Review of ECO24: The Year’s Best Speculative Ecofiction
ECO24: The Year’s Best Speculative Ecofiction, edited by Marissa Van Uden (Apex Book Company, 2025), is a collection of previously published stories from a wide variety of venues that look at a variety of issues related to climate change, capitalism, and colonialism, along with other aspects of ecological fiction.
A number of the stories in this collection stuck with me after reading them, including:
- “In the Field” by Shelly Jones (a heartfelt and sweet story about an anthropologist and the robot who has taken on fieldwork in a post-apocalyptic world)
- “A Seder in Siberia” by Louis Evans (a gutwrenching and beautiful story about family secrets)
- “Batter and Pearl” by Steph Kwiatowski (a story of survival and love in a vivid setting that is just as much a character as the speaking characters)
- “To Drive the Cold Winter Away” by E. Catherine Tobler (a surreal story about revitalizing a place that suffered environmental degradation and its unusual inhabitants)
- “One with the Ground” by Guillermo G. Mendoza (a lovely story about the sweetest revenge)
- “The Colonists” by Jennifer Hudak (a story of unreliable narrators and an amazing twist ending)
If you’re interested in ecofiction, either as a long-time fan or someone interested in getting into the subgenre, ECO24: The Year’s Best Speculative Ecofiction is a fantastic place to look. There are content warnings for maybe half of the stories, located at the end of the ebook, many of which involve death and abuse.
The editor provided me with an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for review consideration.
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