The Myth of Rain by Seanan McGuire

Review of The Myth of Rain by Seanan McGuire. The Myth of Rain is a short story about animal conservation in the face of climate change. What do we do when the world is burning.

My review from 2015 of The Myth of Rain by Seanan McGuire

Title: The Myth of Rain (free online)
Author: Seanan McGuire
Genre: Short story, dystopia, climate change

This is the part of my 100 Short Stories in 2015 challenge.

Opening sentence:

Female spotted owls have a call that doesn’t sound like it should come from a bird of prey.

At first I thought oh no, another climate change story (which for me would be preaching to the choir), and it was. However the story grew and became the kind of emotional powerful story I have now come to expect from Uncanny Magazine. Something that punch you in the gut by the end of it.

The story jumps between flashbacks and the present where the main character is tracking through the forest trying to preserve animals. The tone is very pessimistic but at the same time the protagonist persists – which I liked.

Edit 2023: Forest fires

I remembered The Myth of Rain again the other day. It doesn’t feel science fictional or dystopian anymore, but like a way too real description of reality.

When MaGuire wrote this story, Canada had been on fire for a long time, but it had not made global news yet. Since then we have had so many large scale nature fires.

The stats: The Myth of Rain

Published: May 2015 by Lightspeed Magazine
Length: 5083 words, short story
Read: Free online fiction

Author: female, white, USA, queer
The protagonists: Female, biologist, activist, able bodied

This review was originally posted: August 10, 2015. Updated and edited June 30, 2023