Welcome to the Greenhouse

New Science Fiction on Climate Change

By: Bruce Sterling, Gregory Benford, Paul Di Filippo, Alan Dean Foster, Gordon Van Gelder - editor

Narrated by: Bob Dunsworth

Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

Forty years ago, Walt Kelly's comic strip character Pogo famously intoned: "We have met the enemy, and he is us." Now, as the evidence for climate change becomes overwhelming, we learn the hard reality behind that witticism. The possible destruction, and certain transformation, of the ecosphere has been brought about by our own activities. What will our new world look like? How will we - can we - adapt? The clash of a rapidly changing environment with earth's self-styled ruling species, humans, provides ample creative fodder for this riveting anthology of original science fiction.

In Welcome to the Greenhouse, award-winning editor Gordon Van Gelder has brought together 16 speculative stories by some of the most imaginative writers of our time. Terrorists, godlike terra formers, and humans both manipulative and hapless populate these pages. The variety of stories reflects the possibilities of our future: grim, hopeful, fantastic and absurd.

©2011 Gordon Van Gelder (P)2013 Audible Inc.

narrator was so monotone it took days to finish...

this should not have been sold to people.he sound as if he was bored of the book.
this has been the worst book experience i have had.
all but two stories are meh,and the two are narrated badly.

Some stories were science fiction but didn't seem to discuss climate change.

I'd like more stories that fictionalize what life will be like in 50, 75, 100, 200, 500, and 1,000 years from now as the climate is changing and life on this planet along with it. Scientists give probabilities but fiction writers can use those to create narratives to help the non-science literate visualize what might happen. I didn't feel that these stories fulfilled that wish.

bot voice

stories are good in my opinion but the computer generated voice is bland. cheap production.

Big Letdown

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

The quality of the short stories varied wildly.

It would also help on Audible's part if the chapters were named rather than numbered: it was difficult to navigate around the stories.

What will your next listen be?

Something with a decent narrator.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

He was terrible. Like somewhere between a "text-to-speech" piece of software and a man who has just learned to talk.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I listened to four or five stories, and only one was half-decent.

Any additional comments?

I only got this for Alan Dean Foster's inclusion, and his story was so-so.