2 Degrees

By: Bev Prescott

Narrated by: Dominique Dibbell

In the year 2092, climate change has transformed the face of Earth. Storms, disease, famine, thirst, and war show no mercy on the living. Sharon Clausen, a self-reliant farmer, has a secret apple tree - a tree that keeps Sharon and her wife, Eve, fed.

The only other people who know of her secret, or so she thinks, is Dr. Ryan, a long-time confidant, and his wife, Areva. Once a month, Sharon and Eve travel from Maine to Boston to trade apples with Dr. Ryan for Eve’s leukemia treatment. Everything suddenly changes when Eve is kidnapped and the Ryan’s are murdered. Sharon learns that her best kept secrets are known and coveted by a man known as the Strelitzia - a coldly practical villain.

Sharon sets out on a harrowing journey across North America to rescue Eve. Along the way, she teams up with an Inuit refugee boy, a stray dog named Erik the Red, an eccentric former school teacher, a jujitsu master, an Argentinian opera star, and a brilliant scientist who leads an alliance of eclectic people known as the Qaunik. Together, this ragtag group battle horrific storms, an unrelenting desert, terrifying criminal gangs, feral humans, and the Strelitzia.

In the end, Sharon must face her greatest challenge - risk all that she loves for something much greater than herself.

©2018 Bywater Books (P)2020 Bywater Books

Excellent story!

Climate change is real! I loved this story. There was adventure, action, love and hope. The love Sharon had for Eve was pure and unbending! She was willing to go to hell and back for the woman she loves. This story also shows the importance of creating family, believing in each other and not giving up. I really enjoyed this dystopian story and highly recommend it!

So worth the read and the listen!

(Originally written in November 2018 when I read the book.)

It had been four years since Bev Prescott published a book. That book was Blowback and it was pretty amazing. Needless to say, I'd been anxiously waiting for Prescott’s next offering. We’d been hearing about it for a while. Prescott teased us as we waited – updates, excerpts, cover reveals, etc. It was maddening, I say! Maddening!

But, oh, it was so worth the wait.

Bywater Books released 2° in September 2018, but those of us lucky enough to attend a Bywater Books sponsored event at the GCLS Conference in July 2018 got to hear Prescott give a reading from her book. The anticipation just built! I’m very happy to say that 2° exceeded my expectations. Prescott offers up an epic action/adventure that is ripe with wonderful characters who are three-dimensional, intelligent and creative prose, and a rich setting.

The book starts at a run. Almost quite literally. The main protagonist, Sharon, and her wife, Eve, are hurrying through the overcrowded streets of Boston – doing all they can to move quickly while remaining unnoticed and safe. By the end of the chapter, they are neither unnoticed nor safe. And so the adventure begins! From that point on, we follow Sharon on her desperate journey to find Eve, who has been kidnapped. Along the way, Sharon battles obstacles, meets interesting people, and searches for her own humanity in an inhumane world.

Sharon is the main focus of 2° – it is her story we follow, we are privy only to her insights. She struggles with her own humanity, telling herself that only Eve matters and no one else. But along the way, she meets up with people who chip away at the armor she has created for herself. And, thus, we see great change and growth in Sharon. The armor never goes away, but Sharon learns when it’s safe to remove the armor and when it’s necessary to lock it in place. She’s a fascinating character…and someone I’d like to know.

The remaining cast of characters – friend and foe, alike – are intriguing. From Inu – the 10-year-old refugee boy she takes into her charge – to Federico to Woody and even the Strelitzia – the calculating villain – Prescott gifts us with a collection of people who are diverse, interesting, and mysterious. They all contribute to Sharon’s evolution throughout the adventure. She learns to trust while still maintaining her ability to bob-and-weave.

The writing in 2° is just exceptional. Prescott has found a way to integrate multiple branches of science, politics, and action/adventure into her story. And she does so with aplomb and intelligence. What I especially appreciate is that she does so without condescension. She takes for granted that her readers are astute, able to follow the narrative she’s put forth. Yes, there are explanations of the science – we are not all botanists or climatologists. But it’s done so in a way that doesn’t use monosyllabic terminology. She doesn’t over-explain, she doesn’t under-explain. It’s quite refreshing.

In addition to science, there is also science fiction, and Prescott has created a world that is at once fantastical and believable. The transports and weapons are interesting and creative – and I didn’t even blink when I read about them. I was like, “Yeah. Okay. I can totally see that.” Just phenomenal!

2° highlights the effects of what’s happening in our world right now. Prescott has extrapolated from current politics and science to show us a potential outcome. But, while she definitely shows the impact of poor governance and policy, she also puts so much of the blame where it belongs – on us, humans. There is an overriding sense of “This is what we have done to ourselves” throughout the book. But there is also hope – if we listen to Earth, if we learn, we can survive.

This is one of those novels where the setting serves as a main character in the story. Sharon traverses a great portion of the United States during her journey to save Eve. Prescott’s talent at describing her re-imaging of the land is to be applauded. She takes us across the country and through areas that are well-known, and not just to those of us who live here. As a resident of Northern Illinois, Prescott’s depiction of Chicago in 2092 may very well give me bad dreams. She pinpointed many of the city landmarks that make Chicago what it is in 2018. To read of those landmarks being destroyed and desolate is heartbreaking. The destruction of national monuments and the natural beauty of the country made me sit back and remember to breathe. Prescott brought the world of 2092 to frightening life.

From the first page of 2° until the end, I was sitting on the edge of my seat. My heart beat a rapid tattoo whenever Sharon and the Qaunik were fighting for their lives. I cried as Sharon’s armor developed the chinks that exposed her humanity to the world, and when beloved friends fell prey to evil. Prescott tapped into my emotions while taking me on this harrowing – but splendid – ride.

Hurry. Get a copy of 2° and let yourself fall into Prescott’s fantastic writing and storytelling. It will SO be worth it!

(March 2021: Added to comment on the performance.)

Prescott hit paydirt when she found Dominique Dibbell to narrate her novel. Dibbell did an amazing job at keeping all of the many and varied characters distinct and unique. She **really** seemed to understand Sharon and deftly conveyed the thoughts and emotions Sharon was experiencing throughout the narration.

Dibbell has become a favorite narrator.

Best Climate Fiction I have read in a long time.

Between the excellent writing of Bev Prescott and the superb narration of Dominique Dibbell this is a highly enjoyable read. The protagonist is a tough woman who lives in a very plausible dystopian future. In fact, if we carry on as we have been, we may very well find ourselves in a world not unlike that described in this book. I highly recommend this book. Very entertaining, and it can make you think as well.