A prescient and chilling climate change thriller set on the harsh landscape of Antarctica from one of the best science fiction writers of the present day
The great geoengineering projects have failed.
The world is still warming, sea levels are still rising, and the Antarctic Peninsula is home to Earth’s newest nation, with life quickened by ecopoets spreading across valleys and fjords exposed by the retreat of the ice.
Austral Morales Ferrado, a child of the last generation of ecopoets, is a husky: an edited person adapted to the unforgiving climate of the far south, feared and despised by most of its population. She’s been a convict, a corrections officer in a labour camp, and consort to a criminal, and now, out of desperation, she has committed the kidnapping of the century. But before she can collect the ransom and make a new life elsewhere, she must find a place of safety amongst the peninsula’s forests and icy plateaus, and evade a criminal gang that has its own plans for the teenage girl she’s taken hostage.
Blending the story of Austral’s flight with the fractured history of her family and its role in the colonisation of Antarctica, Austral is a vivid portrayal of a treacherous new world created by climate change, and shaped by the betrayals and mistakes of the past.
Austral has been optioned for television by Circle of Confusion, the company who brought The Walking Dead and Locke and Key to the small screen. They’ve recruited award-winning screenwriter Elise McCredie (Stateless) and director Erik Skjoldbjærg (An Enemy of the People, Insomnia) to work on this exciting project.
‘Paul McAuley’s balanced grasp of science and literature, always a rare attribute in the writer of prose fiction, is combined with the equally rare ability to look at today’s problems and know which are really problems, and what can be done about them.’ William Gibson
Readers are captivated by Austral:
‘Austral feels very timely, as it confronts questions about borders, climate change, geoengineering, biodiversity, racism, and xenophobia . . . An excellent climate change novel‘ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘Devastating, humane, extraordinarily harsh and beautiful’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘The world building is very nicely done, with a strong sense of place and landscape. And the tale is infused with thoughtful reflection on climate change, wilding and genetic modifications’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘A gorgeous, haunting novel-brimming with fractal stories-within-stories-about a fugitive on the run through the backcountry of the new nation established on a greening Antarctica’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘Genius . . . I love the intersection of gene editing and anarchy. Imagining a world drastically changed by global warming but still crumpling under the dire weight of capitalism’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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Reviews
Cli-fi transcendent.
An exquisite human story set on an undiscovered continent of our near future.
Austral may be McAuley's best yet. And the best near-future novel yet written.
Paul McAuley has quickened science fiction. The future has changed.
A thrilling chase-cum-travelogue through a beautifully depicted Antarctic wonderland... an impressively vast story in a short punchy novel.
It is one of the best post-climate change novels yet written - and one of McAuley's best books.
Oh boy, it's a good one. A cracking setup; great writing; great pacing; a genuinely fresh narrative voice, and for once - hooray! - a male author writing a complex, first-person female narrator who is neither a broflake's wet-dream, nor a wooden stereotype. Austral is big, strong, powerful, and yet with real vulnerabilities; a flawed and relatable heroine with agency, feelings and spirit. And to cap it all, Austral is fat - genetically edited to be fat in a way that enhances her strength and endurance, and in the context of her race, is only ever mentioned as a positive. Halleluia. It can be done.
Deeply sad and tender.
Austral combines a solid science scenario with a taught thriller in an all too plausible future. For an SF reader, or indeed any reader that considers matters beyond the day after tomorrow, what is there not to like?
A chase thriller set in late 21st-century Antarctica that combines elements of Jack London,J.G. Ballard and William Gibson. A significant contribution to writing about the anthropocene.
A haunting and engaging piece of science fiction that is every bit as good a piece of writing as the best literary fiction.
The excitement of a new country appearing right here on Earth, a real possibility that is quite fascinating in itself, is doubled down here by way of a thrilling kidnap-and-rescue plot that ranges across this beautiful new landscape, showing how we will soon be not only terraforming Earth, but finding new ways to take care of each other. It's a vivid example of science fiction at its best.
Bleakly beautiful, Austral is both a finely-honed character study and a powerful evocation of landscape and change, delivered with icy clarity. This is the kind of fiction we will need as the Anthropocene takes hold.
McAuley is a nature poet of imaginary lands .
Austral is a beautifully written novel, which portrays in stark and stunning terms the new frontier of Antarctica.
A beautifully worked tale of post-environment collapse Antarctica, and a genetically-tweaked cold-adapted woman's attempt to escape. As ever McAuley writes superbly: his prose is always elegant without being showy, expressive and clear without ever being pedestrian. And he's capable of gorgeous descriptive vividness. Plus: rounded characterisation and a tremendous command of tension and pace . . . There's something deceptively simple about Austral: you read it quickly, and it lives in your head for a long time after.