Jonathan Elmore is assistant professor of English at Savannah State University.

Released in the "Ecocritical Theory and Practice" series (begun in 2007), this groundbreaking collection offers a thoughtful exploration of 20th- and 21st-century fiction and its treatment of mass extinction, with all its complex issues. Known to have occurred at least five times in Earth’s geologic past, mass extinction is defined as “a significant reduction in the number of individual organisms inhabiting the planet and at the same time a significant reduction in the diversity of species made up by those organisms" (p. 4). The introduction provides valuable background on the origins of environmental extinction fiction in the 1880s and its growth since the 1970s into the genres of climate fiction (popularly known as cli-fi) and extinction studies. The eight essays examine works by major American, British, and French writers, including Thomas Pynchon, H. P. Lovecraft, Jeff Vandermeer, Louise Erdrich, Eric Chevillard, China Mieville, Robert J. Sawyer, Michael Crichton (in the Jurassic Park novels), and J. K. Jemisin (in The Broken Earth trilogy). This book has much to add to the discussion of the role of storytelling in shaping the dialogue of climate change, and the challenges the book addresses offer avenues for future research in philosophy, spirituality, and politics. Though focused on literature, the book will be valuable in all disciplines. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

• Acknowledgments………………………………………………… Introduction: The Urgency of Story During the Sixth Mass ExtinctionJonathan Elmore……………………………………………Chapter 1: Telling Stories about Dying (Out): Thomas Pynchon’s Global Novels and the Anthropocene ExtinctionMichael Fuchs…………………………………………….Chapter 2: “Life Finds a Way”: Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, and Extinction AnxietyChristy Tidwell……………………………………………Chapter 3: “The Integrity of Nature”: A Comparative Analysis of Environmental Anxieties in the Fictions of H.P. Lovecraft and Jeff VanderMeerKristen Figgins…………………………………………….Chapter 4: “My Heart Slowly Cracks”: Making Kin and Living through Extinction in Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living GodBridgitte Barclay………………………………………….Chapter 5: “You Are Here”: Extinction as Familial in The Broken EarthErin DeYoung……………………………………………Chapter 6: The Uncanny, the Weird, and the Eerie: Hyperobjects and Anthropocenic Modalities in China Miéville’s Three Moments of an ExplosionAllan Rae…………………………………………………Chapter 7: The Tragic Comedy of Humanity: Life after Species Extinction in Éric Chevillard’s Sans l’orang-outanChristina Lord…………………………………………….Chapter 8: Godly Mass Extinction: Robert J. Sawyer’s Calculating God and Extinction’s TeleologiesJenni G. Halpin…………………………………………..About the Contributors

Jonathan Elmore is assistant professor of English at Savannah State University.

Released in the "Ecocritical Theory and Practice" series (begun in 2007), this groundbreaking collection offers a thoughtful exploration of 20th- and 21st-century fiction and its treatment of mass extinction, with all its complex issues. Known to have occurred at least five times in Earth’s geologic past, mass extinction is defined as “a significant reduction in the number of individual organisms inhabiting the planet and at the same time a significant reduction in the diversity of species made up by those organisms" (p. 4). The introduction provides valuable background on the origins of environmental extinction fiction in the 1880s and its growth since the 1970s into the genres of climate fiction (popularly known as cli-fi) and extinction studies. The eight essays examine works by major American, British, and French writers, including Thomas Pynchon, H. P. Lovecraft, Jeff Vandermeer, Louise Erdrich, Eric Chevillard, China Mieville, Robert J. Sawyer, Michael Crichton (in the Jurassic Park novels), and J. K. Jemisin (in The Broken Earth trilogy). This book has much to add to the discussion of the role of storytelling in shaping the dialogue of climate change, and the challenges the book addresses offer avenues for future research in philosophy, spirituality, and politics. Though focused on literature, the book will be valuable in all disciplines. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.

• Acknowledgments………………………………………………… Introduction: The Urgency of Story During the Sixth Mass ExtinctionJonathan Elmore……………………………………………Chapter 1: Telling Stories about Dying (Out): Thomas Pynchon’s Global Novels and the Anthropocene ExtinctionMichael Fuchs…………………………………………….Chapter 2: “Life Finds a Way”: Jurassic Park, Jurassic World, and Extinction AnxietyChristy Tidwell……………………………………………Chapter 3: “The Integrity of Nature”: A Comparative Analysis of Environmental Anxieties in the Fictions of H.P. Lovecraft and Jeff VanderMeerKristen Figgins…………………………………………….Chapter 4: “My Heart Slowly Cracks”: Making Kin and Living through Extinction in Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living GodBridgitte Barclay………………………………………….Chapter 5: “You Are Here”: Extinction as Familial in The Broken EarthErin DeYoung……………………………………………Chapter 6: The Uncanny, the Weird, and the Eerie: Hyperobjects and Anthropocenic Modalities in China Miéville’s Three Moments of an ExplosionAllan Rae…………………………………………………Chapter 7: The Tragic Comedy of Humanity: Life after Species Extinction in Éric Chevillard’s Sans l’orang-outanChristina Lord…………………………………………….Chapter 8: Godly Mass Extinction: Robert J. Sawyer’s Calculating God and Extinction’s TeleologiesJenni G. Halpin…………………………………………..About the Contributors