OVERLORD

In a near future wracked by climate chaos, a ruined United States faces the threats of a brutish military government and a new, genetically modified species of predators.

Fullilove forecasts a dire near future in this cli-fi dystopian novel. Global warming and melting ice caps in the mid-21st century have led to land masses suddenly submerging while sea levels pitilessly rise under pounding superstorms and serial hurricanes. Cuba, New York state, Florida, and California drown. In Washington, D.C., the climate change–denying Republican government —laden with racist, religious conservatives—is overthrown by rogue general Cody Freeman, who secretly took environmental predictions seriously. Freeman institutes a secret plan called Project Overlord, replacing do-nothing Washington politicians with a harsh military police/prison state. New “detention centers” sprout everywhere; millions of refugees are killed outright (with a special emphasis on minorities); and the U.S. capital moves to Cleveland. America’s nuclear weapons go on high alert against foes Russia and China. Regarding China, a 2019 flashback shows Victor Frankenstein–esque scientists gene-splicing endangered polar bears to enable them to survive the altered environment, with increased intelligence, size, and teeth. Now, these “mogli” creatures are ubiquitous, amphibious alpha predators. The backstory is delivered in a mosaic of flashbacks while, in the present, a multiethnic Overlord troubleshooting team is led by an attractive, deadly Cuban American ex-cop named Madison Cervantes. Badass survivors of incarcerations, rapes, ethnic cleansings, and mogli maraudings, the squad undertakes suicidal salvage missions to stabilize the crumbling nation’s economy and infrastructure. The author’s typhoon-force storytelling chops do not quite propel this series opener all the way through. But the prose will often keep eyeballs riveted, though an ending leaves much dangling for the sequel. Category 5 racial pathologies (echoing Hurricane Katrina and George Floyd) tinge the disaster stuff while the eco-preaching, if not exactly muted, still takes a back seat to slam-bang action. The monsters make a nostalgic throwback to those beasts-on-the-loose thrillers published in the wake of Peter Benchley’s Jaws. Yet Fullilove’s big, juicy question is whether Freeman really is a foul villain (He makes “Hitler look like an innocent schoolboy!”) or a tragic, pragmatic strongman, prepared to sacrifice himself to save a shattered homeland. Cli-fi fans will be tempted to read the over-the-top story in one sitting.

Partisan power grabs and sea monsters swirl in this engaging, adrenaline-charged cli-fi tale.