Camp Zero

by Michelle Min Sterling

Camp Zero by Michelle Min Sterling

Recommended if you love: near future dystopias, climate crisis predictions, stories of corporate corruption.

Michelle Min Sterling builds a world that is gripping because it is so plausible. The book imagines North America a few decades out from the current day, taking current practices around extractive industries, economic disparities and lack of preparation for climate crisis a few steps further in imagining where they might lead us. The world that is built throughout the story is visceral and relatable because it does feel within reach, but the author still provides enough context for the new technologies that have entered this world.

For themes that could lend themselves to being overly didactic and bleak, Sterling manages to capture the nuance and complexity of humans within these systems and settings. The writing switches narrators between chapters offering clear different voices and perspectives. New layers of each character's complexity was revealed with a timing and cadence that drove the overall plot pacing successfully. After some initial set up of characters and settings the story offers twists and reveals that keep the reader intrigued.

What I thought was most successful about the book was the ways in which Sterling goes beyond an apocalyptic climate change story to actually explore deeper the tensions of building utopias, particularly in the context of a damaged or traumatized world that hasn't been able to heal. Without giving away the story I can generally say there are three different attempted utopias each of which presents flaws and murky explorations of ethics and questions of survival. Through these attempts the author presents a world which is both hopeful and grim, capturing the paradoxes and complexities of human existence.

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