Fighting for the Future: Cyberpunk and Solarpunk Tales

by Phoebe Wagner

Edited by Phoebe Wagner, with an Introduction by Andrew Sage.
Featuring stories by Cory Doctorow, Cynthia Zhang, Brent Lambert, Ai Jiang, Jeremy Szal, Izzy Wasserstein, Louis Evans, Rona Fernandez, Lauren C. Teffeau, Kevin Wabaunsee, Holly Schofield, Commando Jugendstil and Tales from the EV Studio, J.D. Harlock, Ana Sun, and Christopher R. Muscato.

From the neon-illuminated shadows of cyberpunk mega-cities to the verdant, sun-drenched solarpunk utopias, traverse the technicolor spectrum of humanity's future in this thrilling collection of short stories. Fighting for the Future is a journey unlike any other, pushing beyond the frontiers of imagination, where dazzling technological marvels coexist with raw human spirit and environmental harmony. Three forms of narrative are interwoven into one epic the chilling darkness of cyberpunk, the hopeful dawn of solarpunk, and the transformative, gripping stories charting the path from one to the other.

Genres: Solarpunk, Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Short Stories

259 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 18, 2023

About the author

Phoebe Wagner is an author, editor, and academic writing and living at the intersection of speculative fiction and ecology. She tweets as @pheebs_w.

Reviews

[Berengaria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

short review for busy readers: an anthology of 15 future punk short stories divided into Cyberpunk, Transitional and Solarpunk sections. Excellent introduction and discussion of the similarities/differences in these two genres. The selections seem to have been made on the illustration of themes and topics in Cyber and Solarpunk (lit studies), not necessarily the individual quality of the pieces.

in detail:
The various Punk genres -- past, present and future focused -- explore human interactions with, and uses of, technology. Be that for good or ill.

Cyberpunk, with its nighttime, neon-lit, urban faschistoid societies, is often viewed as an adventurous, but cynical and depressing version of the future. Whereas Solarpunk, with its sun-lit, nature-based utopian initiatives working to repair a damaged world is often seen as a creative, grass-roots positive version of the future.

While I can't argue with the dark/light, city/country, dystopia/utopia categorisation, I found the Solarpunk stories in this anthology far more disheartening and ultimately more depressing than the cyberpunk ones. They also had very slow, more boring (for me) plots with sentimental, sugary endings, too.

In Cyberpunk, at least the characters know what they are dealing with: repressive systems with clear, bastardly tactics. They mainly focus on finding ways to circumvent that power. In Solarpunk, the characters are at the mercy of an unpredictable climate or are lone-wolf communities winging it in the attempt to figure out how to survive day to day.

There's the whiff of post-apoc literature there. Civilisation hasn't broken down into introverted, suspicious clans DIY-ing potato-run tractors from old Cadillac parts, but it might as well have.

It was the transitional stories, the ones that blended both worlds, which I believe appealed to me most as far as world-building goes.

Real finds for me from this collection are Izzy Wasserstein (Do Anarchists Dream of Collective Sheep?) Lauren C Teffeau (Root Cause) and Christopher R Muscato (Cloud 9), all of whom delivered highly enjoyable, very well-crafted stories that allowed my editorial red pen to rest. I hope to be able to track down more of their work.

Everyone will have their faves, so I will give a list of my ratings of individual stories, but no descriptions this time. 2.5 here = average story. Not good, not bad. Somewhere in-between

Nano-Vibration/Brent Lambert: 2.5
Property of PAUSE Ltd/Ai Jiang: 2.5
The Galaxy's Cube/Jeremy Szal: 4
Do Anarchists Dream of Collective Sheep/Izzy Wasserstein: 5
Tomorrow Is Another Day/Louis Evans: 4
The Promise/Rona Fernadez: 3
Root Cause/Lauren C Teffeau: 5
Broken Threads/Ken Wabaunsee: 3
The Robot Whisperer/Holly Schofield: 2.5
The Strength of the Willow/Commando Jugendstil: 2.5
Solarpunks/JD Harlock: 2.5
Materiality/ Cory Doctorow: 3
The Scent of Green/Ana Sun: 3.5
Cloud 9/Christopher R Muscato: 5
The Holiness of Light/Cynthia Zhang: 2

That comes out to a 3.3 overall, which I think is fair. Rounding down to a 3 on the stars, and up to a 3.5 on the real rating.

Thank you to my GR friend Hákon for bringing this interesting anthology to my attention!

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a curious concept, cyberpunk, solarpunk, and in between the two, transitionary stories. As a genre, I’m kind of done with cyberpunk, but fascinated by solarpunk, so I didn’t really get why the editor Phoebe Wagner wanted to mix these genre together, but when one reads it the concept makes perfect sense.

When most anthologies of this kind are just a collection of stories, this one has a certain progression. The stories aren’t connected, they are just as unconnected as stories are in the usual anthology, but because one begins in cyberpunk, then goes through transitionary stories, and ends in solarpunk stories, one can see the world in the book changing, and I thought that added a lot to the experience.

But like other anthologies, the stories are a bit of a mix, some great, some okay, and then stories that I felt fall short to some extend. My favorite cyberpunk story was “The Galaxy’s Cube” by Jeremy Szal. A really strong story. Of the transitionary stories “The Robot Whisperer” by Holly Schofield was the one that really got me. The solarpunk story “The Holiness of Light” by Cynthia Zhang felt strongest, and best built up, though Cory Doctorow’s “Materiality” and “The Strength of the Willow” by Commando Jugendstil and Tales from the EV Studio both present a very interesting twists on the solarpunk story.

One thing more. The introduction by Andrew Sage, best known for his YouTube channel Andrewism, is a very good one. There are a few stories here that I wasn’t able to connect with, but as a whole, I liked this book very much. Though it’s not just a solarpunk anthology, it is really a strong entry into that genre. Really cool.

[Zachary Matheson · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Some stories I liked, some I really liked. Overall I really thought the idea of transitioning from cyberpunk to solarpunk in the same collection was solid. I think the stories overall tended a little soft for my sci-fi tastes, and I would have loved to have heard more about "how we got here" at each stage of the book, but those are more personal gripes.

[Griffin Peralta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Picked up this book looking for good short stories to teach my students in a unit on Science Fiction.
Absolutely adored it.
So many great stories with a wide variety of themes and tones.
A joy to read and an excellent resource for texts that define the genres- Solarpunk and Cyberpunk.

[Groucho42 · Rating 1 out of 5]

There's an old concept with short story collections, you put the best stories at the beginning and the end. I read the first two stories and they were so idiotic and trite I gave up.