Quick Synopsis

For fans of Station Eleven and The Last Thing He Told Me, this richly imaginative, immersive, and profound novel is the electrifying story of a family in crisis that unfolds against the backdrop of our near future.

Publisher’s Synopsis

Emi Vargas, whose parents helped save the world, is tired of being told how lucky she is to have been born after the climate crisis. But following the public assassination of a dozen climate criminals, Emi’s mother, Kristina, disappears as a possible suspect, and Emi’s illusions of utopia are shattered. A determined Emi and her father, Larch, journey from their home in Nuuk, Greenland to New York City, now a lightly populated storm-surge outpost built from the ruins of the former metropolis. But they aren’t the only ones looking for Kristina.

Thirty years earlier, Larch first came to New York with a team of volunteers to save the city from rising waters and torrential storms. Kristina was on the frontlines of a different battle, fighting massive wildfires that ravaged the western United States. They became part of a movement that changed the world­—The Great Transition—forging a new society and finding each other in process.

Alternating between Emi’s desperate search for her mother and a meticulously rendered, heart-stopping account of her parents’ experiences during The Great Transition, this novel beautifully shows how our actions today determine our fate tomorrow. A triumphant debut, The Great Transition is a breathtaking rendering of our near future, told through the story of one family trying to protect each other and the place we all call home.

Book Review

The Great Transition is a debut science/speculative fiction novel that takes place in the near future and follows a family of climate refugees after The Great Transition, a global movement in respone to climate change that revolutionized the way the world functions and lives.

The Great Transition is an inventive novel with a brilliant premise. Not only did I love the basis of this book, it has some of, if not, the best world-building I have read. I was enraptured with the story’s past events and how it affects the present timeline, which is a fast-paced mystery. In fact, I wish that the book covered what is considered the past as it happened and then had a sequel that includes this book’s plot. It almost felt like a waste of nuanced world-building. But alas, I am not a literary agent or an editor. I will also be utilizing some of the terms, like “destroying class” and “climate criminals,” used in the book moving forward. 

That being said, I felt the present plotline of The Great Transition was a bit lacking. When you are reading the present story alongside the past, it is apparent that the present lacked complexity. As I mentioned, I was much more interested in how the present timeline was reached than what actually happened to the family at the book’s center. It is what prevented me from rating this novel higher.

This may be in part due to the lack of character development. What development there is results in characters that are either unlikeable, uninteresting, or forgettable. I think it is also worth noting that the author is male, and two of the narrators are female. For me, the best character is Emi, the teenage daughter. I related to her, particularly in the way she and her generation are treated by older generations.

Because some may label The Great Transition as dystopian, I want to add that this clever story left me feeling hopeful. While it begs readers to reflect on their own climate footprint, it provides an alternative narrative to the existentialist doom our present reality inspires.

Overall, The Great Transition is a strong debut novel about struggle, change, and hope. Although the plot is not the most complex, the world building compensates for any dearth in plot. I recommend this book if you are looking for a speculative novel about climate change that will not leave you in a doom spiral. I am looking forward to seeing what Nick Fuller Googins writes next.

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