This was a really compelling and beautifully written novella about a post apocalyptic community in Alberta dealing with a genetically inherited disease, but also about one girl's decision whether to take up a position at university leaving everything she knows and loves behind. Both quiet and epic, the narrative focuses closely on Reid and her dilemma making her the heart of the story and the world building occurs in the background. I thought the idea of Cad was very well done and I loved the friendship between Reid and Henrich. Overall, this was a great novella and I would definitely recommend it.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

It’s hard to get dystopic contagion narratives good these days since there are so many of them. This one was a breath of fresh air in an oversaturated market made better still by the warmth and depth of the characters

This one barely scrapes into a 3 star. On the surface, it should be everything I would want in a hopepunk novella: an interesting vision of the future, great writing, a choice to be made, but it just never came together for me. In this version of the future, long after we've fucked around and found out, it turns out that there's some kind of parasite that inhabits some people and is transmitted genetically. Reid, our protagonist, carries this parasite and she is invited to come to Howse University, something she never thought possible. But in order to forge a different future for herself, she has to leave behind her community. What does it mean, to walk away from those who have propped you up? Who do you owe your allegiance to? And ultimately, do you make these choices for your personal benefit or the wider community?

Again, on paper I should have loved this. But I wanted more out of the story, out of the whole parasite thing, I wanted to actually care about Reid and Henryk and their community. Instead, there are disjointed scenes that hint at so much more, overlaid with a feeling that if this were a longer novel, ut would be a squarely YA affair. I found Reid petulant and annoying to read about, as she goes back and forth in her choice, has some epic teenager tantrums with her mother and then takes part in a boar hunt that goes awry. The university plays such a small part and ultimately I guess in a climate catastrophe, teenagers are gonna be their extremely annoying teenage selves. But this just wasn't what I had wanted to read.

Mohamed's use of language is honestly the saving grace here. She can definitely turn a phrase and it's what makes the story so frustrating to read at times: the skill is definitely there, but the characters didn't engage me at all. Would I read more of her work? Possibly, but with some degree of wariness for sure.

I went into this book expecting something very different because of the blurb. I thought that the focus would be on Reid fighting to get to the university where she had been accepted. Instead, Reid's struggle takes place in the place where she was born and has spent her entire life. When she is accepted to a university, she must work through her feelings of disloyalty to her community and especially her mother, who does not want her to go.

What I liked the most about this book was how human its characters were. Even in a post-apocalyptic world where everyone is doing everything they can just to survive, there are communities of people. People work together, care for each other, want the best for each other. Reid worries about pleasing her mother, about how her neighbors will manage, about leaving her best friend. She tries to set things up to leave her mother with the most resources possible. It felt surprisingly hopeful to see that even after bad things happen, people are people and life is not changed beyond all recognition. I didn't expect to feel hopeful after reading this book, but I did.

This book did so much in such a short time. I feel it'll be one I think about for quite a while.

Thanks to the publisher for allowing me access to an eArc via NetGalley

This was an interesting novella that meditates on ideas of mother daughter dynamics, community responsibility versus personal ambitions, and looming threat of a disease that makes one question their own mind. A lot of interesting themes packed into a short little book, and just enough of an insight into the characters lives to get the idea rolling on these thoughts. As far as the overall atmosphere, the writing and setting reminded me somewhat of Christopher Rowe’s These Prisoning Hills. I would also recommend to fans of Station Eleven, although more so fans of the show than the book. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

overall i thought this was pretty good! the amount of social commentary on how we as a society treat the planet today was a wake up call. it definitely is in the literary / speculative fiction genre, so it won’t be for everyone! some parts felt a little slow, but i did enjoy the writing!

This book was so simple. But so beautiful. And so tragic.

The whole premise was very interesting. Illness and environmental impacts leads to the fa of society.

This was a book full of questions. No answers. Which was really unique for a book in this genre. So many of the books that are similar try to answer questions. Solve todays problems. This didn’t. And that was beautiful.

I really loved that it was a local to me book. There aren’t enough of those and I love when I can see where I am.

2.5 Stars This one did not work for me. DNF'd, might try again in 2022. Thank you, Net Galley for an ARC.

A smart, character driven sci fi novella. Written in a way I think lit-fic fans will also enjoy this. This was a lovely introduction to this author, hope to read some more long work from them. Definitly would be carefull if you can't handle animal cruelty. It fits the story, but it's there.

In the post-apocalyptic future, much of humanity is scattered and infected with a mind-altering heritable symbiont—a fungus called Cadastrulamyces. Reid is one of the infected, living in an abandoned science building and hunting for survival.

However, when Howse University, one of the last bastions of human civilization, invites Reid to join their Environmental Science program, she’s torn between staying to take care of her community or a possible chance at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed is a thought-provoking and poignant cli-fi novella about inheritance, identity, and family ties.

Going into this book, I think it’s important to note that this is a very literary feeling piece of sci-fi. It’s poetic and in parts it reads like a fragmented stream of consciousness, reflecting Reid’s own mental state, which I think works really well.

There are also some wonderful moments of body horror and fungi protruding out of people that'll leave you squeamish and make your skin crawl.

However, there are some huge unexplained gaps in the plot that really nagged at me, and that’s especially in regards to the mysterious Howse University that may or may not exist. For instance, why isn’t Reid (who has been isolated and has had to fight for her survival her whole life) more skeptical of their offer? Also, how on Earth is Howse still standing, and why hasn’t another rival group taken them over yet?

Maybe I'm overthinking things (as I often do), but it strikes me as odd and implausible.

Overall, I love the idea of an inherited symbiotic fungus. However, I wish the story had fleshed out its premise and worldbuilding to make the story more believable.

“This thing is of me, does not belong to me. Is its own thing. Speaks its own tongue. A semi-sapient fungus scribbling across my skin and the skin of my ancestors in crayon colours, turquoise, viridian, cerulean, pine. I imagine it listening now, keenly, sipping my happiness.“

My thanks to ECW Press for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Annual Migration of Clouds’ by Premee Mohamed in exchange for an honest review.

This novella is a coming-of-age tale set in a post-apocalyptic Alberta. Climate disasters have devastated the world and human society is only just surviving. Cad, a mysterious mind-altering fungi, has invaded the bodies of some humans. While it ultimately kills its host, in the earlier stages it appears to lower risk-taking behaviour.

Reid is a nineteen-year-old woman who carries the Cad parasite. She lives with her mother, also infected with Cad, in a small community that has established itself in the ruins of a university.

At the opening of the novel Reid receives an offer of a coveted place at an actual university, located under a dome. To accept the offer will mean leaving her mother as well as the small community that relies upon every member for its survival. The question of whether she should stay or go is central to the narrative.

Premee Mohamed is a multidisciplinary scientist, who has worked in environment science, and her writing is informed by this background.

‘The Annual Migration of Clouds’ proved a thoughtful, character-driven work of literary science fiction that focuses upon the dynamics of a community that is seeking to survive in a devastated world. Its conclusion is open ended allowing for the possibility of further fiction set in this future.

On a side note, the cover art by Veronica Park depicting the magpie painting mentioned in the novel is stunning.

Overall, I found this an intelligent, thought provoking novella and definitely will seek out Premee Mohamed’s other writings.

This was an interesting, easy to read novella. The future apocalyptic wasteland thanks to climate change is a familiar landscape to those of us who read a lot of climate fiction.

The investigation of the symbiotic relationship with the Cad was a point of difference.

However, I found the narrative arc of the book a little disjointed. First it seemed focused on her journey to the mysterious university, then maybe it was about her relationship with the Cad, then I thought, as the pages dwindled, maybe it was about her struggle to decide whether to prioritise her community or herself. Ultimately, I felt this novella tried to cover many potentially interesting themes but never really gave the reader full focus or closure on any of them.

An enjoyable read which leaves the reader to imagine the ending.

This speculative, coming-of-age novella by Indo-Caribbean Canadian author Premee Mohamed, plunges us into a post-apocalyptic future where survivors live a rudimentary life on dilapidated campus ruins and communities are scattered and divided by vast unexplored no man’s lands …. The only places relatively unaffected are a few phantomatic universities sheltered by glass domes nobody has ever seen. This world is plagued by CAD, a fungus and symbiont that inhabits, subjugates and ultimately destroys human bodies. It shows as blue arabesques moving through the body on the skin like a live tattoo and, to ensure its own survival, controls the hosts’ minds to prevent dangerous actions. Reid, who is also affected, receives a letter of acceptance from a university, but these places are so remote they might as well be imaginary. Will she leave her mother and community behind?

This book is described as hopepunk, a term coined by author AlexandraRowland denoting a genre characterised by resistance, by the pull to move forward despite adversities, fear and cynicism. Aptly, the novel offers a nuanced exploration of Reid’s conflict as she ponders whether to stick with her community or dare to look beyond the present circumstances to places working toward progress. I found the symbiont fascinating and relevant as it is central to the notion of entanglement and inhabiting the ruins that dominate the current eco-critical debate. The account of the past resembles our not so memorable present, but it is worldbuilding that stands out as Reid takes us by the hand to explore her community, its challenges and the way it is made sustainable. More than an action novel, this s is a part psychological novel that takes us around a new world and explores the protagonist's dilemma.

The central idea reminded me of Nnedi Okorafor’s highly imaginative Binti (new university, contamination with other species) and, like Binti this interesting, clearly written, accessible coming of ag enovel is certainly very suitable for adults and #youngadults. The open-ended finale seems to promise a follow-up. Really interesting. 3.5


My thanks to the publisher for an ARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Annual Migration of Clouds is a post-apocalyptic tale of survival and tough choices in an uncaring world, but it's one built around acts of faith and love. This is a world that may be broken, but it still has something to offer.

Reid lives in a riverside community built on an old university campus. Life is fragile, dependent on shared labour and carefully managed calories. For Reid and her mother, who both carry the parasite cad, it is more fragile than most: any day could be the one that the delicate green tracery under their skin goes wild and kills them.

When Reid receives an unheard of invitation to join the fabled university - an actual university teaching and conducting research within the safety of a dome, not just a city in the ruins of one - the news is greeted with disbelief, disapproval, outright betrayal. Nobody leaves. Reid feels judged and found wanting merely for having received the offer, regardless of whether she chooses to accept it.

The novella unpicks the various burdens of guilt and duty as Reid is torn between love, rage and fear, alternately supported and undermined by those who know and love her best. The result is a searing depiction of a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, caught between childish mistakes and adult ambitions, confused about her feelings for her best friend and her increasingly charged relationship with her mother. It's about the decisions we make that shape our lives, and the forces that shape the context in which we make them.

Premee Mohamed's prose is a delight, as is her knack of cutting straight to the heart of her story with loving banter and vicious truths. And if that's not enough for you, there's feral pigs and a magnificently grumpy lesbian couple who are much too old for anyone else's nonsense.

Looks like all my favourite novellas this year are going to have been written by Premee Mohamed. And that's fine by me.

The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed

Last year, when I reviewed Beneath the Rising by Premee Mohamed, I said “After reading this book, I will definitely pick up the next book by Premee Mohamed. This author has a great deal of potential and I look forward to seeing what else she writes.” When NetGalley listed this new novella by Ms. Mohamed, I was happy to check it out, and I’m glad I did. The Annual Migration of Clouds is much more polished and better written than her debut novel. This is a post-apocalyptic novella, set at a repurposed university where survivors are ekeing out an existence, where many people are infected with a parasite of some sort that changes their behavior to push self-preservation. The protagonist is offered acceptance into a college far away that her mother argues does not exist. The author captures the mood of this world perfectly, even if she doesn’t quite put forth enough worldbuilding to fully justify how it could exist in its current format. Like in her first novel, the character work and evocative descriptions are standouts.

This is Premee Mohamed's third (!) published novella of the year, and what's more it's the second, after These Lifeless Things, to feature universities after an apocalyptic event. But other than featuring fallen-apart worlds and characters who value higher learning, these are very distinct novellas, and the individual character voice of Reid (except... well) in The Annual Migration of Clouds gives it a clear identity of its own.

The apocalypse here isn't a single event - at least, not as its been told to Reid, who was born long after it happened - but a slow collapse of society through a combination of infrastructure loss and environmental catastrophe. To make things worse, a parasite known as Cad has become endemic in humans, manifesting as strange patterns on their skin and, in its early stages, as behaviour alterations which aim to preserve both the human and the parasite, overriding free will and risk-taking behaviour in the process. (Its advanced stages are much worse). Reid and her mother both have Cad, and both live in a small, declining self-sufficient community. When Reid receives an acceptance letter from a university, it represents an utterly improbable escape from her life, but it also means leaving behind her mother, who is increasingly unable to cope alone, and a community that won't understand the selfishness of her decision. And it means grappling with her relationship with Cad, and the way it does and doesn't exert control over her and the choices she makes for survival.

The Annual Migration of Clouds is a portrayal of someone trying to think big in a world that has shrunk to the point where that's barely possible: Reid's narration is full of half-remembered facts and stories that we recognise but she has no way of seeking more information on, or even retaining the knowledge she has. Reid's closest allies - other than her childhood friend Henryk, with whom she has an almost-romance that feels all too real - are an aging couple who still remember life before the collapse, but whose mortality is all-too-evident in all their scenes. And, as the book's first few chapters progress without any movement to the university (Reid has a deadline to make if she's going to get there on time, adding some urgency to her decision) it becomes clear that its nature is also going to be left uncertain. We, like the community Reid leaves behind, are left to decide for ourselves just how impossible it is that a chronically ill young woman from a hand-to-mouth existence could be called to a better life for altruistic reasons. A gorgeously crafted, thoughtful and layered story, well worth being one of the three Premee Mohamed novellas you read this year.

Mohamed writes with an engaging ease that captures the mind and heart of the reader, for this work begs the reader to delve into not just the destruction and degradation of our planet and the resulting ramifications and pivots needed to survive, it prompts us to ask of ourselves, in a community that thrives through collaboration and support, how do you choose yourself?

This narrative really focuses on Reid and the role she plays in her community, the strength she must project for her mother, and the love she has for friends and the extended family that has been built through cooperation and trust.

A climate fiction novella that puts at its centre, the people and choices made for self and for the betterment of community.

"The Annual Migration of Clouds" took me a few pages to get attached to, but once the connection was made, it stayed strong. There isn't much of a plot, but there is a great story with solid characters. This book is all about the journey rather than the destination. I enjoyed Premee Mohamed's writing a lot, and wish the book had been longer (possible scope for more novellas set in this world? I hope so!).

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley. This review was written voluntarily and is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

It’s many years after a planet-wide climate collapse, and people are in small communities, and finding ways to live with what they have. There’s also a mysterious fungal disease that infects a portion of the narrator’s community, including her mother and herself. She knows it’s a death sentence no matter what, but one which she can live with, until one day it kills her. In one of a few horrible ways.
One day Reid receives an acceptance letter from a university several days travel away. She’s thrilled, but there are some, including Reid’s mother, who are reluctant for Reid to leave her home. It’s becomes a big internal debate, with Reid wrestling with her unexpected choice:
She, along with everyone in the community, have skills and roles in the community, and leaving would mean potentially harming, or hampering others in the group. This is not an insignificant concern, as everyone is living at a subsistence level, even many years post-worldwide climate collapse.
Reid can also see opportunity for her and the community if she accepts the university, as there could be new methods and practices she could bring home.

This is a story that grapples some big questions:
-our lack of responsibility for our destruction of the planet, and how will this affect our future generations
-can one do something for oneself when community survival depends on everyone?

I was intrigued by this post-apocalyptic society, and its characters, and wished I could find out what Reid encountered at the university.

Thank you to Netgalley and ECW Press for this ARC in exchange for a review.