A PRESCIENT SCI-FI READ ON THE PERILS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Chirdeep Malhotra . Updated: 7/6/2021 9:45:15 AM Books and Authors

Book Review: "Lucy 3: Lucy And The Rise Of The Parabola" by Anandajit Goswami & Debashis Chakraborty

Climate change and global warming, being driven by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, are having observable effects on the environment. Though there are naysayers of the phenomenon of climate change too, the effects of climate change are all but evident. We are already witnessing the large-scale shifts in weather patterns, instantiated by extremes of weather, the melting of glaciers, and rising sea levels. Though policy changes and climate activism are must to avert the impending climate disaster, books written on these themes are also increasingly initiating more discussions on the topic. Climate-fiction, or cli-fi, is increasingly being by authors to address such global environmental issues.

The authors Anandajit Goswami and Debashis Chakraborty have come out with one such book “Lucy 3: Lucy And The Rise Of The Parabola”, which blends the genres of sci-fi, cli-fi, and suspense. The book is a sequel to the books “Lucy and the Train: Tryst with Sustainability” and “Lucy Meets Artificial Intelligence”, but can be read as a standalone.

In the central premise of the book, Lucy sets off on a mega adventure. The planet is facing yet another imminent danger, and the Earthlings turn to its saviour, Lucy, to rescue the planet. Lucy, who has saved them twice before, ventures into the future to find out the answers, but the journey is filled with treacherous twists and sinister entities.

Themes of time travel, superior intelligence, AI, and futuristic technologies, along with sustainable development, and the realities of climate change are woven into the narrative. However, while delving into all these topics, there are also explorations of themes of corruption, power, discrimination, and human follies. The book also details the simultaneous coexistence of conflicts in the futuristic and postmodern world, and how Lucy navigates these issues.

The book does well when focussing on the themes and the storyline, but the characters are not well-etched. The plot of this sci-fi novel is multilayered, with both action and suspense woven in. However, despite the imaginative narrative, the characterization leaves much to be desired. Also, though the book doesn’t have much of grammatical errors, the narrative definitely needs some deft editing, with improvements in the sentence structure.

Though this is a speculative and futuristic sci-fi and cli-fi tale, with elements of fantasy, it nonetheless is a powerful allegory of what is awaiting mankind if we do not take environmental conservation seriously. This is a book that will have readers thinking on these themes long after they have read the final page.


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