Sea Change

*New from the Nebula Award winning author of Beggars in Spain: A riveting climate-change technothriller of espionage, conspiracy, and stakes so high they could lead to the destruction of humanity itself. In this environmental page-turner, activist lawyer Renata Black—covert member of the Org—must go deep underground to unravel the truth behind the ecological disaster that has paralyzed the food industry and destroyed her family.
“Sea Change is like liquid nitrogen ice cream—a chilling treat.”—Greg Bear, author of Eon and Take Back the Sky*
Operative Renata Black has a serious problem—a self-driving house causing a traffic snarl. When Renata spots the Org’s Tiffany Teal paint marking a windowsill, she discovers a dangerous mystery within the house itself.
In 2022, GMOs were banned after a bio-pharmed drug caused the Catastrophe: worldwide economic collapse, agricultural standstill, and personal tragedy for a lawyer and her son. Ten years later, Renata, a.k.a. Caroline Denton, is a member of the Org, an underground group of scientists, functioning in splinter cells that are hunted by the feds. But the Org’s illegal food-research might hold the key to rebuilding the worlds’ food supply.
Now there’s a mole in the Org, and Black is the only one who can find out who it is. At risk: the possibility of a second, even more devastating climate collapse. For answers, Black will need to go all the way to her Quinault Nation legal clients, to reveal environmental dangers—and solutions—that the world has not been willing to face.
Nancy Kress, one of our finest speculative writers, once again delivers a smart, mesmerizing, and surprisingly nuanced look at the ecological, technological, and political shifts we cannot afford to avoid. **
Review Praise for * Sea Change * *
“Kress wisely keeps her global catastrophe on a human scale, eschewing superheroic action for tense realism. This urgent, deeply satisfying story is as tenacious and inspiring as its heroine.”
― Publishers Weekly “A strong, striking look at a a possible future, and the courage that will allow us to survive it.”
―Laura Anne Gilman, author of Heat of Briar and Soul of Fire*
“Sea Change is like liquid nitrogen ice cream―a chilling treat. Right next door to the future, filled with dark wit―a fine addition to Kress’s work.”
―Greg Bear, author of Eon and Take Back the Sky
“Nancy Kress is one of the best science-fiction writers working today. Her use of science is tricky and thought-provoking, her command of fiction sharp and full of feeling.”
―Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Years of Rice and Salt
“Nobody is better at destroying the world―see one of my favorite novellas, the multi-award-winning After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall―but here Nancy Kress dives into the science of genetically modified plants and shows us how we just may need them to save the planet. And this brilliant, thoughtful story is also a page-turner! I don’t know about you, but a thriller about a fear-mongering, anti-science government and the smart, brave people resisting it was exactly the story I needed right now.”
―Daryl Gregory, award-winning writer of Spoonbenders
“Kress brilliantly weaves together two halves of a bio-thriller about GMOs and climate change that blooms logically from our immediate past and into one possible catastrophic near future. What's even more impressive is how she warns us about the dangers of GMOs on one hand, and teaches us about their wonderous advantages on the other. It's science fiction and it's not science fiction, and that's what's scary about this novella. Highly recommended.”
―Patrick Swenson, author of The Ultra Thin Man “This taut, suspenseful near-future ecothriller combines a frighteningly plausible ecological/economic collapse scenario with genuine human emotion. A winner!”
―David D. Levine, author of Arabella of Mars
Praise for * Nancy Kress*
“Kress, a witty and engaging writer, creates chilling suspense as twisty as a DNA double helix.”
― Publishers Weekly “It’s hard to imagine a better writer of science fiction in America today than Nancy Kress.”
― Salt Lake Tribune
«Devilishly inventive.”
― CNN.com
“A depth of imagination unusual even among science fiction writers.”
― Analog
“Kress has the magical ability of weaving amazing plot, believable science, and intriguing characters into a coherent whole.”
― Blogcritics
“A strong, striking look at a a possible future, and the courage that will allow us to survive it.” ― Laura Anne Gilman, author of Heat of Briar and Soul of Fire “Sea Change is like liquid nitrogen ice cream―a chilling treat. Right next door to the future, filled with dark wit―a fine addition to Kress’s work.” ―Greg Bear, author of Eon and Take Back the Sky
“A strong, striking look at a possible future, and the courage that will allow us to survive it.” ―Laura Anne Gilman, author of Heart of Briar and Soul of Fire
“This taut, suspenseful near-future ecothriller combines a frighteningly plausible ecological/economic collapse scenario with genuine human emotion. A winner!” ―David D. Levine, author of Arabella of Mars
About the Author Nancy Kress is the bestselling author of more than thirty science-fiction and fantasy novels and novellas, including Beggars in Spain, Probability Space, and Steal Across the Sky. To date, she has also published more than ten short-story collections and three nonfiction books for Writer’s Digest on the fundamentals of writing. Kress is a six-time Nebula Award winner, including two consecutive awards for her novellas After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall and Yesterday’s Kin. She is also the recipient of the Sturgeon and Campbell awards, as well as two Hugo awards. Her fiction has been translated into nearly two dozen languages, including Klingon. Kress teaches writing at workshops, including Clarion West and Taos Toolbox, as well as at the University of Leipzig in Germany, as a guest professor. Kress lives in Seattle, Washington, with her husband, the author Jack Skillingstead, and Cosette, the world’s most spoiled toy poodle.