Climate thriller Gaining Ground launches audiobook on Spotify

Justin T. Bass’s climate-fiction novel Gaining Ground is now available as an audiobook on Spotify, landing as heat records and heat alerts grip parts of the US and Europe. The story follows an Alaska oil-rig worker whose mistake sparks a larger fight over oil, identity and the state’s clean-energy future.

Why it matters: - The audiobook debut puts a climate thriller directly in front of Spotify listeners as extreme heat becomes a real-world backdrop across the US and Europe. - Gaining Ground frames Alaska’s energy fight as a human story, which can make the climate debate more accessible to general readers. - The book adds to the growing overlap between climate fiction and mainstream audio platforms.

What happened: - Gaining Ground, a climate-fiction novel by Justin T. Bass, is now available as an audiobook on Spotify. - The release comes as Europe has broken national heat records in more than a dozen countries this summer. - Much of the US was under heat alerts in early July. - The novel is set in a warming Alaska and centers on the choice between oil revenue and a clean-energy future.

The details: - The plot begins when Ben, an oil-rig worker on Alaska’s North Slope, kills a polar bear in self-defense and posts a photo online. - The image reaches Pinna, a university student, and then Dr. David Soleil, a climate scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. - The fallout pulls in Anatquq, an Alaska Native shaman; his son Innik; and Kensky, a foreign oil magnate with his own plans. - Bass has spent two decades in the clean-energy world. - Gaining Ground joins Bass’s other novels, American Current and Fresh from Farmers Valley, in confronting fossil-fuel politics. - The book is independently published. - Book details list the title as Gaining Ground, the author as Justin T. Bass, the ISBN as 979-8338677902, and the genre as Climate Fiction / Family Drama Thriller. - The novel is available in paperback, eBook and audiobook formats. - Buy the book at Barnes & Noble. - Listen on Spotify.

Between the lines: - Early reader commentary says the book mixes satire and sincerity, using exaggerated characters to mock political spectacle, corporate greed and performative activism while still treating Alaska’s climate stakes seriously. - The novel is written in short, present-tense scenes that read like a film, signaling Bass’s interest in a screen adaptation. - Bass’s background in solar systems, energy reporting and climate writing helps explain why the book leans hard into the fossil-fuel transition debate. - The release timing helps position the audiobook as both entertainment and a response to a moment when climate headlines are already impossible to ignore.

What's next: - Bass says review copies and interviews are available on request. - The author is also signaling a push toward film interest, which could expand the story beyond the page and audio format. - Readers can also find Bass’s other novels, including Everything Under the Sun, alongside Gaining Ground.

The bottom line: - Gaining Ground arrives on Spotify as climate fiction with a timely hook: a personal Alaska crisis set against a very public heat wave era.