Our Top Ten Articles of 2025, as Chosen by You: #4 Anthropocene by Carolina Brown

December 28, 2025 | in News | by Haajar Abu Ismail

A cocktail with notes of dark humor, existential dread, and a macabre aftertaste to complete a hard-hitting flavor.

Our fourth most popular article of 2025 is a stand-out from the Summer 2025 issue: “Anthropocene” by Caroline Brown (tr. Jessica Powell). In this literally biting cli-fi, we follow two postdocs investigating the excrement of an endangered penguin species in Antarctica. To give you a taste of the narrator’s acerbic voice, here’s how the story begins:

I’ve caught myself, several times a day, thinking about Octavio’s pelican dewlap. The thing about doing research full time is that it leads you to fantasize; you spend a lot of time alone and sampling is a repetitive task. Also, who hasn’t dreamed of killing a coworker? Everyone has, obviously. Of course they have. People have this image of scientists as evolved, circumspect types. What’s that word people use to describe Brits? Phlegmatic.

Alex feels uncomfortably real—the details of their study are intriguing, and their isolation is felt as raw misery. The tension that builds between Alex and Octavio is intense and engrossing; we’re kept on our toes by razor-sharp exchanges and an unapologetic stream of consciousness. A well of pity for Alex quickly morphs into a raging sense of alarm for our futures. The touch of climate horror presents a perfectly believable future to our present, belying an entirely appropriate sense of anxiety.

Anthropocene is a cocktail with notes of dark humor, existential dread, and a macabre aftertaste to complete a hard-hitting flavor. It is perfected by a shocking plot twist, which is a promise I don’t make lightly. The less said, the better, and I can’t recommend it enough.

Find out what landed in third tomorrow!