Gaining Ground, a New Climate Thriller, Makes Its Audiobook Debut on Spotify as Record Heat Grips the US and Europe

In Justin T. Bass’s novel, a warming Alaska has to choose between the oil money it knows and the clean-energy future it’s still fighting for.

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, July 8, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The audiobook of Gaining Ground, Justin T. Bass’s climate-fiction novel set in a warming Alaska, is now on Spotify. The timing is hard to miss. Europe has broken national heat records in more than a dozen countries this summer, and much of the US spent early July under heat alerts.

The trouble starts with a single reckless choice. Ben, an oil-rig worker on Alaska’s North Slope, kills a polar bear in self-defense and shares the photo online without thinking twice. The image finds its way to Pinna, a university student, and then to Dr. David Soleil, a climate scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. What happens next turns a private mistake into a very public fight over oil, pulling in Anatquq, an Alaska Native shaman, his son Innik, and Kensky, a foreign oil magnate with plans of his own.

Bass has spent two decades in the clean-energy world himself, and Gaining Ground draws on that experience. It joins his other novels, American Current and Fresh from Farmers Valley, in tackling the fight over fossil fuels head-on.

PRAISE FOR GAINING GROUND

Early reviewers have picked up on the book’s mix of satire and sincerity.

• “Characters such as the media-savvy Dr. David Soleil and the increasingly absurd oil magnate Kensky often feel intentionally exaggerated, allowing the book to poke fun at political spectacle, corporate greed, and the performative nature of modern activism even while taking its environmental concerns seriously. Beneath the humor, however, Bass remains sincere in his belief that Alaska stands at a crossroads between ecological collapse and renewal.” - Paul Knobloch, Reader Views

CLIMATE FICTION BUILT FOR THE SCREEN

Gaining Ground reads like a film on the page, with short, present-tense scenes that cut from a polar bear on the North Slope to snowboarders carving a mountain to a cruise ship full of oil investors. It’s a style Bass writes toward on purpose, with his eye on seeing Gaining Ground on the big screen. Review copies and interviews are available on request.

BOOK DETAILS AND AVAILABILITY

Title: Gaining Ground
Author: Justin T. Bass
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 979-8338677902
Genre: Climate Fiction / Family Drama Thriller
Format: Paperback, eBook, and Audiobook

Available at Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/gaining-ground-justin-t-bass/1146234889

LISTEN ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/0CjtVOx1tz5nbLLo8qsuN7?si=d2784576e4fe432b

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Justin T. Bass is an author, journalist, and screenwriter who has spent 20 years writing about the fossil-fueled climate crisis and the solutions of clean energy, like solar electricity, electric vehicles, and battery storage. Bass installed and sold PV solar systems and reported on energy markets while living in New York, California, and Alaska. He says he’s sacrificed his time and energy because the climate crisis affects every living being on this planet, our only home, and he sees the transition to CO2-free energy as the most important issue of the 21st century. Read or listen to his novels to learn more: American Current (or Tesla’s Time Machine to the 21st Century), Gaining Ground, Fresh from Farmers Valley, and Everything Under the Sun.

MEDIA CONTACT

Justin T. Bass
Justin T. Bass, Author
+1 323-382-5749
email us here

Legal Disclaimer:

EIN Presswire provides this news content "as is" without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.