BURNING SOULS

Four friends attempt to save the world in this environmentally themed thriller.

Earth’s biosphere is in a death spiral, and things are about to get worse. This is especially frustrating to those who have worked for years to attempt to convince recalcitrant humanity of the need to change its practices. Beginning in the late 1990s, four idealistic young people set out to do just that: save the world from the looming threat of climate change. The four met at Cambridge University: Sagan Cleveland, an atmospheric chemistry student from inner-city Detroit; Ebitsubo Jiro, an international business law student from Fukushima, Japan; Jenny Fung, an engineering student from Malaysia; and Simone Cohen, a Canadian journalist studying international relations. The next decade proves a highly educational one even as it takes them each to different places around the world. Another decade introduces new struggles: Nuclear disasters, new technologies, coverups, and corporate greed challenge the endurance—and friendships—of the four. Like everyone else, Sagan and the others live through climate-spurred social upheavals that alter humanity’s relationship with Earth. But, with the inaction of the masses, will they be able to find a way to do something about climate change before it’s too late? Chernushenko’s (Sustainable Sports Management, 2001, etc.) prose is smooth even as he litters it with exposition regarding both the plot and the real crises facing humanity: “In place of fees,” Simone’s “share from book sales could be given to charity….‘I’ll split it between Puerto Rico hurricane victims and California forest fire crews!’ ” The timely novel has a Michener-ian heft to it (the book is 666 pages), and Chernushenko takes a largely effective kitchen sink approach to dramatizing climate activism in the form of his four heroes. But he does that at the expense of some verisimilitude—readers will never truly forget that this is a highly didactic work meant to educate them about the environment—and for this reason, it isn’t as thrilling a piece of fiction as it could be. The book tries to be as big as the problems it tackles, but one can’t help but wonder if a smaller, specialized story would not serve as a more poignant educational tool.

A tale that mostly succeeds in fictionalizing the last 30 years of climate change’s effects.