3.5 stars
The best thing about this book, is that it shows real possibilities of what's going to happen in this country in the next 10-15 years.
The worst thing about this book, is that most people who read it will think it's exaggerated. They'll keep on eating animals, though that's one of the biggest drivers of climate change. They'll keep on consuming, getting the latest iPhone, etc., Just like the predator class wants them to.

On page 85 of the hard cover, there's a funny description of the Catholic religious service. I was brought up catholic, until my parents realized what a brainwashing they had had.
"They stand on cue, all of them, rising without being asked, nodding without being asked, crossing their fingers over their chest, again without being asked. They begin to kneel now, the room filled with a low and wooden Rumble as padded kneelers are unfolded from underneath each pew, the parishioners lowering themselves onto those padded planks. A minute later, the kneelers are tucked away again, once more discreetly positioned underneath each visitor to this church.
The people sit. They stand again. They repeat a phrase, the same phrase, an answer, a response, all of them, young and old, child and parent, they know these motions and these words by heart, it's as if they've known them since before they were ever born."

There are despicable characters in this book, but one of the admirable characters is a doctor, who escaped from somewhere in Mexico, with his wife, the daughter of an executed drug lord. They live in a refugee camp, snugged up against the border wall in the United states, one of the smallest ones with only 100,000 population.
The refugee camps are run by drug cartels. There are tunnels Dug underneath the border wall, and ending in tents in the refugee camps. Through these tunnels, human trafficking, drugs, and arms are run. Still, life is safer in these refugee camps than it is in many other places in this country.
"in the morning, he sees patients in the front room of their tent. They are lined up to see him. He has a nurse who works with him. She was a scrub nurse working on transplants at one of the University hospitals. She is much overqualified for the job. The colds people have. The pains and vague discomfort.
Most of the illnesses here are a function of the sadness people feel. The worry that they won't ever get out of this camp. The depression that this is all their journey will possibly achieve.
This is his worry too. So few visas are now issued. So many more people cross the border, most caught and sent directly to these camps. Fear of the refugees grows steadily. Anger toward them. Resentment and distrust, and for many people it is simple hatred.
His cousin made it out of his camp. Legally. He lives far west now, in a city there. He tells the doctor about the hatred. He is an architect working as a cab driver and weekend bus boy. Unable to get any other job despite the Visa and work permit he was granted many years ago. 'They don't like us,' the doctor's Cousin says when they speak by phone. 'They see us all in the same light. We've come here to take, they think. Take money. Take jobs. offer nothing. Give nothing. I tell people I designed office buildings. Hospitals. A library. A museum. They look at me and laugh.' "

Here is a description in the book, that is taken from real life in our real world of today:
"the soot and smoke of diesel oil rising from the massive ships that sail the oceans.
Flotillas of plastic bottles, drawn together, miles across, and there's no plan, no intent, no will to clean this up.
Drift nets 50 ft deep and 50 mi long, left to float with the current, ghosts now, that haunt the ocean, collecting millions of animals not intentionally, not to eat, but by accident, enTangled animals, all of them left to die."

The author's description of animal agriculture, one of the leading causes of environmental destruction, and destruction of humans and animals alike, in its breathtaking cruelty:
"pig shit, massive pools of it held in ponds carved out of the dirt, shit slowly seeping into lakes and streams and groundwater, shit-borne bacteria spreading from hog farms to spinach farm to reservoirs to city drinking water.
The rainbow-colored sheen of oily pesticides, collecting now in the drainage ditches at the end of Furrows plowed into the fields.
Cattle sometimes butchered while they still stand, staggering but alive, workers too callous or disinterested or just too numb to care that the maul no longer kills the animal they stand before. Instead, the blood of that creature, bits of live flesh and functioning organs, it all runs into drains on the concrete floor, washed down, bypassing filters long since disconnected, entering the sewers, is it alive still when it finds its way to the nearby river?"

Before I go, I have to mention the other despicable character in this book, the woman who helps her company make money off disasters in the world. she likes to have sex with children, and the author includes disgusting, triggering descriptions of it.

I have to wonder if the author is a vegan? People often lament the change in the world, as it is destroyed, and they'll buy reusable straws, ignoring one of the most important things an individual could do to make a difference.

The author's book which follows this prequel is called the city where we once lived. I have this book on my want to read list, but saw that this book is the prequel, so that's why I read it.
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Depressing, as these books tend to be, made more so by the near-anonymity of the characters, and for awhile that's all there is. Stick with it to the end, you'll be glad you did. No miracles here, just humans being human. This is listed as a prequel to The City Where We Once Lived. which is next up on my list. ( )

Above the Ether by Eric Barnes is a highly recommended prequel to his climate change science fiction novel The City Where We Once Lived.

The stories of six sets of vastly different characters are told in short vignettes set in the climate changed world Barnes first created in The City Where We Once Lived. The weather patterns are unpredictable and violent, while the ground is poisoned, and the government is unable to provide any assistance. This novel covers the changes before, that led to the world he created. None of his characters are given names, rather they are named by a description. We follow the stories of: a father and his two children fleeing a tsunami in the Gulf; an investor making money betting on disasters; a couple punishing themselves over their sons addictions, while wildfires rage around them; a doctor and his wife living in a refugee camp for immigrants; a young man with a violent past and present is working at a carnival; and the manager of a fast food chain in a city of fierce winds. The different characters and their stories converge on the city which is half abandoned and the setting for The City Where We Once Lived.

The writing and the stories are presented in a dream-like, fragmented manner in a harsh apocalyptic setting. This is one of those novels that you will either commit to finishing or you will set it aside. While the characters are going through turmoil and unbelievable hardships, Barnes seems to purposefully keep his characters set apart, at a distance from the readers, as if they are just another small group of diverse people suffering. The writing simply tells their story while holding the reader at a distance - until the end. It is left up to the reader to decide if they will care or not - or if they feel this reality he has created will mirror our own world. It is definitely bleak and almost hopeless, as there is a glimmer of people coming together and helping each other at the end.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Arcade Publishing.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2019/06/above-ether.html ( )

Above the Ether takes place the day after tomorrow, or so it seems. An earthquake in the gulf at the same time as a hurricane creates an epic wave that devours the gulf coast. Never-ending fires render communities unlivable. Drought devastates farmland. Dandelions and mollusks and nature in general seems to have run amok. Eric Barnes describes a dystopic future that is only a tick of the clock from our present, a future where the climate catastrophe we have done little to avoid arrives. And yet, Barnes does not use the word climate once. This is not a polemic, this is a story.

Above the Ether follows six narratives, a father and his kids fleeing the gulf, a husband and wife seeking their runaway son, a callous investor checking out the potential for disaster dividends, refugees finally getting their release from a border detention facility, carnival workers working their route, and a restaurant manager just doing his job as best he can. These disparate people move by happenstance and necessity toward an unnamed city where they converge in a crisis, finding hope in the midst of despair.

Nothing and no one has a name. People are described solely by the roles. Every location is unnamed, leaving it to us to situate it in our own cultural geography. So why is it so compelling? Why did I read this in one sitting, skipping dinner and reading to the end? I think we value what we work for.

I remember being taught to put a notecard over the bottom third of the text while I was studying, covering the serifs that make reading easier. My professor explained that if I was forced to engage and infer while I was reading, I would remember what I studied better. He also said in the end, I would learn to read faster. He was right. There is this idea in pedagogy that instilling a “desirable difficulty” in the work makes it easier to remember. The concept of desirable difficulty might not be related to writing, but I think it captures the magic of Above the Ether.

It is as though Barnes took the writing advice of “show, don’t tell” to its ultimate expression. He won’t even tell us who is who and in some chapter fragments, it can be hard to tell. But that effort makes us more engaged. So much is unexplained, we must bring ourselves into the reading process. We cannot just sit back and read. We have to think while we read.

We care about these people because we have worked to know them and their situation. We understand the catastrophe because we had to integrate our own experience. Add to that, the prose that is as simple as a hymn and as musical. There is poetry on these pages as well as great understanding of humanity and compassion for the human condition.

Above the Ether is painful in many ways, especially since this dystopia seems inevitable given our desire to consume the inheritance of the next seven generations all in one. It feels grounded in the reality of likely outcomes and human potential.

Above the Ether will be released June 11th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2019/06/02/9781628729986/ ( )