Roger W Mannon

Strange Stories II Roger W Mannon

This is the way the world ends. That could've been the name of this book. Today we sit at the precipice of destruction, teetering on the edge, digging our hands into the dirt, scrabbling for purchase, for salvation. Will we topple over the edge or, at the last minute, save ourselves?
The climate crisis, too long ignored, comes for us at last in these two tales. Both stretch the boundaries of the short story definition, reaching novella length.
Will the sweltering heat of a warming planet, coupled with rapidly rising waters and terrible storms, do us in, or will the melting permafrost of the frozen north set free an ancient, deadly virus to finish us off?
Frighteningly, both scenarios are far too possible. The possibilities I based the stories on are remote and almost certainly will never happen.
Still, the idea of very rapid global warming or an unknown virus emerging from a frozen sleep as the permafrost thaws were just too good to pass up.