Pacifica

Title: Pacifica 
Author: Kristen Simmons
Publisher: New York: Tor Teen, 2018 
Collection: Young Adult Fiction 
Resources: Novelist, Goodreads

Annotation:  

Current climate models say if world temperatures rise 2 degrees the polar ice caps will begin to melt. If the polar ice caps melt that’s a sea level rise of 80 meters. At 4 degrees the entire area between the tropic of Capricorn and the tropic of cancer where the majority of the worlds’ population currently resides becomes uninhabitable. 

Simmons has taken this scientific prophecy and created a world that by 2193 has melted the ice caps in both the North and South Poles, causing oceans to rise and changing the shape of continents. Not only have many species of animals become extinct but so have the Winter Olympics. Earth’s projected population has dropped from 11.5 billion to 6.2 billion. The shrinking land masses means Canada, the United Sates and section of Mexico have now united to become the North American Alliance. Noram City is the capital of the Alliance where for years people have suffered, plagued by overcrowding, disease and lack of work. The new world order has built a solution -- ‘Pacifica’ --where 500 lucky lottery winners will become the first to populate this man-made island paradise. The poor living closest to the water called ‘Shorelings’ are skeptical and protests begin to surface. The struggles of Shoreling Marin Carey a descendant of pirates is a stark contrast to that of the privileged life of Ross Torres the son of the President. Their lives collide when Ross’s friend Adam is kidnapped by rioters. What ensues is a swashbuckling adventure that leads these two seventeen year olds across treacherous seas to save a friend. 

Simmons builds a fictional dystopian world as a backdrop, fills it with well-developed characters and carries it in an action packed storyline all while tackling the themes of political corruption, class-divide and wealth inequality. A convincing read as this fictional story has the potential of becoming reality.


Further information

Also available as an Audiobook

The Side Project - A Message from Scientists