Description: A broad examination of climate fantasy and science fiction, from The Lord of the Rings and the Narnia series to The Handmaid's Tale and Game of Thrones.
Brief description: Marc DiPaolo is Assistant Professor of Humanities at Moraine Valley Community College. He is the author of several books, including Fire and Snow: Climate Fiction from the Inklings to Game of Thrones, also published by SUNY Press.
Review Quotes:
"Overall, Fire and Snow makes an important intervention in climate fiction scholarship, both by connecting aspects of environmentalism in the genre to Tolkien's and Lewis's genre legacies and in its analysis of how ecological messages are often overshadowed or lost entirely in film adaptations of environmental fiction-a point well worth further critical examination. The prose is clear and written in a way that would likely also engage readers from a non-academic background." - H-Net Reviews (H-Environment)
"DiPaolo makes a convincing case that 'spiritually informed genre fiction' can play a vital role in shifting cultural, moral, and religious attitudes regarding climate change ... Highly recommended." - CHOICE
"This book is remarkably diverse in its literary, cinematic, journalistic, and graphics-media sources, and the writing is equally authoritative in all these domains. DiPaolo's prose moves deftly from a work of fiction to its film avatar, to the political and societal realities they address, and back again into other cultural manifestations and then into and out of the deep theory of climate fiction, literary scholarship, ecofeminism, religious tradition, and authorial biographies. It contributes considerably to all of these fields, and is indispensable for climate and environmental literature classes. It's also a must-have for general readers of the genre." - Jonathan Evans, coauthor of Ents, Elves, and Eriador: The Environmental Vision of J. R.R. Tolkien
"I like it. No, I love it. This book is both broad and deep, and yet it remains both very readable and constantly interesting. It's the sort of book that can only be written by someone who is a good reader of both books and culture. As I was reading it I thought, this is like being at a party and meeting someone brilliant and fun, and finding that I'm enjoying that person's company so much that I don't notice the time flying by. It's not often that a scholarly book does that to me." - David O'Hara, Augustana University