The Xipehuz And The Death Of The Earth

The Belgian writer, who used the pseudonym J.-H. Rosny aîné, was possibly the leading continental rival to H.G. Wells, producing a string of vivid and inventive short novels. This one, for example, is set in a distant future when human life on Earth is coming to an end. The whole planet has become a desert, and small isolated communities huddle around any rare source of water. But they are only too aware that the water they have cannot last for long, and their whole life is built around conserving what little they have and seeking out any new source. But while human existence is in decline, out on the horizon something new, mysterious and menacing is stirring. The “ferromagnetals” are a barely comprehensible form of metallic life that has developed spontaneously and may even be achieving sentience, and they are getting ready to inherit the Earth. Why it’s on the list: This was one of the first stories to suggest that any posthuman life may not be human at all; it is also perhaps unique in positing a form of metallic life that has not initially been manufactured by humankind.