Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation

by Phoebe Wagner (Editor), Brontë Christopher Wieland (Editor), Andrew Dincher (Foreword)

Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation is the first anthology to broadly collect solarpunk short stories, artwork, and poetry. A new genre for the 21st Century, solarpunk is a revolution against despair. Focusing on solutions to environmental disasters, solarpunk envisions a future of green, sustainable energy used by societies that value inclusiveness, cooperation, and personal freedom.

Edited by Phoebe Wagner and Brontë Christopher Wieland, Sunvault focuses on the stories of those inhabiting the crucial moments when great change can be made by people with the right tools; stories of people living during tipping points, and the spaces before and after them; and stories of those who fight to effect change and seek solutions to ecological disruption.

Contributors include Elgin Award nominee Kristine Ong Muslim, New York Times bestselling author Daniel José Older, James Tiptree, Jr. Award winner Nisi Shawl, World Fantasy Award winner Lavie Tidhar, and Lambda Literary Awards finalist A.C. Wise, as well as Jess Barber, Santiago Belluco, Lisa M. Bradley, Chloe N. Clark, Brandon Crilly, Yilun Fan and translator S. Qiouyi Lu, Jaymee Goh, José M. Jimenez, Maura Lydon, Camille Meyers, Lev Mirov, joel nathanael, Clara Ng, Sara Norja, Brandon O’Brien, Jack Pevyhouse, Bethany Powell, C. Samuel Rees, Iona Sharma, Karyn L. Stecyk, Bogi Takács, Aleksei Valentín, T.X. Watson, Nick Wood, and Tyler Young.

Genres: Solarpunk, Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction

253 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 2017

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

[Kalin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another varied, thought-provoking look at where we stand, where we'd like to be, and how to get there (or where we'll end up if we botch our voyage). Along with The Idiot Gods, Reckoning 1 and Hieroglyph, it made 2017 the strongest year in my green reading so far.

My more memorable thoughts about the stories (I've boldfaced my favorite):

https://choveshkata.net/forum/viewtop...

[Fiona Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

we don't
want to hear what has been we need
to hear what is coming
-from Fairy Tales & Other Species of Life by Chloe N. Clark

Sunvault is a solid collection of eco-speculative stories - it's definitely less on the positive side that for me defines solarpunk, but it's a fascinating example of the evolution that brought Solarpunk about. And it's not just short stories, but instead there's poetry and artwork scattered throughout.


Strandbeest Dreams was a poem that caught me with it's structure and it's ideas - it's still stuck in my head and I suspect it will be for some time. Solar Child was one of the best stories of the collection; the children are literally their future, and sometimes futures take compromise.
The Road to the Sea was another standout short story from Lavie Tidhar, and I really need to get around to reading more from him.
A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World was outstanding - it really hit me right in the emotions and was so descriptive and gorgeous in it's setting, while The Herbalist was a nice - though very short - glimpse of the more positive side of Solarpunk.

Overall this really was an interesting collection - it's still a lot more grim than the Glass Houses collection, but you can trace a line from there to here. And there were some truly outstanding stories along the way.

[The Conspiracy is Capitalism · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sci-Fi as a ray of hope?

Preamble:
--I am buried in nonfiction which would take many lifetimes to get through, so forgive me for deprioritizing fiction.
…When I do dabble, I’ve been trying to deprioritize dystopia fiction. If I want critical substance, I go to critical nonfiction; the rest of the doom-and-gloom is mostly esthetics. And that goes for nonfiction as well (ex. Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?).
--Now, the struggle beyond survival to actually addressing social needs and unleashing creative potentials, this should not be simply portrayed in an escapist, utopic manner either. There’s pain, a sign of life. There’s also wonderment, recognizing the huge range of potentials/contradictory mess in each of us, and there’s purpose, to untangle this and bring out the better in each of us.
…This is what I expect from solarpunk, to paint canvases in the context of near-future ecologies where we can imagine and play with this real-world process.

Highlights:

1) “Foreword: On the Origins of Solarpunk”:
--Fiction readers will facepalm, but my main highlight in this fiction collection is the nonfiction forward summarizing “science fiction” (we should note how Anglo-centric this concept is) in several paragraphs:
i) Early modern Europe: Thomas More’s Utopia, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley’s Frankenstein.
ii) Late-19th century: Jules Verne, H.G. Wells
iii) 1930’s popular magazines Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, Astounding Science Fiction, etc.
iv) 1950’s-early 60’s “golden age” of “hard science fiction”: the focus here is on “possibilities of the future” esp. the sciences/technologies: Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, etc.
v) 1960’s-70’s: “new wave” of “soft science fiction”: more focus on the human condition rather than the sciences/technologies: Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick (ex. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), Harlan Ellison, James Tiptree, Jr., Joanna Russ, etc.
vi) Ecological shift: within (iv) and (v), we see some works focusing more on future ecologies, like Frank Herbert’s 1965 Dune (I’ll be reviewing this soon from an anthropology perspective).
…and of course there is new wave Ursula K. Le Guin. The foreword cites her essay “Vaster than Empires and More Slow”, but we can add:
-The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia
-The Left Hand of Darkness
-The Word for World Is Forest
-The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
vii) Solarpunk: emerging from the ecological shift, a “more optimistic future in a more just world”; while the foreword classifies Kim Stanley Robinson’s 2312 (2012) as pre-dating solarpunk, it is used as a model. We can add KSR’s more recent works:
-2017: New York 2140
-2020: The Ministry for the Future

2) “Solar Child”:
--This short story stood out the most; it’s about genetically-modified “photosapiens”, so it’s a condensed tangle of contradictions:

“The human race does not need revolution. We have tried that so many times, and here we are. No, what we need is a new way of living with ourselves. A way to adapt to the world we have created. We need to evolve. And evolution takes love.” She and her fellow researchers knew that Dr. Laird meant that to dedicate one’s life to this project would take more than an ideal, it would take passion for the project and love for its subjects.

…Overall, I just don’t do well with short-stories. There’s so little time to get me hooked, and if somehow that is achieved then the story abruptly ends. This collection fared worse than some others:
-ex. Le Guin: I preferred The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands over The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories, Volume One: Where on Earth
-ex. How Long 'til Black Future Month?
--Finally, the ecologies/environments in this solarpunk collection often seem too distant/exotic compared to the near-future speculative fiction/“climate fiction” which I prefer:
-ex. the Kim Stanley Robinson novels linked above. The ecologies in the linked Le Guin novels are, on the other hand, more distant.
-ex. Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072
-ex. Our Shared Storm: A Novel of Five Climate Futures

[Hákon Gunnarsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I may be slightly addicted to solarpunk anthologies, if I'm not mistaken this is the seventh such I read this year, but in my defence I just like this genre. The subtitle of this one is Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, and I somehow get the impression that the emphasis should be on the latter as the stories tend to lean towards less optimism than in some other anthologies that I've read so far.

It has a good variety, there are more than thirty works in this, artwork, poetry, and short stories. The artwork is pretty cool, but the poetry is a bit more hit and miss in my view. I like artwork in books of this kind. It can give them a new dimension, and for most parts the artwork here does help the general atmosphere of the work.

The short stories are what I was mostly interested in, and there are some really good ones here, like "The Reset" by Jaymee Goh, "Solar Child" by Camille Meyers, "The Herbalist" by Maura Lydon, and "A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World" by A. C. Wise, (two of which I had already read in a different anthology Saving the Planet: Solarpunk Stories.

In fact, I liked most of the stories, but there are some that didn't really resonate with me. Some of that may be due to the fact that I was mostly looking for solarpunk, but also because some just aren't, in my view, quite good enough. So a good one, but not a pure solarpunk anthology as I thought I was going to read (I probably missed the Eco-Speculation in the title for some reason.)

[KB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many of the short stories and poems in Sunvault fail to rise to the level of mediocrity, often because the individual writers are less concerned with exploring the potential of the solarpunk genre than with promoting some fringe social agenda. Moreover, a substantial fraction of the entries are dystopian or post-apocalyptic in nature, which will disappoint prospective readers who seek hopeful visions of the future.

Several stories are worthwhile, however, and a few are even quite good (e.g., "Strandbeest Dreams", "The Herbalist", and especially "A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World").

The stand-alone illustrations scattered throughout the book include two or three mildly interesting sketches, but from a visual perspective, the vibrant cover art is the best feature.

The book as a whole was difficult to work through, as the lower-quality components made reading it feel like a chore, but in the end the enjoyable elements provided an adequate balance.

[Lena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last Chance by Tyler Young ★★★★★

Solarpunk with All. The. Feels.

This story was a knockout. Tears ran down my cheeks and blurred my vision. I had to read the ending twice.

Beautiful pain.


The Reset by Jaymee Goh ★★★★★
Amazing story idea! What if we all went back thirty years? Could we survive the emotional upheaval enough to save our future?


The Death of Pax by Santiago Belluco ★★★★½
“I am not interested in coddling your individual weakness, I seek to further your species as a whole.”

This read like Hard SciFi straight from Master Cronenberg: fleshy, visionary, and brutal.


Speechless Love by Yilun Fan ★★★★☆
I almost cried here. Love, books, hovercrafts, history... this short story was as painful as it was beautiful.


Boltzmann Brain by Kristine Ong Muslim ★★★★☆
Post apocalypse, a robot methodically searches the forests for any remaining humans.

It’s short, using snippets of history to brutal effect. Perhaps not solarpunk, but good.


Solar Child by Camille Meyers ★★★★☆
“Our evolution takes love.”
Scientists begin genetically modifying humans to survive climate change.


Dust by Daniel José Older ★★★★☆
I really liked this bigender spy thriller with whispers of Solaris. I would consider it Solarpunk in that it created a character that reached a new level social and terrestrial harmony; an evolutionary branch to be envied!


The Desert, Blooming by Lev Mirov ★★★½☆
Story about a family who dedicate their lives to rebuilding, by replanting, the desert a thousand years after civilization burned.

This shouldn’t have been boring but it kind of was.


The Colors of Money by Nisi Shawl ★★★½☆
The short story that became Shawl’s alternative history novel Everfair.


Strandbeest Dreams by Lisa M. Bradley & José M. Jimenez ★★★☆☆
An eco-rehab robot begins having introspective thoughts. The formatting was well done. Poetic.


The Trees Between by Karyn L. Stecyk ★★★☆☆
Another we’re-desperately-trying-to-fix-post-apocalypse-Earth story. This one features interdimensional psychic trees. A good spin on a tired subject.


You and Me and the Deep Dark Sea by Jess Barber ★★★☆☆
Years after a massive earthquake two old friends find each other in their home town and create a community.


The Road to the Sea by Lavie Tidhar ★★★☆☆
Snapshot of a postdeluvian family learning to live in harmony with the earth.


The Herbalist by Maura Lydon ★★★☆☆
Snap shot story of a friendly neighborhood plant store.


A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World by A.C. Wise ★★★☆☆
“No one, not even a planet, should have to die alone.”

An emotional story of an old widowed man staying behind as his family leaves on a generation ship.


Eight Cities by Iona Sharma ★★½☆☆
Snapshot of the lives of two postdeluvian Indian women who have taken separate paths. Not much world building, not much story.


Teratology by C. Samuel Rees ★★☆☆☆
I didn’t see the point of the mopey story and it’s certainly not Solarpunk.

Four women scientists live on a farm by a river eating their unmutated specimens. They are not making progress. That’s it.


Pop and the CFT by Brandon Crilly ★★☆☆☆
Old has-been rock star discusses the Carbon Footprint Estate Tax his father left him with a lawyer.

Bureaucracy as environmentalism. Boring.


Thirstlands by Nick Wood ★★☆☆☆
African family with small aquifer chooses to help their community during a drought. It’s a kind, but hopeless story.


The Boston Hearth Project by T.X. Watson ★★☆☆☆
Weak start.
I nearly DNF’d. Hackers is not a story you want to read. Reading about coding is boring. The ideals behind the story don’t make up for boring me.

Average: 3.3 Quite a few I would not consider Solarpunk but I can see the evolutionary process.

[kari · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am very responsive to eco-speculation, which is why it took me quite long to read this brilliant anthology - I needed breaks to deal with its powerful imagery. And while there is hope in "Sunvault", it's not an easy comfort; fixing what we've broken requires persistence and sacrifice. This collection is astonishingly rich, with stories, poetry and visual art, and a sweeping showcase of rich imagination. I honestly can't name a single contribution in "Sunvault" that I did not like, and there were some I loved.

[Jim O'Donnell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. While some of the stories in here are OK very few are good. This is a whole collection of mediocre. I had big expectations for this anthology. I’m interested in problem-solving futuristic speculative fiction and was under the impression that this would be that. Instead, it’s a very odd mixture of poetry (some of which is quite good) and various disparate short stories that are more on the space opera science fiction side of things. It didn’t live up to its advertising. As I said, there are a few stories that really stand out “The road to the sea“ by Lavie Tidhar and “the Boston Hearth Project” by TX Watson and “The Reset” for example. But otherwise it’s a pretty mediocre collection. We are far past due for thoughtful and innovative fiction that helps us imagine a route to a new way of being economically and socially. Sunvault would have us think that they offer something worthwhile on this but sadly, in the end they don’t.

[Allie Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really interesting collection- I wasn't previously familiar with solarpunk, but it wasn't quite what I expected. This was much more optimistic, almost as if people were living in a dystopic world, but making the best of it and trying to make the world a better place. This was very encouraging.

Like most collections, there were entries I liked more than others. I thought it was neat that the editors included things like poetry and art in addition to short stories, although I'm not sure I'm smart enough to really "get" poetry, and I think some of it is meant to be listened to and read aloud, but many of the individual lines were quite beautiful and inspiring. My favorite stories were: "Teratology" by C. Samuel Rees, "Last Chance" by Tyler Young, "The Desert, Blooming" by Lev Mirov, and "Pop and the CFT" by Brandon Crilly. I'm really glad I read them all though, and thought many of the ideas were interesting!

(Copy provided by Netgallery).

[Sara Norja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Biased review because I have a poem in this anthology! ("Sunharvest Triptych")

It's interesting - going in, I actually realised I seem to have a different personal view of what solarpunk is than what a lot of the stories in the antho were like. I see it as not really post-apocalyptic - more as "we managed to avert the apocalypse". So, in that sense, a lot of the stories and poems were grimmer than I'd thought. But this was fascinating too - the different interpretations that a new genre provokes. I mean, it's not like there was grimdark or anything: just that several stories/poems went for a more ravaged Earth.

I especially enjoyed Brandon O'Brien's poem "The Sailor-Boys" (such great use of language); Lavie Tidhar's "The Road to the Sea" (this was post-apo but just... wonderful); and A.C. Wise's "A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World" (actually, also post-apo-ish but just so incredibly beautifully written and sad! I cried).

I would love to see more solarpunk stuff in future anthologies, novels, poetry, etc.!

[Books and the Bronx Gurrrrlll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was amazing. I have never read anything like it and had no idea this genre existed. I guess it is. It makes sense because of the times we are living in now, and the stress on the environment.. The introduction did a great job of explaining what solar punk is and I was an instant fan. As the authors mentioned, 2312 is a great intro to the genre. I loved this from the very first piece, "Please." Unique and wonderful. Enjoy!

[ShingetsuMoon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an ARC of this book as a backer of the Kickstarter campaign.

Solarpunk is a little known and perhaps even less written genre that focuses on solutions to environmental problems, disasters, and climate change. Contributions to this anthology include short stores, poems, and artwork.

This was a fantastic collection with a wide range of authors offering varying viewpoints and ideas on the theme. Some focused on how things got so bad, others on how life will continue on, and a few on the humanity of the people still trying to live their lives in a changed world.

While there are many varying ideas on what solarpunk is in this book I never felt like any of the included stories or poems missed the mark. All of them were fascinating to read and offered a refreshing speculative look into climate change, post apocalyptic scenarios, interstellar communities, time travel, and other forms of science fiction. But whatever the situation there often still remains hope for a better and brighter future.

There were so many different story ideas and concepts and I like that the art work and poems were interspersed with the short stories instead of being collected in different sections off to themselves. This is a must have anthology and a great addition to the solarpunk genre.

[Rivqa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars - overall a lovely collection of short fiction, poetry and artwork. Some stories were too focused on world-building or ideas about the future for my personal taste, but I found more than enough of what I do like to keep me going. The anthology pushes the boundaries of this relatively new subgenre in some innovative ways.

[Kiso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the short stories were meh/okay but "Speechless Love" by Yilun Fan was great!

[jamako · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was refreshing to read utopian SciFi for once, especially one focused on climate change. While many entries are well-done and competently written, some short stories in this anthology were a bit of a slog to get through, that's why it took me quite some time to finally finish this book - and why I'm only giving it three stars. I'd be interested in a sequel with a bit more quality control beforehand.

[Daniel Amaral · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solarpunk is the future of science fiction. I do believe that there is a place for speculative science fiction, like The Martian. Science fiction has always been a part of speculating on how humanity experiences the universe, which is probably never going to to change. And the trend of cyberpunk is going to continue, as our world starts to become the boring and despotic dystopia these dark and rainy stories that cyberpunk is usually about. I certainly still see this wave of science fiction literature being prevalent in American culture and will be for some time. When I say solarpunk is the future of sci fi, I mean the genre is necessary in these trying times on planet Earth. In the world of American literature, representation is becoming a major issue that needs an immediate answer. More often than not, we see the perspective of these stories viewed from white, and usually male, characters. Sci fi is sparse with characters that are black, or a different gender, or differently abled, or are ever about characters from different cultural backgrounds. And another issue, one dealing with the current state of American culture, sci fi is sliding into much darker and grittier stories. As I said, these stories have their place, but often cyberpunk and the like don't offer solutions to prevent these horrific futures from happening. Often when you're looking into darkness, it becomes increasingly harder to see the light.

I believe science fiction, and the world of American literature as a whole needs to change. Solarpunk is the literary genre that can help in creating this transition. The genre of Solarpunk is a relatively new genre of science fiction that primarily has the aesthetic of ecological architecture in harmony with environmentally sustainable technology. It also has a major emphasis on sexual, gender, racial, and ethnic diversity, from having transgender characters to physically disabled people to creating worlds of afro-futurism and the different worlds that are built by all people on our planet. Solarpunk views the future as not something to be feared, but as a chance given to us to create a radically different and better world.

Those are the kind of stories you will find in this anthology. Made up of 37 authors from all around the world from many diverse backgrounds, it contains some of the best short fictions you'll ever find. They range from the distant Earth-like world of Last Chance where children learn to not destroy their new homeworld, to a transgender asteroid miner who organizes a Belt-wide strike, to stories of photosapians and solarsaurses, to harnessing the power of a planet to save its inhabitant and many more unbelievably innovative stories that will be planted in your mind for a very long time. Particularly the last story, "A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World" by A.C. Wise requires you to bring out the tissues. My heart was pulled so hard that it cried in joy.

This book is a journey through a possible future that I would be euphoric to see, and am dying to read more solarpunk literature.

"he had wanted to be an astronaut
but works in an aircraft scrapyard
now, carefully dismantling, restoring
his love making him different from scrappers,
who loot the extinction of another age
he find, with a scientist's precisions,
new bodies for the marvels of his own time
a catharsis, in saving these old giants-
shuttle, airplane, satellite, jet
-to birth new bodies of sunplant, windwing,
radio to the universe. "

- recursive by Bethany Powell

[Kars · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with almost any collection of short stories, the mix here is uneven. The balance is still positive but only just, often the writing is somewhat amateurish. But I can forgive that.

The biggest issue I have with many of the stories is that they fail as "eco-speculation" on the political front. Most stick to a broadly liberal world view and many depict climate catastrophe as the consequences of individual moral failings. The benchmark for this kind of fiction for me is still KSR and what sets him apart is his willingness to speculate about alternative economic, political and social arrangements. For most of the authors here, that appears to have been too tall an order.

A few of the stories herein are quite affecting and sometimes even haunting, though. For that, I would still recommend this. Below is a list of those recommended stories:

* C. Samuel Rees, “Teratology” – somewhat reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy in its bleakness
* Santiago Belluco, “The Death of Pax” – imaginative treatment of kaiju as the future of humanity
* Lev Mirov, “The Desert, Blooming” – nice vignette of eco-reconstruction in action
* Jess Barber, “You and Me and the Deep Dark Sea” – I'll forgive this its hamfisted sexual politics virtue-signalling because it is still a successful depiction of people rebuilding a life in post-flood rubble
* Nisi Shawl, “The Colors of Money” – humorous, and the closest of all the stories to something depicting an alternative socio-political order, somewhat Le Guin-like in its feminism, exploring the never-ending struggle over fossil fuel
* A.C. Wise, “A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World” – a twist on the well-worn generation ship trope, asking what it would be like to stay behind when the rest of humanity leaves a dying planet earth for better climes

[Shel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love the idea of optimistic science fiction which imagines possible, positive futures.

"What does the -punk affix mean in solarpunk? A mindset that's anticapitalist, decolonial, and critical of the status quo, among other traits." — Sunvault Anthology

Standouts for me in this collection were some of the poems: "Please," by Chloe N. Clark, "Solar Powered Giraffes," by Jack Pevyhouse, and "The Seven Species," by Alexsei Valentin.

[Kaylee · Rating 2 out of 5]

It used to be that I could enjoy everything I read, but I have reached a point where I've read enough GOOD books that I no longer enjoy those that are poorly written, even if the premise is great.

This anthology had a few stories that I liked very much, but there were many more that I did not like. I hated most of the poems (even if I liked the premise) because of the sloppy style in which they were written. I think many of the contributors are young writers who are still learning the craft. Which is fine, everyone starts somewhere, but it gives the collection a very amateurish feel. I would not pay money for this. I was also disappointed that this collection did not deliver on the solarpunk promise of showing brighter futures; many of these stories are every bit as bleak as the average post-apo novel, there's just more of a focus on the environment.

I liked that the art and poems were interspersed with the short stories. I rated each of the stories and poems as I went along. The average comes to 2.4 or 2.7; since my overall impression is one of disappointment, I'm rounding down. I did not rate the artwork; the drawings were all pretty good, and a nice addition to the collection, but nothing special. My ratings for the stories, then poems, are below. NO spoilers, unless otherwise indicated, I'm just using spoiler tags to keep things organized.

Stories:
The Boston Hearth Project 1/5
The writing is mediocre, and the story doesn't work in the context given. The main character is filling out a college application, and tells a story of taking over a hotel, to answer the question "When have you worked well as part of a team?" There is a lot in here that makes no sense to put in an application. It would have worked as diary entries, but not as an answer on a college application.

Speechless Love 4/5
This was a pretty good story about preserving literature and cultural history. Earth has become uninhabitable, and colonizing other planets was too expensive, so humanity took the more affordable option of building hoverships and living in Earth's atmosphere. The premise is interesting, and it was well-executed. I also agree that literature of past eras is worth preserving, so I liked that message too.

Strandbeest Dreams 3/5
It's about a machine that starts having dreams. The story is okay; it has a good premise, but is not well-executed. I also hated the formatting; the text is sort of scattered all over the page.



Teratology 1/5 - There's a bit that might be a spoiler?
I learned a new word: teratogen = an agent of factor that causes malformation of an embryo. Apparently, the characters work on a farm where they track mutations in male animals. (Females seem to be immune, or are they?) The fish get it first from chemicals dumped in rivers, then the mammals that feed on the fish. The entire story was very vague, so you could barely understand what they're even talking about, and then it just stops; no real beginning, no ending. The point seems to be that "we can track data, but there's nothing we can do to fix the problems, so we're screwed." That is very pessimistic and depressing, and does not fit with the promise of "brighter futures".

Eight Cities 2/5
This one IS optimistic: People are building radio towers to re-establish long-distance communication. The interplay between the two main characters was interesting: spirituality is very important to one of them, but the other one considers it mere superstition which has no place in a post-deluvian world ("clearly there are no gods if disasters like this could happen"). I liked the positivity of this story, but I thought that its real strength would be in exploring the effect of devastating climate change on people's beliefs and spiritual life, and I think it's a great pity that this theme was never explored. Why mention it at all, then?

I'm not sure why this is called Eight Cities, unless it's implying that only eight cities survived the worldwide floods. The writing in general was very unclear, which is too bad, because I think this could have been a good story if it had been written with clarity. I really hate the current trend of being purposely vague. What do you gain by obscuring your meaning from your readers? It's annoying, and all it does is make the author seem conceited.

Dust 5/5
Skilled writing + interesting premise = a great story! I enjoyed this one VERY much. The sentient asteroid is a very interesting premise, and I liked the interactions between the two main characters. They had known each other in the past, in their academy days; we only get little snippets of backstory, but it's enough to give a sense of continuity; a sense that the characters, the politics, and the setting all have a solid foundation.

The Death of Pax 4/5
I enjoy science fiction stories that have aliens that are very alien. After all, why should all life in the universe be humanoid? I am not sure how I feel about the genetic modification, but the story was interesting and well-written.

Last Chance 5/5
"One of the things she loved about Forrest was that he would never say I told you so. One of the things she hated about him was that he wanted an explanation for everything. She knew he wouldn't stop digging until he got the truth or something close to it." The characterization was excellent. Interesting premise, good writing, but the characterization made it shine.

The Desert, Blooming 5/5
"Over the sound of Dawith shouting grumpily about the correct way to plant a date palm, we prayed. Trees were about to root into the earth, about to become part of the Desert, about to whisper underground to each other in the divine language of trees. Birds would flock in the trees. Animals would come to eat. Strangers would pitch their tents alongside the water. The students and I consecrated the holy ground, to the Faces of God that would come in all these forms, and others unknown to us." The work is hard, but it's worth it to see the Desert bloom. A good, optimistic story, and well-written. I also liked that planting trees was considered spiritual work.

The Trees Between 3/5
A group of people planted a grove of trees whose purpose is to absorb and redirect seismic energy into a virtual reality. Um...I have read many stories about impossible things, but with this one I can't suspend disbelief. Virtual reality is... virtual. The whole premise is not plausible. The quality of the writing is what I'd call pretty good for a beginner. I gave it 2.5 stars, but I'll round up for the fact that people are taking responsibility and fixing the world, AND they're doing it as members of the human race, instead of disowning humanity and acting holier than thou, as is too often the case.

Boltzmann Brain 1/5
I did not like this one. It was too fragmented and very pessimistic. I can understand why a lot of people believe that humanity will destroy itself, but that's not the sort of story I want to read, especially in solarpunk, which is supposed to be optimistic.

The Road to the Sea 5/5
Two characters, in the future, talking about the people of our day: "They were just people. They tried to do their best, and sometimes they succeeded, and sometimes they didn't." Although it was too late to save the whole world, humanity saved some of it. Well-written, and positive.

The Reset 3/5 - This one contains spoilers.
The writing was pretty good, but I'm not sure how I feel about the story. A scientist resets the world to 30 years before, but everyone keeps their memories. This causes some turmoil, but the 30-year rewind was only a test. The scientist leaves his notes to his assistant, who builds the machine again, and could turn back the clock hundreds of years and *really* fix things - but he decides not to. He'll leave the world broken because his estranged mother has reached out to him and he wants to stay with his mom.

I don't know. On the one hand, this was a very human choice; all any of us really want is love and a sense of belonging. On the other hand, this chance at happiness was bought at the expense of every other living thing on Earth. If the author's intent was to show that people often throw others under the bus, not out of malice or lack empathy, but out of a desire for personal well-being, I think that is an important insight, and I applaud its demonstration through story. I don't know if that was the intent, though.

Pop and the CFT 3/5
I'm unsure about this one. If I hadn't read this in a solarpunk / eco-speculation anthology, I would think it was expressing anti-green sentiments. In this story, the Carbon Footprint Tax does nothing but hurt innocent people: A lonely widower collected memorabilia as a hobby to distract him from how much he missed his wife, and their son, who had absolutely nothing to do with his father's collections, is the one who will have to pay the hefty tax for his dad having owned a lot of stuff. I'm not sure what the point of this story is, unless it's a warning to activists not trample people's souls in their zeal to save the environment. A warning that I think IS needed, for what it's worth.

You and Me and the Deep Dark Sea 2/5
This one didn't really seem to go anywhere. A post-apo story about some people surviving on canned food and such. Nothing really happens, there's no lesson for any of the characters or the reader. I can't see anything point in this.

Thirstlands 2/5 - Contains a spoiler.
The writing was okay. The story was depressing. There is not enough water, so everyone will die. I suppose the point was that people should share the little water they have, and die along with everyone else, rather than saving themselves. I don't agree. If sharing could save others, then of course you should share, but if sharing will result in *everyone* dying... I think it's better for some to live than for everyone to die. If some survive, life (life as a whole) is preserved, but if all die in solidarity, then life is lost forever. So it comes down to your ethics: if it's an either-or choice, what's more important, giving a doomed individual a few more days to live, or ensuring the continuation of life as a whole? (I'm rating the story based on the quality of writing, not whether I agree with its ethics.)

Solar Child 4/5
The writing was okay. The story is pretty positive. I like the sentiment that, no matter how much the world or humanity changes, it is how we treat each other that will define us. 3.5 rounded up to 4.

The Colors of Money 2/5
A bit of political intrigue that didn't really go anywhere. Confusing in places. I managed to follow it despite the vagueness, but got nothing out of it.

The Herbalist 4/5
Good writing, and a nice little story. My only critique is that it almost feels like just a fragment, having only the one scene. I rated this 3.5, but I always round up for human kindness, especially when people of different backgrounds drop the "us vs them" attitude and instead treat each other as fellow human beings.

A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World 5/5

The writing is excellent. The story is absolutely beautiful. Just a few quotes:
"They won't have cats in space. They'll have genetic material, of course, but it's hard to cuddle a test tube on a cold winter's night and be comforted by its purr."

"Sometimes you have to appreciate what you have while you have it, instead of holding on to it for 'someday'. You just have to live and let go and stop worrying about the future."

"I'm sending this out into the stars to travel to new worlds, so new generations will be able to look back to know how the sun looked on a particular day back where their parents' parents' parents came from. So they'll know how the sun looked to one specific person as it bounced off the water or rested against the skin of someone he loved or slipped beneath the rim of the world."
This story made me cry. I'm glad the anthology ended with this one.

Poems:
I'm taking a couple out of order (marked with *), so I can group them, since my objections are the same for most of them: I don't like this style of poetry, which is basically "make some vague statements with random line breaks." Entries of this type include:

Please 1.5/5
The Sailor-Boys 0.5/5 - I can't even make any sense of this.
light sail star bound 1/5
Synthesis: This Shining Confluence 1.5/5
*Fairy Tales & Other Species of Life 1/5
*Sunharvest Triptych 1/5

Why do people feel the need to chop up sentences in random places? It doesn't work. Sunharvest was particularly bad; in some cases it even cuts off the last word of a sentence and puts it in a whole new paragraph! I would like to know what the hell people think this accomplishes. It has no poetic value, no aesthetic value, it does absolutely nothing except make the "poem" annoying to read. The ones rated 1.5 were not as terrible as the others, but still bad enough that I couldn't give them a 2. These are better:

Solar Powered Giraffes 2/5
The sleek machines
traverse the land
like gilded towers.

Their footsteps
enrich the soil.
Their tongues
purify the water.

That's it, that's the entire poem. I think it's an interesting concept, but that's all it is: a very bare-bones concept. However, despite the fact that it's barely a couple sentences, it's better than many of the other poems.

The Seven Species 3.5/5
I very much liked the idea of making a covenant with the land. "I have carried the kernels of what sustains us, seven precious seeds: wheat, barley, grape, fig, pomegranate, olive, and date. I carry them in a sacred box..." That's a lovely sentiment, but you don't plant *one* seed of wheat, or barley, or any of that. You'd want to plant at least a handful, and more is better. Not every seed is viable, some might get eaten by birds, etc. Clearly written by someone who doesn't understand cultivation, which makes me worry for the survival of these fictional people. Otherwise, I liked it. I think this piece of writing would make a nice reflection if the author had just left it in paragraphs instead of putting in the line breaks, but at least the breaks were mostly in logical places and not too random.

recursive 2.5/5
I liked the theme of the poem: the main character works in am aircraft scrapyard, but he treats the bygone things with love and respect while taking their parts to make new eco-friendly machines. I dislike the lack of capitalization. And again, this "poem" would have worked much better if it had been left as an intact paragraph, as a meditation, instead of getting cut apart with random line breaks and being called a poem.

On that note: I think we need a revival of meditations/reflections; they are every bit as good as poetry, and by keeping sentences and paragraphs intact, they come across as a hell of a lot more poetic than if you chop them up. An idea may have merit, but it also needs to be in a format where the concepts and images can ~flow~ instead of sputtering like a car with a bad engine. I would like to see reflections/meditations gain the same prominence as poetry, so that people won't feel the need to mutilate their reflections, but could simply speak from the heart.

As for poetry, that is an entirely different skill, akin to composing music, which a person is highly unlikely to acquire without formal instruction. No, it doesn't have to rhyme, but you also can't just write down some vague ideas, break it up into random irrational pieces, and call it a poem. If you are really interested in writing poetry, take a college course, you'll be glad you did.

All in all, the anthology was disappointing, but there were some good bits in there. I'm glad I read A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World in particular. I would buy that one on its own, if it was available by itself at a single-story price. The anthology is not worth the cost, but if you can find it at your library or get a free copy, a few of the stories are definitely worth a read.

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such a varied anthology, I have to think there'll be something here for nearly every reader of speculative fiction. Some of the stories--most notably those by A.C. Wise, T.X. Watson, Daniel Jose Older, and Lev Mirov--are ones which I believe I'll be thinking about well into the future, and re-reading. Others were less to my taste, but I think that's a given in a strong anthology; my hope for an anthology is always that I'll at least be engaged and glad to have read half the stories, and will also find a few stand-out favorites, which is certainly the case here. Truly, if I have one complaint, it's that with too many of the stories I loved here, I went searching afterward to see if I could hunt down more work by the authors in question, and there wasn't much to be found!

You might be wondering why this only got a four-star rating, and I admit that's because I didn't enjoy the poetry or the artwork in the anthology nearly as much as the short stories. I'm not sure if the poetry, in particular, just wasn't to my taste, or if the editors had less to choose from in comparison to the fiction, but as much as I love poetry, the poems here didn't really engage me. There was nothing wrong with the art, but it felt a little less inspired than I would have expected for an anthology that's otherwise brimming with incredibly creative work.

All told, I'd certainly read more works put together by these editors, and this anthology does a gorgeous job of showing the variation that can be found in solarpunk and what the subgenre is capable of even in its beginnings.

Definitely recommended.

[Zéro Janvier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sunvault : Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation se présente comme une collection de nouvelles, de poèmes et d'illustrations autour du solarpunk et de la science-fiction écologique et climatique.

Après avoir lu plusieurs anthologies de nouvelles solarpunk, j'ai été un peu déçu par celle-ci. Si j'ai été séduit par certaines nouvelles, j'ai trouvé l'ensemble trop hétérogène et globalement ennuyant. J'ai survolé certaines nouvelles dans lesquelles je n'ai pas réussi à entrer, et j'ai refermé ce recueil avec un sentiment très mitigé et l'impression d'être passé à côté de cette lecture.

[Malte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Der er nogle rigtig gode og eftertænksomme historier imellem, men overordnet lider bogen af at være en antologi. Der er simpelthen for langt mellem guldkornene og mange af de korte historier når ikke på troværdig vis at rammesætte den fremtid som de peger på. Der er undtagelser og jeg blev decideret revet med af og må nævne Speechless Love og afslutningsfortællingen A Catalouge of Sunshine at the End of the World SOm to af højdepunkterne. Udover fortællingerne er der også en stribe illustrationer der ikke gør noget hverken godt eller dårligt ved oplevelsen. Endelig er en række af bidragene digte, men heller ikke her er der nogen der ramme indenfor skiven hos mig. Vi ender på en toer trods en spændende og nyere subgenre indenfor scifi :-)

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some really good, really fun stories in here! A bit less optimistic than I expected, but survival as a theme is explored really well and in many different ways. Also some great ethical questions and scenarios to chew on, preferably with friends!

[Alexander Pyles · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very different anthology, but a good one.

Before I forget there were a few stories I thought I need to mention before going on:
The Death of Pax by Santiago Belluco - a damn strange and out there short, but one of the most interesting I've read in a long time.
Last Chance by Tyler Young - this was a surprisingly brutally heartfelt story.
A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World - this was such a sad last letter to not only the MC's wife, but to the whole human race. Loved the intimate expanse of this one.

Overall, I thought this anthology was quite well done and I believe I have a firmer grasp of "solarpunk" and "eco-speculation." I cannot wait to try my hand at it.

[Dameon Launert · Rating 2 out of 5]

The pictures were good. Some stories were decent. One in particular was fun to read. But there were serious deficits of most, which I categorize into four general complaints:

1. Several stories were so poorly written that I could only trudge my way through by sheer stubbornness alone. Two stories I just couldn't.

Some were difficult to follow. They either nonsensically jumped around the plot, or didn't adequately explain what was happening, or included lots of irrelevant but oddly specific details as if there was an inside joke for certain audiences to understand. Whatever the joke was, it wasn't funny or understandable. It only made those stories confusing and unenjoyable, if they were even readable.

2. There was a lot of little ideological propaganda scattered throughout, like pop-up ads or that scene in Minority Report. This would be acceptable if subtle and directly related to sustainability. But they were neither.

3. Many of the stories were more sci-fi with an over-emphasis on high technology or space travel than I would expect to see in a solarpunk anthology.

Two stories in particular were like propaganda for genetic engineering, even dismissing story populations who could find any reason to oppose. In actuality, genetic engineering promotes biological elitism and social inequality; see Gattaca. Genetic engineering is also an intrusive tinkering that seeks to eugenically dominate nature. As is often the case, there are unanticipated negative consequences for imposing order and disrupting the natural emergent order. Therefore, genetic engineering is anti-solarpunk. This is only one example of the worship of high-technology and lack of low-technology in many of the stories.

4. Most of the stories were apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic climate fiction. They were dystopian and not particularly optimistic. Solarpunk, of course, is not without conflicts for the characters to resolve, but it is supposed to be near-utopian as people find adaptable solutions of environmental challenges.

The stories defied the beautiful and inspiring cover art. I wanted to read about that setting or similar, but it was absent. I want to read solarpunk stories, but this anthology had only one I would even consider true to the wikipedia description:

Solarpunk is a science fiction literary subgenre and art movement that envisions how the future might look if humanity succeeded in solving major contemporary challenges with an emphasis on sustainability, human impact on the environment, and addressing climate change and pollution. Especially as a subgenre, it is aligned with cyberpunk derivatives, and may borrow elements from utopian and fantasy genres.

Contrasted to cyberpunk's use of a dark aesthetic with characters marginalized or subsumed by technology in settings that illustrate artificial and domineering, constructed environments, solarpunk uses settings where technology enables humanity to sustainably co-exist with its environment alongside Art Nouveau-influenced aesthetics that convey feelings of cleanliness, abundance, and equability. Although solarpunk is concerned with technology, it also embraces low-tech ways of living sustainably such as gardening, permaculture, regenerative design,[1] positive psychology, metacognition, and do-it-yourself ethics. Its themes may reflect on environmental philosophy such as bright green environmentalism, deep ecology, and ecomodernism, as well as punk ideologies such as anarchism, anti-consumerism, anti-authoritarianism, anti-capitalism, civil rights, commoning, and decentralization.

As an art movement, solarpunk emerged in the 2010s as a reaction to the prevalence of bleak post-apocalyptic and dystopian media alongside an increased awareness of social injustices, impacts of climate change, and inextricable economic inequality. Solarpunk emerged as creators and their followers sought alternatives to consequential dystopic futures that were pragmatic and did not rely on mysterious "black box" technology. The genre became better defined through online communities that shared content and discussions on media platforms and dedicated websites. Solarpunk has been applied to a multitude of media such as literature, fine arts, architecture, fashion, music, tattoos, and video games. In literature, numerous previously published novels have been identified as being solarpunk, including Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed, Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia, Cory Doctorow's Walkaway, and numerous works by Kim Stanley Robinson. The first works written purposefully in the solarpunk genre were short stories collected in anthologies and later in novellas and novels, such as Becky Chambers's A Psalm for the Wild-Built.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solarpunk

[Martijn Reintjes · Rating 4 out of 5]

"life isn’t all about the big moments. In fact, life is mostly what happens in-between, and the sun shines on those days, too."

===

There are some real short story gems in this bundle.
It's worth a read if you are wondering what a more solarpunk world could look like.

===

"I suppose we’re all a bundle of contradictions in the end."

[Allie · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was interesting on a whole. I love the idea of solarpunk, and the mostly more hopeful approach to dystopias brought on by climate change. Out of all of them, Last Chance was my favorite, followed closely by Solar Child. If I were to sit down and exam that, I probably liked those best because they dealt with kids, and I think on a whole the future of our environment is in balance for the next generation, and I like the idea of humanity persevering despite climate tragedies. I liked the concept of Pop and the CFT, and Speechless Love was also really interesting, though kind of sad. And of course, A Catalogue of Sunlight at the End of the World was the grand finale, a well placed and touching story to end the anthology. Overall I enjoyed it, and I look forward to the genre’s development.

[Mia Milne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would give this 2.5 stars. There are some stories that I enjoyed and I really liked the setup of the volume. It was interspersed with short stories, poems, and artwork all related to Solarpunk.

The problem is that only a minority of the stories are well-written, those that are suffer from cliched tropes, and few fit the themes of Solarpunk. I recognize that Solarpunk is a new genre and thus is not well defined. This collection was one of the first of this genre so I tried to be more generous about fitting the hopeful image of Solarpunk. Unfortunately, it fails to follow its own definition they set in the introduction

"[Solarpunk] a new movement in SF that examines the possibility of a future in which currently emerging movements in society and culture such as the green movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, and certain aspects of Occupy Wall Street coalesce to create a more optimistic future in a more just world." (7)

Almost all of the stories involve a world that has already been made uninhabitable. The hope is that after most of humanity is dead then we can start again, which I feel contradicts the creation of a "more optimistic future."

I love the dystopian and apocalyptic genres, but what makes Solarpunk great is that it is about imagining better futures and then committing action to do them (that is the punk aspect). This book does not do that with only a few exceptions. It imagines a future where humanity failed to meaningfully contain the climate crisis. It inspires a vague hope, but not the motivation to change the present. If anything, it inspires apathy for our current situation.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of stories that cover a wide spectrum of ideas of solarpunk. Some are very contemporary and deal in current societal issues while some stories offer an otherworldly experience of transhuman inspiration.

Favorites: The Death of Pax, The Reset, Solar Child

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into this anthology after all. Besides The Death of Pax and Speechless Love I liked Solar Child and the drawings, but overall this anthology had too many post-apocalyptic stories for it to inspire hope which is what I'm still looking for in solarpunk.