Disaster, biological warfare, environmental destruction, and resistance to hegemony. No, it’s not a description of 2020; it’s Andrew Yeh’s gripping short story collection, Green Monkey Syndrome. These stories, written over thirty years ago, reflect a dystopian future resonant with our own, it’s as if they came out yesterday.

Disaster, biological warfare, environmental catastrophe, and resistance to hegemony. No, it’s not a description of 2020; it’s Andrew Yeh’s short story collection, Green Monkey Syndrome. These five tales, written over thirty years ago, reflect a dystopian future so resonant with our own, it’s almost like they came out yesterday.

After the first story, “The Ancient Sword”, the four subsequent stories narrate the struggles of the tiny island nation of Buron to resist the onslaught of its hegemonic neighbor via any means necessary. “Green Monkey Syndrome” describes the disaster of a pathogenic weapon leaked among indigenous tribespeople; “The Gaoka Case” tracks through case files a pharmaceutical offensive designed to take advantage of the enemy’s patriarchal culture; “I Love Wynona” and “Lost Birds” describe campaigns to manipulate disastrous weather patterns and deliver bio-weapons through migrating birds.

These stories, fortified by the author’s own extensive research, paint a picture of transnational warfare and brutal environmental imbalance that will chill the blood of anyone who has been reading this year’s news. Yeh’s surgically precise language and compelling narratives read like 1984 meets Brave New World meets the front page of the New York Times.