Nine futures. One planet on the brink.
From the last snow protea clinging to a dying mountain to the oceanic cities of a reborn Earth, UTOPIA/HAVOC traces humanity’s long arc through collapse, adaptation, and renewal.
In these stories, the end is never clean. The cities of tomorrow shimmer with both promise and ruin; technology becomes a god, a weapon, and a mirror. Lovers meet inside virtual heavens, rebels rise from the ashes of burnt-out empires, and new mythologies take root in the cracks of what was once civilisation.
Each story stands alone, yet together they chart a single continuum – from the smog-choked present to a solarpunk horizon that offers glimpses of what we might achieve, what we might overcome, if we act now.
Featuring acclaimed and emerging voices in speculative fiction, UTOPIA/HAVOC is a journey across the boundaries of genre and hope: a collision of despair and beauty, grief and growth, ruin and rebirth.
Here's the full list of stories that appear in this anthology:
“The Last Snow Protea” by Laurie Janey – Twin brothers on opposite sides of a collapsing planet reckon with love, loss, and the climate crisis’s quiet toll.
“Perfect Worlds” by Jenna Mervis – A government agent slips into virtual utopia to fish for corruption and finds that perfection has teeth.
“Small Rebellions” by Joss Wyer – A stealth operative infiltrates a billionaire’s fortress high above a neon city to pull off the perfect act of defiance.
“Out of Body, Out of Mind” by Luke Fourie – A state telepath navigates psychic warfare and the thin membrane between duty and selfhood.
“Over the Mountain, Beyond the Barrens” by Nerine Dorman – A woman crosses a shattered landscape in search of love and finds a myth humming beneath the ruins.
“The Benediction of Gaia” by Ciaran R. Maidwell – Faith and love collide in a green theocracy where obedience is salvation and doubt is heresy.
“Buried Alive” by Thandi Rose – A newcomer climbs a mountain settlement that promises rebirth, but the earth remembers everything buried beneath.
“The Water that Hides in the Waves” by Stef van Staden – On a vast ocean fleet, a single decision ripples outward to test the meaning of mercy in a drowning world.
“Paper Lantern Boys” by Marius du Plessis – A lanternmaker and fox spirit race against time to awaken the last of Kyoto's kami before a solar flare wipes them from the city's memory forever.
What will humanity build when everything has burned? Will havoc reign, or might we find our own small utopias in between it all?
