the North Sea has frozen over. Though focused on post-apocalyptic politics, this book provides insight into flora, fauna, and humans living through the future medieval ice ages.

by Catalina Bonati