The Last Garden
"The air, thick with smog, choked the sky with a never-ending amber haze. Ivy tightened her mask, its edges biting into her skin. Around her, the forgotten shuffled, their makeshift filters from scavenged waste barely keeping the lethal air at bay—each breath, a gamble."
In a world gasping under the weight of environmental collapse, The Last Garden is a short story, exploring humanity’s desperate attempt to reconnect with nature amidst the fallout of failed climate goals.
Towering domed cities like Solara shine with technological brilliance and innovation, protecting their inhabitants while the world outside lies in ruin—a barren wasteland abandoned to those left behind. Within the dome, advancement flourishes, but at what cost?
Unchecked reliance on technology has created an illusion of progress while erasing the natural world and the very essence of life it was meant to protect. Meanwhile, outside, the Seed Savers, an underground faction, risk their lives to preserve Earth’s final seeds of hope.
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The Last Garden placed in Amazon's Bestsellers as #30 in Literary Short Stories, and #131 in Dystopian Sci-FI, and #2 in Amazon New Releases,
Author: Elle F. Kingsley
Elle F. Kingsley is an award-winning emerging tech researcher, journalist, presenter, and speculative fiction author recognised among the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics and TechWomen 100 honourees. She draws on her experience working with cutting-edge technologies like large language models in big tech, weaving her deep understanding of technology, society, and policy into her dystopian sci-fi narratives—as well as her legal technology studies specialising in cyberlaw, AI, data protection and privacy. These legal insights inform her work on the ethical and regulatory frameworks that will shape the digital future.
As a futurist, Next Generation Foresight Practitioner, and Next Generation Champion with the School of International Futures, Elle explores the complex interplay between humanity and emerging technologies, crafting stories that examine their impact on our future.
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Publication Details
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Publication date: 31 Dec. 2024
Language: English
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Publishing Team
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Editor: Gareth Clegg
Illustrator: Anze Ban Virant
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