Solar Flare: Solarpunk Stories

by Patricia Bray (Editor), Joshua Palmatier (Editor), Devan Barlow

Here Comes the Sun!

Rising temperatures, melting glaciers, violent storms, and excessive heat. The future seems bleak…but there are signs of hope.

In SOLAR FLARE, we ask you to step into a world where we have managed to mitigate or even reverse the disastrous effects of climate change and our own destruction of our world. Race down the depleted waterway of the Mississippi in a solar-, wind-, and water-powered boat. Sail through the skies in a floating hydroponic dirigible. Skim along a solar-powered road in order to expose a corporation’s secret. Hover weightless in space in a last-ditch effort to repair an umbrella-like solar collector. Or cower in a shelter as fire rages outside…only to emerge and discover the rebirth such fire can bring.

Time to turn the tide and dream of a better future.

stories:
Dustbowl Detective by David Keener
The Race on Dry Mississippi by Anthony W. Eichenlaub
Walking through Fog by Sarena Ulibarri
For the Love of Loudness by Jason Palmatier
Trial by Fire by Lauren C. Teffeau
Going Home by S.C. Butler
Refraction by Devan Barlow
Of Grace and Youth and Memory and Time by Chaz Brenchley
Umbrella Men by Liam Hogan
The Astronaut by Nicole Givens Kurtz
Hemingway Versus the Storm by Christopher R. Muscato
Radiant by Rhondi Salsitz
Drips of Hope by Ember Randall
Lumen by Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin
Interventions by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller
The Repairer of Lost and Broken Things by Kristine Smith
The Palmdale Community Newsletter by Anthony Love

Genres: Solarpunk, Science Fiction, Anthologies

345 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 15, 2023

About the author

Patricia Bray is the author of a dozen novels, including Devlin’s Luck, which won the 2003 Compton Crook Award for the best first novel in the field of science fiction or fantasy. A multi-genre author whose career spans both epic fantasy and Regency romance, her books have been translated into Russian, German, Portuguese and Hebrew. Patricia Bray has also spent time on the editorial side of the business, as the co-editor of After Hours: Tales from the Ur-Bar (DAW, March 2011), The Modern Fae’s Guide to Surviving Humanity (DAW, March 2012), and Clockwork Universe: Steampunk vs Aliens (ZNB, June 2014).

Patricia lives in a New England college town, where she combines her writing with a full-time career as a Systems Analyst, ensuring that she is never more than a few feet away from a keyboard.

Reviews

[Lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Astronaut by Nicole Givens Kurtz ★★★★☆
“Didn’t anyone want to dream big, reach for the stars?”
Fernando grunted out a laugh.
“So we can go and abuse another planet or ruin another civilization?”

As much as I love Star Trek, and science fiction in general, this is my view on contemporary human space travel.

An astronaut headed for Mars unexpectedly arrives in Greenland 300 years later. It’s an Ecovillage kind of world where some fear her but others are willing to help her start a new life.

For the Love of Loudness by Jason Palmatier ★★★★☆
“We created paradise and it’s boring as hell.”

In a world similar to Emergency Skin the post generation-ship depopulation humans got together and saved the world. Earth is a paradise. But teenagers will still rebel. Everything being quiet and orderly goes against the grain of someone who wants to rock on full blast.

Umbrella Men by Liam Hogan ★★★★☆
A sweet and exciting story of the mostly female team that maintains solar mirrors.

Trial By Fire by Lauren C. Teffeau ★★★★☆
In a future New Mexico young brothers will be startled into ultimate responsibility when a wildfire rushes their property while their parents are away.

The Repairer of Lost and Broken Things by Kristine Smith ★★★★☆
In a corporate universe those who want to make a difference, to live a life of purpose, return to Earth.

Dustbowl Detective by David Keener ★★★★☆
It’s a messy world after the second Civil War broke up the United States and a ex-Army officer uses his skills to solve corporate problems and rebuild community.

Lumen by Gail Z. Martin & Larry N. Martin ★★★★☆
The first solar community in the Old West tries to present its technology to the rest of America. There is pushback and sabotage from the coal and gas interests.

The Race on Dry Mississippi by Anthony W. Eichenlaub ★★★½☆
A Solar Race to test innovation turns into a collaboration and romance.

Refraction by Devan Barlow ★★★½☆
One community has greater solar technology than its neighbors. The daughter of the inventor wants other communities to benefit too.

Hemingway Verses the Storm by Christopher R. Muscato ★★★½☆
Airships are used as farms to save land. There are also meteorological systems on the ground to prevent tornadoes. But when the software fails, there’s always a cat.

The Palmdale Community Newsletter by Anthony Lowe ★★★½☆
“The only reason this America and Other America are in two different places is choice. Every day, we choose not to be that place.”

A retiree writers a newsletter about the everyday life of a slightly better America.

Radiant by Rhondi Salsitz ★★★½☆
Greed tries to destroy a solar road built to a desalination plant.

Drips of Hope by Ember Randall ★★★½☆
As parts of the US run out of water the government has decided on voluntary relocation programs. But it is challenging to uproot long established families.

Of Grace and Youth and Memory and Time by Chaz Brenchley ★★★½☆
A far future story where children are crèche raised and anything intellectually useful found from the past is immediately destroyed.

Walking Through Fog by Sarena Ulibarri ★★★☆☆
In a decimated hot world a baby is born at the same time cranes return.

Going Home by S.C. Butler ★★★☆☆
There are less than one thousand humans left and they have decided it's finally safe for the planet for them to come down from orbit. Not everyone agrees.

Interventions by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller ★★★☆☆
With population down we can finally begin rewilding in earnest. Some land is under remediation, which means access is extremely limited. An Eco Pastor goes in with a small group to see how the land is doing.

I read all 17 stories that averaged 3.617 stars that I rounded up.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of solarpunk-inspired short stories from various authors. There's a bit of a range, timewise: some are set a few decades away, others centuries. Unlike Metatropolis, they don't share a same imagined future, though concepts are the same in both. There's a good variety in the stories, all exploring different adaptations humans are making to worth with nature rather than ride roughshod over it, and these range from engineering to culture. In one story, for instance, we visit a team of women ("Umbrella Men") who are tasked with repairing and re-orienting kilometer-sized veils in the upper atmosphere. These 'umbrellas' refract from sunlight, but also convey it into power that's beamed down to Earth. The strangest one for me was "Lumen", about a solar-based community in 1898 being persecuted by oil and gas interests: this seemed implausibly anachronistic, in part because I only associate solar power with conversion cells, and the means by which this town was employing solar power were not explained. Easily the most interesting story for me was "The Palmdale Community Newsletter", in which a journalist tracks down an independent journalist who keeps writing articles about life in The Other America, a place that this indie journalist can see if he walks down a certain street: in this Other America, the United States took a very different turn after World War 2, pursuing sustainable energy and urban development instead of covering the good earth with oil-soaked parking lots and suburbs dominated by bee-hostile grass monocultures. The stories set closer to us tend to look at the consequences of our actions (like "Drips of Hope", in which government agents try to persuade some towns people to relocate because there is no more water) , as well as "The Race on Dry Mississippi", in which solar-powered vehicles race down the empty channel of the Mighty Missisippi. I was glad there was stories like "Drips of Hope" which examined environmental issues other than climate change. The biggest disappoint was "The Astronaut", which had a fun premise (an astronaut put in stasis finds herself crash-landing on Earth in the late 24th century), but it ended very pompous lecture-y, as the Greenlanders (all Hispanic, interestingly) arrest the astronaut for possessing rocket fuel and go on and on and on about her ignorance and sin. All told, though, I liked the variety of the stories, and the central message about hope, human resilience, and 'biophilic design', which is something I want to read more about. It sounds a bit like permaculture on on a different scale.

[Darren Lipman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories in this anthology showed a broad range of what solarpunk has to offer, and the sad reality is that not all of them were to my tastes. This isn’t to say the stories were bad or poorly written; they just didn’t mesh with my interests as a reader.

Here are the stories I felt stood out as the best:
“Walking Through Fog” by Sarena Ulibarri
“Trial by Fire” by Lauren C. Teffeau
“Of Grace and Youth and Memory and Time” by Chaz Brenchley

Overall, if you enjoy hopeful stories that look toward a positive future, you’re more likely than not to enjoy this anthology. They range from traditional sci-fi to alternate history with a host of genre variations in between, so while your mileage may vary with the stories you resonate with, it’s still a good anthology.

[A.E. Marling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of climate fiction depresses the hell out of me, but I enjoyed multiple stories from this anthology. I don't want to give too much away, but "Umbrella Men" by Liam Hogan deals with space tech, while "Walking Through Fog" by Sarena Ulibarri was also sweet and introduced me to interesting water-collection devices.

[Mark Slauter · Rating 4 out of 5]

While society can prevent a climate catastrophe, Solarpunk stories will be around for a long time. This is a creative collection of various futures. It's hard to pick a favorite, but The Race on Dry Mississippi might be the one.