FRAGILE

This post-apocalyptic novel about star-crossed lovers emphasizes the resilience of the human spirit.

Weik von Mossner’s SF tale is set in the near future in a world where climate change rightly has struck back hard at humanity. The Romeo in this case is Jake Alvaro, who works for NY SAFE, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security that acquires high-priority medical supplies for the New York metropolitan area. Every morning, Jake goes out of his way to drop by the coffee shop Soma so that he can visit his secret Juliet, Shavir Tayard, the woman with a “smile he never knew what to make of.” But there’s one big problem. In addition to working at Soma and a community garden, Shavir is considered a domestic terrorist. That’s because she’s part of a gang that steals puppies being raised as illegal animal meat in a country that shut down industrial meat production and switched to plant-based items. The group illegally gives the pooches to animal lovers rather than the police. One of these dogs is Shavir’s constant companion, a mastiff named Sam. After Jake and Shavir become involved, their secrets are exposed as they meet the people in each other’s lives. These include Jake’s cousin Carrie; her cop husband, Dan; their sickly daughter, Zoe; and Shavir’s canine-stealing friends. Coming from two diametrically opposed worlds, the lovers continually break up and reunite as society crumbles around them because scarcities multiply. As weather extremes caused by climate change have become a daily part of life, Weik von Mossner takes an incisive look at the not-too-distant future. Daily temperatures have soared, and flooding and wildfires have ravaged regions across the globe. In addition, the weather has disrupted worldwide shipping. At the heart of this thought-provoking novel are two damaged people trying to build a relationship while working at cross purposes to help society amid dealing with a broken system’s inequities. Jake and Shavir are surrounded by friends and colleagues only too happy to point out why they shouldn’t click as a couple. Yet their biggest obstacles are self-doubts and a world that is falling apart. The author has created an engrossing book that holds out hope despite all the mistakes made by humans.

This insightful, engaging SF tale argues that it’s never too late to fix the world.