“Over Brooklyn Hills” by David Guenette

Over Brooklyn Hills

David Guenette
CMTI Publishing  (2026)
ISBN: 979-8988505549
Reviewed by Denise Donaldson for Reader Views (08/2026)

Over Brooklyn Hills is a story of people and climate.  It’s the third book in David Guenette’s future-based The Steep Climes quartet.  This installment centers around two different plot lines:  the lives of some of the notable citizens of Great Barrington, a small town in the Berkshires; and the missions of an ecoterrorist.  The overarching theme is the politics of climate change, and that theme receives detailed discussion.  The weather is a character by itself, with a severe heat wave and a tornado driving some of the main action in Great Barrington.

In terms of the political overtones, Guenette has taken the events and legislation of the last half-decade and extrapolated them through to their plausible outcome by 2035.  Likewise, current technological hardware and software have been advanced ten years.  Political and tech nerds will be at home with all the plentiful details in those areas.

The contrast couldn’t be greater between the doings of the characters in Great Barrington and those of the ecoterrorists of NOS, or No One is Safe.  In Great Barrington, the city manager’s husband is cheating on her, the editor of the local online paper shares his house with tenants and climate refugees, and the owner of the paper speculates on expanding her regional coverage.  

The town has been inundated by young people who are fleeing the heat dome that has become stationary over New York City, and the influx creates myriad problems for the residents.  This situation serves to illustrate, in a small, temporary way, what will happen as global climate conditions worsen.  The interactions between the city manager and the police chief are realistic, reflecting genuine small-town issues.  Davin, the editor, proves to be a caring, generous landlord and property owner, and his tenants are keenly drawn, each with a quirky, relatable personality.  The paper’s owner weighs marketing options, soliciting more investors, and other concerns that come across as completely authentic.  In short, the glimpses we get into these people’s lives, homey touches included, are exactly what we’d expect to see.  That aspect of the narrative is comforting and intimate.

Conversely, Allen Randolph, the ecoterrorist, is frighteningly nonchalant about his attacks on oil and gas executives, officials, and installations.  He shrugs off collateral damage, even deaths, as acceptable in the name of battling the use of fossil fuels.  To him, climate change is the biggest evil on the planet, and mitigating it justifies any action.  He’s a bomb builder, a drone technician, and a ruthless field operative.  He turns a blind eye as his organization partners with drug cartels and other violent groups.  He’s willing to do anything he’s instructed to do, no questions asked.  Unlike the characters in Great Barrington, he has no relationships, no ties, no one to hold him to account.  His brutality is stark, especially juxtaposed against the civility of Davin. 

Never in the story does the world of Great Barrington encounter the world of the ecoterrorists and cartels.  They are kept separate to serve as opposite ends of modern thought about climate change, even as Great Barrington presents the differing approaches to climate change refugees. 

In the end, some characters have resolutions of sorts, while the stories of other characters remain in limbo.  It will be up to the fourth novel in the series to bring ongoing events to their conclusions.

Over Brooklyn Hills is an intense read, overall.  The action is lightened by the bits of small-town gossip and romantic tangles, but the questions it raises are timely and controversial.  David Guenette has crafted a unique structure to consider those questions.