Ecopocalypse, with a side of Woo-Woo
In case you didn't know, it was people destroying the earth all along. (You should probably me saying it like Charlton Heston at the end of the Planet of the Apes.)
"After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall" by Nancy Kress is an eco-disaster story told in two strands with a series of "here is how the world is ending" interludes.
The more convincing and compelling strand by a far margin is the future thread where there is a limited number of survivors, most of the first generation are dead, the second generation is plagued with birth defects, many eventually fatal and they've started kidnapping babies via time travel to create the third generation.
Pete is the protagonist for this section and he's angry, he feels misunderstood and he's horny - basically, he's a teenager.
In the other strand, Julie is working with the FBI in our time to track the kidnappings using magic math mathmagic. Also, she becomes pregnant because the plot demands it. She reminds me a lot of your average character in a '70s eco-disaster movie - not the least bit like a real person, but able to look earnestly at the camera while proclaiming ridiculous statements.
Eventually, right before the east coast is wiped out by a tsunami, the two threads converge and Julie asks Pete to bring her baby to the future. She also gives him the message of the story:
“Listen, Pete, it was us, not any aliens. Have you ever heard of Gaia?”
“No.”
“Is your McAllister an educated man?”
“She knows everything.”
“Then tell her this: We did it. We wrecked the Earth, and now the Earth is fighting back. The planet is full of self-regulating mechanisms-remember those exact words!-to keep life intact. We’ve violated them, and Gaia-remember that word!-is cleansing herself of us. It’s not mysticism, it’s Darwinian self-preservation. Maybe Gaia will start over. Maybe you in the Shell are part of that! But tell McAllister that, tell everyone! Say it!”
Which tipped me over from marginally enjoying the story into rolling my eyes from here to eternity. It was at this point I stopped giving all the unanswered questions in the story a pass.
Like why would the aliens/Gaia want to save the humans since we wrecked the planet in the first place? Why are the time travel rules so arbitrary? Why can the aliens make a time travel machine but are not able to sufficiently shield a house from nuclear radiation to prevent birth defects? And once they realized their error, why didn't they jump back in time and bring through a few more young adult survivors rather than starting operation baby-nap?
Never mind, I don't care.
"After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall" by Nancy Kress is an eco-disaster story told in two strands with a series of "here is how the world is ending" interludes.
The more convincing and compelling strand by a far margin is the future thread where there is a limited number of survivors, most of the first generation are dead, the second generation is plagued with birth defects, many eventually fatal and they've started kidnapping babies via time travel to create the third generation.
Pete is the protagonist for this section and he's angry, he feels misunderstood and he's horny - basically, he's a teenager.
In the other strand, Julie is working with the FBI in our time to track the kidnappings using magic math mathmagic. Also, she becomes pregnant because the plot demands it. She reminds me a lot of your average character in a '70s eco-disaster movie - not the least bit like a real person, but able to look earnestly at the camera while proclaiming ridiculous statements.
Eventually, right before the east coast is wiped out by a tsunami, the two threads converge and Julie asks Pete to bring her baby to the future. She also gives him the message of the story:
“Listen, Pete, it was us, not any aliens. Have you ever heard of Gaia?”
“No.”
“Is your McAllister an educated man?”
“She knows everything.”
“Then tell her this: We did it. We wrecked the Earth, and now the Earth is fighting back. The planet is full of self-regulating mechanisms-remember those exact words!-to keep life intact. We’ve violated them, and Gaia-remember that word!-is cleansing herself of us. It’s not mysticism, it’s Darwinian self-preservation. Maybe Gaia will start over. Maybe you in the Shell are part of that! But tell McAllister that, tell everyone! Say it!”
Which tipped me over from marginally enjoying the story into rolling my eyes from here to eternity. It was at this point I stopped giving all the unanswered questions in the story a pass.
Like why would the aliens/Gaia want to save the humans since we wrecked the planet in the first place? Why are the time travel rules so arbitrary? Why can the aliens make a time travel machine but are not able to sufficiently shield a house from nuclear radiation to prevent birth defects? And once they realized their error, why didn't they jump back in time and bring through a few more young adult survivors rather than starting operation baby-nap?
Never mind, I don't care.