How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu

Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022--San Antonio

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu is a science fiction book.  It is more a collection of short stories than a novel, although each story has connections (a name reference, the mention of a particular piece of jewelry, etc.) that tie it to another.  Eventually, the final story ties them all together in an unexpected way.  Some of the stories are more compelling than others.  But the writer has a creative mind which makes each story interesting on its own.  The science fiction aspect builds on a recent earth experience by starting in the late 2020s/early 2030s when a new and highly contagious virus is released in the world--through explorations being carried out in Siberia because of global warming.  A neat concept to tie these together and to get the reader thinking more seriously is that the virus is only killing children, but it is almost all children dying which leaves the adults to face global warming as THEIR problem since there will be few, if any, children to be left.  Therefore, the adults will have no children on which to hoist the responsibility for caring for them until they die--during times when life will become more and more miserable due to global warming.  I enjoyed the entire book, but I only got excited about 2-3 of the stories.  I did find the concept of how it all ties together to be especially interesting.  I gave the book 4 stars out of 5.