A Scientific Romance: A Novel by Ronald Wright

Synopsis: It is 1999, and David Lambert, jilted lover and reluctant museum curator, is about to discover the startling news of the return of H. G. Well’s time machine to London. Motivated by a host of unanswered questions and innate curiosity, he propels himself deep into the next millennium: an England ruined by mysterious civil war, now returned to wilderness. As he sets foot in a luxuriant but menacing new landscape, he also explores the ruins of his life, a labyrinth of erotic obsession and remorse involving his old friend Bird – jazz musician, classicist, and small-time crook – and Anita, the beautiful, eccentric Egyptologist they both loved, mysteriously dead at 32. For readers of H. G. Wells, J. G. Ballard, and Aldous Huxley, this novel is an odyssey through human error, an evocation of beloved books and authors, and an unforgettable vision of the end – and renewal – of civilization.

Published: March 1998 | ISBN-13: 978-0312199999

Author’s Homepage: http://ronaldwright.com

A Scientific Romance, by Ronald Wright, was probably the first cli-fi novel I read. It follows a bloke who time-travels into the future to find a depopulated world impacted by climate change, which he discovers more and more about as he travels north through England along weed-infested highways. The author described his work at a science communication conference in Canada in about 2000 if you want to get more background. – From 10 Great Books on Climate Change Fiction

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