Twenty three years from now, the world's in a hell of a fix. Foot-dragging by the United States and China on curbing greenhouse gases has allowed global warming to accelerate, flooding coastal areas and forcing the U.S. government to relocate millions of its citizens to higher ground.

In the earnest thriller by first-time novelist Matthew Glass, the "last best hope of mankind" is Joe Benton, landslide winner in the 2032 presidential race. A Democratic U.S. senator from Arizona, the new chief executive is a blend of pragmatic politician and desperate idealist jolted into action by a secret report that predicts doom unless drastic measures are taken worldwide soon.

The biggest obstacle is the Beijing regime, now enjoying a thriving economy at America's expense, including all of that money we borrowed after 2001.

I could find no information on Glass, whose novel comes without a photo. All his publisher tells me is that Glass is a pen name and that he or she lives in England.

We do know the author displays a working knowledge of American and Chinese politics and the art of negotiation. Both figure prominently in the narrative as Benton spars with China's leader, Wen, a former financier who played a large part in developing his country's prosperity.

The book consists mostly of dialogue between Benton and his staff, Benton and other leaders, and American and Chinese negotiators. A lot of it is on the hokey side, as in:

"What does it mean for us?"

"It means we're a pawn in their game, sir."

"Every country is a pawn in every other country's game... Isn't that a fundamental fact of international relations?"

Not only is the conversation leaden and humorless, the settings are largely confined to rooms and the characters to powerful men, some verbally wrestling in a strained macho match. It's possible this kind of get-together plays out often in the Oval Office. The scratchy tapes of President Kennedy and his advisers hunting for solutions to the Cuban Missile Crisis are perhaps a model for Glass.

His plot sounds plausible, sparked by the disagreements growing out of the Kyoto environmental efforts. Benton bypasses that process to deal directly with Beijing on emission accords, something he calls "The Carbon Plan," and this bilateral approach sparks anger from other countries.

How the idealistic president succeeds in pressing his case fills the final third of the novel and it takes a lot of pain in the meantime.

"Ultimatum" is an early entry in the thriller genre where the threat is a combination of greenhouse gas and political posturing. It's clunky and slow-moving. While Glass has the novelist's instincts for creating danger from the news, he struggles with character, description and pace. Still, his novel is a good place for this genre to start.