Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers

I’ve made more than one comment before about my dislike for speculative fiction, but I’ve never ruled out enjoying it in theory. Now it seems I’ve found my spec fic: this book and two others I have going (The Time Machine by HG Wells and the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch), all of which I like or love. I bought this on a whim after seeing it on a friend’s shelf and it’s a big departure from my usual, but it’s good to expand my horizons.

The best thing about these stories is the worldbuilding: an old mine providing shelter from an arid world covered in solar panels; a family business raising insects for food; a crew maintaining a dome of pressurized water that protects Los Angeles; raising chickens alongside their show more plant-based analogues in Wisconsin; a chaotic city built on the carcasses of old skyscrapers. Dramatic tension, story arc, and writing quality are hit-or-miss. My two favorite stories are set on farms: “A Field of Sapphires and Sunshine” by Jaymee Goh, about a woman coming home with her degree to Malaysia and her family’s crocodile ranch, and “Amber Waves,” by Sam S. Kepfield, about a tornado that closes one era and opens another in the life of a couple’s wheat farm in Kansas. “The Spider and the Stars,” “A Midsummer Night’s Heist,” “Camping with City Boy,” and the murder mystery at a weather manipulation station are fun too. One story was so obnoxiously written, so cringe, that all I could do was skim it, but only that one. I not only enjoyed this book but I expect I will come back to reread some of these stories. show less

Science fiction often predicts human folly with regards to technology. Solarpunk is different. In this collection of short stories the climactic apocalypse has arrived, the world has changed and today's current hegemonies have dissolved along with the ice caps. This anthology does not harp on how humanity has failed, rather it explores possible solutions despite our current lack of vision. The egalitarian use of technology reimagined social structures, and the new relationships between humans and nature are commonly explored themes. The strength of storytelling varies from author to author. However, as a collective work, this anthology will provide the reader with much to consider.

NOTE: I was provided with an eARC by the publisher in exchange for providing an honest review.

With only a few exceptions I was blown away by this collection. I’m an avid SFF reader and it was very refreshing to see a collection of stories that unabashedly reveled in discovery and wonder. There was one story I got so frustrated with I couldn’t finish. (Who knew that anauthor constantly commenting on the female protagonist’s lips would be so annoying?) And a few that were just not quite there – either not science fictiony enough, too simplistic, a little too schmalzy, but all of the shone with innovation and creativity.

But there are some absolute gems in this collection. My favorites were:

(1) The Spider and the Stars by D.K. Mok
A show more heart-warming story about a girl and her spider who dream of the stars.

(2) A Midsummer Night’s Heist by Commando Jugendstil and Tales from the EV Studio
An engaging and fabulous collaboration between two real world groups, this story showing the unrolling of an elaborate plan by groups of renegades to transform part of Milan into a place of natural and scientific beauty and to prevent a right wing facist group from holding a rally on the site. Absolutely inspiring!

(3) The Heavenly Dreams of Mechanical Trees by Wendy Nikel
A lovely story about a sentient mechanical tree who with the help of a human dreamer/scientist and the rest of her “artificial” forest is able to give biological trees a second chance at life. A mystical and unexpected modern fable. show less

Received ebook edition from LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

One of the best anthologies I've read in a long time, possibly ever. This genre is new to me (and apparently quite new period, having been coined around 10 years ago), and it was refreshing to read something more positive and optimistic about the future. That is not to say it's all happy-go-lucky utopian; there's hints of bleaker histories or struggles in the present, but it's not consumed by the grimdarkness so popular these days. We can't have a brighter future if we can't imagine a brighter future, and this strikes me as a good step that direction.

The stories were a bit weighted towards the front, to me. The last few trickled off in quality, but this could be a matter of show more taste as well. "The Spider and the Stars," "New Siberia," and "Heavenly Dreams of Mechanical Trees" were my favorites. The writing and ideas were both enjoyable and left me wanting more, but without leaving the stories feeling incomplete.

Highly recommended, and I'll keep the eye out for more of the same! show less

This collection of short stories imagines futures beyond dystopia - wondering instead what would a hopeful future possibly look like. I am a huge fan of utopia stories, and SF stories that consider these kinds of huge question - what positive futures can we behold, with technology assisting us?

Like any collection, I liked some stories more than others (and had to downright skip one because I just couldn’t make it through and it was jeopardizing my ability to finish the book at all). These stories all imagine vastly different futures - and that’s the most brilliant, hopeful thing about them. There are so many ways we could get this right!

If the current news cycle has got you down (and how could it not?) I highly recommend taking a show more walk into the future with this fun and visionary collection. show less

Nice. I like solarpunk better than most of the SF anthologies I've been reading - much more hopeful. Some of the stories seem to be of people who haven't thought things through too well - the one with glowing people, have they forgotten all about therapy? Telling someone who's constantly depressed that she needs to achieve a "more acceptable shade" is...amazingly stupid. And the kids who's been taught that the way to make his anger socially acceptable is to smash things is worse off. It's a good story but I think that society is heading the wrong way. I liked the flying librarian, and the garden graffiti, and the trees - there were a lot of good stories in there, and the worst ones were only uninteresting rather than actively unpleasant show more as I've found in most other SF anthologies I've read recently. I've got the next one, I'll be reading that soon. show less

Finally finished this - not because I wasn't enjoying the book, just that the weather has finally been good enough to work in the garden and I haven't had much time for reading. An anthology of stories with an eco-theme: global warming has happened, and the stories are set in that future. Interesting and thought-provoking, and unexpectedly beautiful - especially the stories Riot of the Wind and the Sun by Jennifer Lee Rossman, Midsummer Night's Heist by Commando Jugenstil and Watch Out, Red Crusher! by Shel Graves.

Normally I don't care too much for 'worthy' stories - they tend to be too polemical for my taste, but the polemic in this anthology was understated enough to fit seamlessly into the the background and didn't become show more strident.

Recommended. show less