Shelly Dennison continues her reviews of the Climate Fiction Prize longlist:
One of the positives of taking on a challenge like reading through the Climate Fiction Prize longlist, is that it encourages you to read books that you wouldn’t normally pick up. I would put ‘The Mars House’ firmly into this category, the science fiction section of the bookshop isn’t one I normally trouble. It’s worth pointing this out at the top of this review as it means I’m not able to consider the book in the light of its genre or in comparison to similar titles. As with my review of ‘Orbital’ earlier this year, I’ll be thinking about the book in relation to the questions posed by the Climate Fiction Prize website – how is the major challenge of our times being reflected in fiction? How does fiction allow us to explore our individual and collective response to climate change? What impact can climate fiction have?
‘The Mars House’ is the story of January Stirling, a former principal dancer with London’s Royal Ballet and a climate refugee bound for a colony on Mars. It explores what happens when he encounters senator Aubrey Gale who is standing for election on a platform to protect the native population from immigrants like January who are considered a threat because ‘Earthstrongers’ are physically stronger than the native population who have adjusted over several generations to the weaker gravity on Mars. The book really takes off when the pair enter into an unlikely five year made for reality TV marriage.
Although filed under science fiction, the book is a blend of genres including political thriller, crime and romance. It also tackles a whole range of contemporary issues beyond the impacts of climate change, including gender, lockdowns, immigration, energy generation and the impact of introducing non-native species into ecosystems. Thematically, its big questions are about trust, power and privilege. In other words, there’s a lot going on, and it’s not always subtle. That said, the book has heart, imagination and ambition, so whilst in many ways it is a flawed book, I still found it enormously enjoyable and engaging. It’s often funny, the characters are sympathetic and the world of the story well realised.
In terms of climate fiction, the book’s starting point is a refugee crisis of epic proportions caused by flooding in London and wildfires in America. Predictions vary, but The World Bank’s 2021 Groundswell report found that climate change could force up to 216 million people to move within their countries by 2050. In her novel, Natasha Pulley asks one of the ‘what if?’ questions that fiction is perhaps better equipped to tackle than non-fiction or scientific papers – what if the impacts of climate change on Earth have reached a level where people are fleeing not only their homes or their countries but their planet? From there, the book explores how people react to catastrophe and threat, looking at how societies are built and developed, who they benefit and who is left behind. As an answer to pressing questions about how nations should respond to those displaced by the effects of climate change, a colony on Mars is perhaps not terribly likely, but ‘The Mars House’ opens up the possibility for a serious conversation on what the response could look like, and how it might allow people to thrive rather than just survive.
Shelly Dennison is a director of JRI and Digital Engagement Officer at CPRE Bedfordshire, the countryside charity.