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Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures
Cities are alive, shared by humans and animals, insects and plants, landforms and machines. What might city ecosystems look like in the future if we strive for multispecies justice in our urban settings? In these more-than-human stories, twenty-four authors investigate humanity's relationship with the rest of the natural world, placing characters in situations where humans have to look beyond their own needs and interests. A quirky eco-businessman sees broader applications for a high school science fair project. A bad date in Hawaii takes an unexpected turn when the couple stumbles upon some confused sea turtle hatchlings. A genetically-enhanced supersoldier struggles to find new purpose in a peaceful Tokyo. A community service punishment in Singapore leads to unexpected friendships across age and species. A boy and a mammoth trek across Asia in search of kin. A Tamil child learns the language of the stars. Set primarily in the Asia-Pacific, these stories engage with the serious issues of justice, inclusion, and sustainability that affect the region, while offering optimistic visions of tomorrow's urban spaces.
340 pages, Paperback
First published April 13, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
September 22, 2021
Read with the Solarpunk group!
Absolutely loved the majority of these stories, tapping into the "everything is an ecosystem" side of Solarpunk as a lot of them did.
There were a couple of misses for me - most anthologies have at least a few - but overall these were great.
A couple of the standouts for me: The Birdsong Fossil - D.K. Mok. This author is always a reliable source of a great story that'll make me laugh and cry. Thoughtful, evocative, and absolutely tugging on my every heart string, I loved this.
The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps - Octavia Cade. I may be biased, as the author's also a Kiwi, and injects a great tinge of NZ into this one. But I thought this was beautifully written, and the feelings evoked by the story were just a lovely mix of hopeful and intrigued.
Overall, if you're into climate fiction, Solarpunk, or just need a good collection of stories with a hopeful bent; I'd absolutely recommend this.
Absolutely loved the majority of these stories, tapping into the "everything is an ecosystem" side of Solarpunk as a lot of them did.
There were a couple of misses for me - most anthologies have at least a few - but overall these were great.
A couple of the standouts for me: The Birdsong Fossil - D.K. Mok. This author is always a reliable source of a great story that'll make me laugh and cry. Thoughtful, evocative, and absolutely tugging on my every heart string, I loved this.
The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps - Octavia Cade. I may be biased, as the author's also a Kiwi, and injects a great tinge of NZ into this one. But I thought this was beautifully written, and the feelings evoked by the story were just a lovely mix of hopeful and intrigued.
Overall, if you're into climate fiction, Solarpunk, or just need a good collection of stories with a hopeful bent; I'd absolutely recommend this.
May 27, 2022
By now I've read a few solarpunk anthologies, and I'm starting to get a feel for the genre. This anthology contains 24 stories, and it is quite interesting how different these stories are even though they are meant to be solarpunk. Some are quite close to being post-apocalyptic, while others are more positive towards the future. I liked most of the stories, some more than others like is the case with all anthologies, but there are also a couple of stories here that I had trouble finishing because I had such difficulty connecting with them. That hasn't happened with solarpunk story before.
My favourite stories include: "Vladivostok" by Avital Balwit which is about a couple that go to city which the story gets its name from looking to capture on a image a supposedly lost animal to help them get a better standing in a VR game. In this short story one gets a very clear image of the future, clear characters, and an interesting story. Very well done.
"The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps" by Octavia Cade has similar qualities, interesting characters, good plot and a believable image of the future. It's a story about love, and saving species. The disagreement between the couple is so human, so real, and the outcome works for me.
I'm starting to see that D. K. Mok is among the most interesting solarpunk writers I've read, and his story "The Birdsong Fossil" has a lot of what makes him so interesting, but I don't think it is his best. The story, which is about the desperate attempts by a scientist to save various species from extinction is quite interesting, but there is a slight flaw in it that dragged it down for me. Still, a very interesting piece like always from D. K. Mok.
"Untamed" by Timothy Yam is about a young woman that has been sentenced to do community service in a garden. She does not like the place, she does not like the people, and she does not like the work, but something happens. It is probably the best story in this anthology about finding your place in life. Very good one.
Then there is "Abso" by Sarah E. Stevens. It's a dog story set on Mars. Do I need to say more? I'm always a sucker for a good dog story, and this one is that, or at least it has a dog as one of the main characters. Perhaps it's not so much about the dog as it is about finding connection in an unexpected place.
I could go on, because for most parts I liked the stories in this anthology, but I'll stop here. Basically, this anthology has a few stories that I would have left out myself if I had been editing it, but still, I liked reading it. Some of the stories that I like less than the rest, still had something of interest. For example I can't get this sentence out of my head: "Listen with all your senses; listen: everything speaks." It's from "Listen: A Memoir" by Priya Sarukkai Chabria, and even though I couldn't really get what she was trying to achieve with the story, I find it an interesting thought. And I found this read an interesting one.
Side note about solarpunk. Does anyone know how to tell autocorrect that solarpunk is written in one word, and not two as it keeps trying to make it?
My favourite stories include: "Vladivostok" by Avital Balwit which is about a couple that go to city which the story gets its name from looking to capture on a image a supposedly lost animal to help them get a better standing in a VR game. In this short story one gets a very clear image of the future, clear characters, and an interesting story. Very well done.
"The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps" by Octavia Cade has similar qualities, interesting characters, good plot and a believable image of the future. It's a story about love, and saving species. The disagreement between the couple is so human, so real, and the outcome works for me.
I'm starting to see that D. K. Mok is among the most interesting solarpunk writers I've read, and his story "The Birdsong Fossil" has a lot of what makes him so interesting, but I don't think it is his best. The story, which is about the desperate attempts by a scientist to save various species from extinction is quite interesting, but there is a slight flaw in it that dragged it down for me. Still, a very interesting piece like always from D. K. Mok.
"Untamed" by Timothy Yam is about a young woman that has been sentenced to do community service in a garden. She does not like the place, she does not like the people, and she does not like the work, but something happens. It is probably the best story in this anthology about finding your place in life. Very good one.
Then there is "Abso" by Sarah E. Stevens. It's a dog story set on Mars. Do I need to say more? I'm always a sucker for a good dog story, and this one is that, or at least it has a dog as one of the main characters. Perhaps it's not so much about the dog as it is about finding connection in an unexpected place.
I could go on, because for most parts I liked the stories in this anthology, but I'll stop here. Basically, this anthology has a few stories that I would have left out myself if I had been editing it, but still, I liked reading it. Some of the stories that I like less than the rest, still had something of interest. For example I can't get this sentence out of my head: "Listen with all your senses; listen: everything speaks." It's from "Listen: A Memoir" by Priya Sarukkai Chabria, and even though I couldn't really get what she was trying to achieve with the story, I find it an interesting thought. And I found this read an interesting one.
Side note about solarpunk. Does anyone know how to tell autocorrect that solarpunk is written in one word, and not two as it keeps trying to make it?
October 14, 2023
It requires unwinding of decades of programming that we have ourselves bound to, to see the appeal of solar punk. "purpose" can easily become a lofty ideal with its marring ways of meandering into having a good quality of life, be comfortable, see the world, etc. In Solarpunk, this idea is deconstructed, reshaped and is given a new perspective.
To live in harmony with nature, the urban diaspora continue to exist in structures that co-opts communal living, sharing resources - including land to grow and sleep, integrating technology that's clean and green into daily life when necessary.
The stories are hopeful, almost utopia like, however they don't shy away from the problems present - which, to be fair, will always do when humans live as a large collective. The stories are good, but nothing great. But the ideas are refreshing and this is a genre that I see myself gravitating towards.
To live in harmony with nature, the urban diaspora continue to exist in structures that co-opts communal living, sharing resources - including land to grow and sleep, integrating technology that's clean and green into daily life when necessary.
The stories are hopeful, almost utopia like, however they don't shy away from the problems present - which, to be fair, will always do when humans live as a large collective. The stories are good, but nothing great. But the ideas are refreshing and this is a genre that I see myself gravitating towards.
March 16, 2021
The short fiction anthology Multispecies Cities begins with a question: “What if stories could plant the seeds of hopeful futures?” This solarpunk collection is a series of affirmative answers: stories that provide some sense of hopefulness amidst ecological devastation and extinction.
In the introduction co-written by editors Christoph Rupprecht, Deborah Cleland, Norie Tamura, and Rajat Chaudhuri, the collection is presented as focusing, in particular, on interspecies relationships and the possibilities of relating to one another in better ways, forming allegiances. They note that “the multispecies concept argues that we can only truly understand the world if we look at the many ways humans and other life forms are entangled, in a way that cannot be easily separated.”
This collection feels really inclusive, which I appreciate. The book centers contributions by authors from the Asia-Pacific region and features stories set there; the editors note that they “would love to see more alliances” – including works in more languages than English and which foster collaboration across professions – but that in this collection, which they see as “a first step in a rich journey of discovery and imagination,” they have aimed to disrupt exclusions in publishing by commissioning diverse writers. A number of stories are inclusive of LGBTQ+ representation. The anthologists have also helpfully included their pronouns with their bio statements at the back of the book.
There are 24 stories included here. I will admit I did not finish two of them – they just didn’t work for me style-wise; they may be favourites for a different reader. Of the 22 I did read, I gave each a rating of 1-5 (with half-points allowed) and I ended up with an average of 3.7. I’ve happily rounded up to 4 because I did rate quite a few stories 4 or 5 stars. “Iron Fox in the Marble City” by Vlad-Andrei Cucu, “The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps” by Octavia Cade (the only author in the whole collection I’d read before), “Untamed” by Timothy Yam, and “The Birdsong Fossil” by D.K. Mok were all stand-outs for me. Each story includes a brief author biography at the end, which I really appreciate as it is easier than having to flip back and forth between a bios section at the back of the book and the stories themselves; I’ve discovered a number of authors I’d love to read more from. I will also say that overall, while a few stories weren’t my cup of tea, that I think this is a strong collection, well edited, and reasonably cohesive given that it’s an anthology.
Thank you very much to World Weaver Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my review.
In the introduction co-written by editors Christoph Rupprecht, Deborah Cleland, Norie Tamura, and Rajat Chaudhuri, the collection is presented as focusing, in particular, on interspecies relationships and the possibilities of relating to one another in better ways, forming allegiances. They note that “the multispecies concept argues that we can only truly understand the world if we look at the many ways humans and other life forms are entangled, in a way that cannot be easily separated.”
This collection feels really inclusive, which I appreciate. The book centers contributions by authors from the Asia-Pacific region and features stories set there; the editors note that they “would love to see more alliances” – including works in more languages than English and which foster collaboration across professions – but that in this collection, which they see as “a first step in a rich journey of discovery and imagination,” they have aimed to disrupt exclusions in publishing by commissioning diverse writers. A number of stories are inclusive of LGBTQ+ representation. The anthologists have also helpfully included their pronouns with their bio statements at the back of the book.
There are 24 stories included here. I will admit I did not finish two of them – they just didn’t work for me style-wise; they may be favourites for a different reader. Of the 22 I did read, I gave each a rating of 1-5 (with half-points allowed) and I ended up with an average of 3.7. I’ve happily rounded up to 4 because I did rate quite a few stories 4 or 5 stars. “Iron Fox in the Marble City” by Vlad-Andrei Cucu, “The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps” by Octavia Cade (the only author in the whole collection I’d read before), “Untamed” by Timothy Yam, and “The Birdsong Fossil” by D.K. Mok were all stand-outs for me. Each story includes a brief author biography at the end, which I really appreciate as it is easier than having to flip back and forth between a bios section at the back of the book and the stories themselves; I’ve discovered a number of authors I’d love to read more from. I will also say that overall, while a few stories weren’t my cup of tea, that I think this is a strong collection, well edited, and reasonably cohesive given that it’s an anthology.
Thank you very much to World Weaver Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my review.
November 26, 2021
Sci-fi but not solarpunk.
The most solarpunk thing about this anthology is its cover, so enjoy looking at it but don’t buy this book.
You would think the editors would have some understanding of solarpunk, between the illustration and the introduction of “What if stories could plant the seeds of hopeful futures?” Unfortunately, the majority of the stories here are set in climate apocalypse, the antithesis to solarpunk, or offworld in struggling colonies.
Climate apocalypse settings trigger me, as that's what I have to live in. I found no relief in this book.
The most solarpunk thing about this anthology is its cover, so enjoy looking at it but don’t buy this book.
You would think the editors would have some understanding of solarpunk, between the illustration and the introduction of “What if stories could plant the seeds of hopeful futures?” Unfortunately, the majority of the stories here are set in climate apocalypse, the antithesis to solarpunk, or offworld in struggling colonies.
Climate apocalypse settings trigger me, as that's what I have to live in. I found no relief in this book.
September 22, 2021
The Birdsong Fossil by D.K. Mok ★★★★★
“The world would continue to change, and we would have to change with it.”
Mok is hands down the best Solarpunk writer. Their stories are full of heartfelt ideas, humor, and memorable characters that always see me crying at the end. Always.
A Rabbit Egg for Flora by Caroline M. Yoachim ★★★★☆
From the author of the unforgettable tear-jerker Carnival Nine comes a quieter, if similarly domestic, story. Flora and her mother steadily rebuild the ecosystem with nanobot animals. It is implied everyone is doing this. It is not implied if these bot animals birth real ones.
Mariposa Awakening by Joseph F. Nacino ★★★★☆
Mangroves will save us! I thoroughly enjoy it when people realize that protecting nature protects the world. We are a ways off from talking plants but the usefulness of mangroves is known.
Becoming Martians by Taiyo Fujii ★★★★☆
When terraforming fails, go full Martian! I loved that they called it the Naked Martian Party.
“I decided to have second thumbs added next to my little fingers.” https://youtu.be/i1TkiN309_4
Deer, Tiger, and Witch by Kate V. Bui ★★★★☆
A charming story about a remediation specialist that comes to town and helps them transition away from non-productive traditional hunts to harmonious permaculture.
The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps by Octavia Cade ★★★★☆
A couple going through a rough patch take care of an eel and find common ground.
The Mammoth Steps by Andrew Dana Hudson ★★★★☆
A happy, strange, little testament to the famous migrating elephants of China.
Old Man’s Sea by Meyari McFarland ★★★½☆
In a future of raised seas land is brutally fought for and Moken style sea dwellers are looked down upon. But they can move around and avoid the conflicts making friends with the sea life.
Vladivostok by Avital Balwit ★★★½☆
A gamer couple goes on a wilderness working vacation to scan VR versions of tigers. The rugged landscape, and rugged men, end up appealing to Ronan but, unsurprisingly, not to her scrawny boyfriend. He leaves to go back to VR and she stays in the real world. Good for you Ronan!
The Exuberant Vitality of Hatchling Habitats by D.A. Xiaolin Spires ★★★½☆
This is my fifth Spires short story and the first with a happy ending, yay! This is about high school students who invent a sustainable material that helps build sea bird habitat. The story implies there is potential for it to be used as a housing material as well.
Crew by E.H. Nießler
★★★½☆
“There is so much land elsewhere. Why didn’t they simply leave?” [asked the octopus] [the whale laughs]
“Not how humans work.”
True enough. I enjoyed the talking animals but the story was a fragment.
The Songs That Humanity Lost Reluctantly to Dolphins by Shweta Taneja ★★★½☆
A Solarpunk version of Childhood’s End. I’m one of the few who did not like that story but here it is a fitting end.
By the Light of the Stars by N.R.M. Roshak ★★★☆☆
An awkward first date turns into a sea turtle rescue. The moral of the story is that if you give crazy sounding people a chance to explain themselves they might shine. People are crazy for sane reasons. Here is the cute sea turtle PSA video from where I pulled that image: https://youtu.be/3fKhpDmYO5I
Untamed by Timothy Yam ★★★☆☆
I think the translation of this story needed more effort but in general a pleasant story of a troubled teen healing through gardening.
It Is the Year 2115 by Joyce Chng ★★★☆☆
Told from two similar points of view, our two MC are gardeners in the new domed post-apocalypse Singapore. There’s not much to say.
Abso by Sarah E. Stevens ★★★☆☆
Not much of a story but there was a dog and I found myself tearing up.
In Two Minds by Joel R. Hunt ★★★☆☆
The idea of being able to share a mind, even temporarily, with animals is appealing. But obviously, some would abuse this privilege. I appreciated the bloody ending, I usually do :)
Wandjina by Amin Chehelnabi ★★★☆☆
“They even made their stupid sentinel cities empty of animals, including domesticated ones, closing zoos and outlawing pets so that resources would only go to humans. This is why I hate people…”
A heavy offering of dystopian Australia, a burning world sacrificing all for the last human comforts. Most interesting was the author description - Australian-born gay Iranian. Those are four words I have never seen used together and it made me smile, it feels so hopeful!
Iron Fox in the Marble City by Vlad-Andrei Cucu ★★☆☆☆
This was a cartoon, a shameful kindergarten cartoon. That’s right kids, non lethal force always works against terrorists!
No, it doesn’t.
Down the River by Eliza Victoria ★★☆☆☆
Poorly executed story.
A Life With Cibi by Natsumi Tanaka DNF
This story centers around sentient planimals similar to those in Grow, Give, Repeat by Gregory Scheckler - but this time they talk. I’m just going to steal a quote from my review of the aforementioned story: “…the planimals made me uncomfortable. I loath the idea even if I can’t justify it.”
Children of Asphalt by Phoebe Wagner DNF
I lost interest quickly.
Arfabad by Rimi B. Chatterjee DNF
I am lost and uninterested.
Listen: A Memoir by Priya Sarukkai Chabria DNF
Not a great start. For the record an entire generation opting out of raising their children deserves some shade thrown their way. This happened in parts of the US, but it took a war and an opioid crisis. I did not enjoy the format or the kindergarten fable of talking stars.
I finished 20/24 stories that averaged 3.425 stars.
March 8, 2021
4 stars
More than 20 different stories of speculative fiction with an outlook of hope for the future of a planet in crisis. Includes stories by queer writers & POC writers, with a special focus on Asia-Pacific writers. This anthology is fun, unique, thoughtful, & uplifting.
[What I liked:]
•I love the variety: setting, characters, length, writing style, tone, etc. Yet even with 20+ unique stories & writers, the collection was obviously carefully compiled & the selections fit the themes & goals laid out in the introduction.
•Definitely do not skip the introduction! It’s not at all boring, & really helped to set up the reading experience for me. I wasn’t super familiar with what “solarpunk” is as a genre, but the intro engagingly & concisely explained this along with why this genre & these specific stories were chosen for this anthology.
•As someone who enjoys the imaginative elements of steampunk/speculative fiction but gets easily depressed by heavy dystopian tragedies, I have found a great new genre in solarpunk! I love the aspect of environmental sustainability & the overall hopeful outlook on our uncertain future.
•Stories I particularly liked: Vladivostok, Iron Fox In The Marble City, The Exuberant Vitality of Hatchling Habitats, It Is The Year 2115, In Two Minds, The Streams Are Paved With Fish Traps, The Birdsong Fossil
[What I didn’t like as much:]
•Some stories aren’t really stories, just descriptions of a new technology, etc. I do like flash fiction, but I like it to have at least some action or conflict happening.
[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]
More than 20 different stories of speculative fiction with an outlook of hope for the future of a planet in crisis. Includes stories by queer writers & POC writers, with a special focus on Asia-Pacific writers. This anthology is fun, unique, thoughtful, & uplifting.
[What I liked:]
•I love the variety: setting, characters, length, writing style, tone, etc. Yet even with 20+ unique stories & writers, the collection was obviously carefully compiled & the selections fit the themes & goals laid out in the introduction.
•Definitely do not skip the introduction! It’s not at all boring, & really helped to set up the reading experience for me. I wasn’t super familiar with what “solarpunk” is as a genre, but the intro engagingly & concisely explained this along with why this genre & these specific stories were chosen for this anthology.
•As someone who enjoys the imaginative elements of steampunk/speculative fiction but gets easily depressed by heavy dystopian tragedies, I have found a great new genre in solarpunk! I love the aspect of environmental sustainability & the overall hopeful outlook on our uncertain future.
•Stories I particularly liked: Vladivostok, Iron Fox In The Marble City, The Exuberant Vitality of Hatchling Habitats, It Is The Year 2115, In Two Minds, The Streams Are Paved With Fish Traps, The Birdsong Fossil
[What I didn’t like as much:]
•Some stories aren’t really stories, just descriptions of a new technology, etc. I do like flash fiction, but I like it to have at least some action or conflict happening.
[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]
April 15, 2021
Thank you to NetGalley and to World Weaver Press for this DRC.
This book is solarpunk; definition, from the introduction:
"[Stories about] refusing to surrender to the temptation of violent, dystopian post-apocalypse imaginaries. Seeking ways of practicing solidarity, embracing human ingenuity from traditional ecological knowledge to scientific research, celebrating diverse forms of being in the world, from personal expression to relationships."
Very cool, right? The focus was on authors from the Asia-Pacific region.
My favourite stories:
By the Light of the Stars, By N. R. M. Roshak, set in (future?) Hawaii, about the effects of light pollution;
Old Man's Sea, by Meyari McFarland, about an orca with military spec mods in a flooded world;
Deer, Tiger and Witch, by Kate Bui, set in Vietnam (very fave);
Untamed, by Timothy Yam, about roof gardening (and a young protagonist in trouble with the police);
It is the Year 2115, by Joyce Chng, about a domed city;
A Rabbit Egg for Flora, by Caroline M. Yoachim, which is perfectly charming (won't spoil it);
A Life with Cibi, by Natsumi Tanaka, translated by Toshiya Kamei -- not a fave so much as utterly disturbing, about living food 😳;
Children of Asphalt, by Phoebe Wagner, one of a couple of stories in the anthology about the wisdom of small kids 🥺;
Becoming Martians, by Taiyo Fujii, translated by Toshiya Kamei, about what Mars may be like eventually, because humans;
Abso, by Sarah E. Stevens, which is lovely about a robotic dog;
The Mammoth Steps, by Andrew Dana Hudson, because who doesn't want to read about living mammoths?;
Crew, by E.-H. Nießler, another one about modified marine creatures;
The Birdsong Fossil, by D. K. Mok, which I wish I could read again for the first time.
Breathtaking.Lots to read, savour, think about, learn from. A fantastic anthology.
This book is solarpunk; definition, from the introduction:
"[Stories about] refusing to surrender to the temptation of violent, dystopian post-apocalypse imaginaries. Seeking ways of practicing solidarity, embracing human ingenuity from traditional ecological knowledge to scientific research, celebrating diverse forms of being in the world, from personal expression to relationships."
Very cool, right? The focus was on authors from the Asia-Pacific region.
My favourite stories:
By the Light of the Stars, By N. R. M. Roshak, set in (future?) Hawaii, about the effects of light pollution;
Old Man's Sea, by Meyari McFarland, about an orca with military spec mods in a flooded world;
Deer, Tiger and Witch, by Kate Bui, set in Vietnam (very fave);
Untamed, by Timothy Yam, about roof gardening (and a young protagonist in trouble with the police);
It is the Year 2115, by Joyce Chng, about a domed city;
A Rabbit Egg for Flora, by Caroline M. Yoachim, which is perfectly charming (won't spoil it);
A Life with Cibi, by Natsumi Tanaka, translated by Toshiya Kamei -- not a fave so much as utterly disturbing, about living food 😳;
Children of Asphalt, by Phoebe Wagner, one of a couple of stories in the anthology about the wisdom of small kids 🥺;
Becoming Martians, by Taiyo Fujii, translated by Toshiya Kamei, about what Mars may be like eventually, because humans;
Abso, by Sarah E. Stevens, which is lovely about a robotic dog;
The Mammoth Steps, by Andrew Dana Hudson, because who doesn't want to read about living mammoths?;
Crew, by E.-H. Nießler, another one about modified marine creatures;
The Birdsong Fossil, by D. K. Mok, which I wish I could read again for the first time.
Breathtaking.Lots to read, savour, think about, learn from. A fantastic anthology.
April 17, 2021
Please see my review of this wonderful book at Books on Asia!
In these “more-than-human stories,” twenty-four authors, mainly of Asian-Pacific descent, investigate humanity’s relationship with the rest of the natural world, placing characters in situations where humans have to look beyond their own needs and interests. In such an interconnected world, we find: dolphins and humans learning each other’s languages in a story by Shweta Taneja; a multiplicity of voices, including stars and rivers, in stories by Priya Sarukkai Chabria and Eliza Victoria; or where a bad date in Hawai‘i takes an unexpected turn in a story by N. R. M. Roshak, the couple stumbles upon some confused sea turtle hatchlings and take the time to figure out how to help.
Rest of Review here
In these “more-than-human stories,” twenty-four authors, mainly of Asian-Pacific descent, investigate humanity’s relationship with the rest of the natural world, placing characters in situations where humans have to look beyond their own needs and interests. In such an interconnected world, we find: dolphins and humans learning each other’s languages in a story by Shweta Taneja; a multiplicity of voices, including stars and rivers, in stories by Priya Sarukkai Chabria and Eliza Victoria; or where a bad date in Hawai‘i takes an unexpected turn in a story by N. R. M. Roshak, the couple stumbles upon some confused sea turtle hatchlings and take the time to figure out how to help.
Rest of Review here
May 6, 2023
Multispecies Cities : Solarpunk Urban Futures est une anthologie de nouvelles solarpunk publiée en 2021 chez World Weaver Press. Les textes regroupés ici explorent tous à leur façon les interactions entre l'humanité et les autres êtres vivants dans les grands centres urbains qui concentrent la majorité de la population mondiale.
L’ouvrage commence par une très bonne introduction qui joue pleinement son rôle : éclairer le projet de cette anthologie et donner envie de lire les nouvelles qui la composent.
Voici un rapide aperçu de chacune des nouvelles :
1. Listen : A Memoir de Priya Sarukkai Chabria : une jeune fille qui vit avec ses grands-parents est capable d'entendre les animaux et les plantes qui l'entourent, et même la Terre, le ciel et les étoiles
2. By the Light of the Stars de N. R. M. Roshak : à Hawaï, une jeune femme originaire du Minnesota partage un premier rendez-vous avec une autre jeune femme, au cours duquel elles découvrent des tortues qui viennent de naître et ne trouvent pas le chemin de l'océan à cause des lumières artificielles des rues et des maisons en bord de plage
3. Old Man's Sea de Meyari McFerland : une jeune femme habituée à plonger dans l'océan pacifique au large de Seattle rencontre un orque grincheux, son amertume étant due au service forcé et aux implants cybernétiques que l'armée lui a imposés pendant longtemps
4. Deer, Tiger, and Witch de Kate V. Bui : une scientifique employée par l'administration d'un gouvernement qui n'existe plus vraiment traverse le Vietnam de village en village pour rendre des services malgré sa réputation de sorcière
5. Vladivostok de Avital Balwit : un couple canadien part à la recherche d'un tigre d'une espèce rare aperçu à Vladivostok, dans l'espoir de remporter un concours organisé dans le jeu en réalité virtuelle dans lequel ils se sont rencontrés
6. The Exuberant Vitality of Hatchling Habitats de D.A. Xiaolin Spires : dans le cadre de l'exposition organisée par leur école, deux adolescents préparent une statue géante éphémère pour sensibiliser à la survie des mouettes, en apparence très présentes dans les villes mais menacées d'extinction
7. Untamed de Timothy Yam : une adolescente qui a une relation difficile avec sa famille est condamnée à des travaux d'intérêt général à caractère environnemental, au cours desquels elle rencontre un vieil homme
8. It Is the Year 2115 de Joyce Chng : en 2115, alors que l'humanité semble avoir surmonté la crise climatique, le dôme qui protège une cité-jardin tombe en panne
9. A Rabbit Egg for Flora de Caroline M. Yoachim : une mère tout juste séparée de sa compagne chercher à offrir à sa fillette de quatre ans le cadeau dont elle rêve, un lapin, dans le cadre d'un jeu où des drones déposent des œufs donnant vie à des animaux grâce à la nanotechnologie, après que les habitants de la ville aient préparé un écosystème favorable à la vie de nouvelles espèces
10. Iron Fox in the Marble City de Vlad-Andrei Cucu : un super-soldat cybernétique démobilisé après une longue mission rentre au Japon et doit trouver sa place dans une ville de Tokyo qui a beaucoup changé en son absence
11. Mariposa Awakening de Joseph F. Nacino : dans un futur où les grandes métropoles des pays riches ont construit des murs et des barrages pour se protéger de la montée des eaux, une ingénieure vénitienne en intelligence artificielle et hydrologie se rend aux Philippines pour découvrir le projet révolutionnaire de la ville de Manille, qui fait travailler la nature et l'homme main dans la main
12. A Life With Cibi de Natsumi Tanaka : dans le futur, l'humanité a inventé le Cibus, un être vivant mi-animal mi-végétal conçu à la fois comme un animal de compagnie que comme une source d'alimentation ; en effet, consommer régulièrement sa chair lui permet de se réformer et de prolonger sa vie
13. Children of Asphalt de Phoebe Wagner : alors que le lamantin et le morse sont des espèces éteintes depuis la fin des années 2020, un animal qui semble un hybride des deux est aperçu en ville
14. Down the River de Eliza Victoria : une histoire de vengeance, de sacrifice et d'émotions contradictoires entre deux jeunes hommes, autour d'un fleuve sacré et d'un hôtel qui en perturbe l'équilibre
15. Becoming Martians de Taiyo Fujii : un père originaire de Mars échange par message vidéo avec son fils tout juste diplômé qui vient d'obtenir sur Terre le poste de chercheur dont il rêve depuis longtemps, alors que la terraformation de la planète rouge est en train d'échouer
16. Abso de Sarah E. Stevens : dans le désert martien, la rencontre un vieil homme qui vit seul avec son chien mécanique dans un dôme individuel et la livreuse qui vient le ravitailler en oxygène
17. In Two Minds de Joel R. Hunt : un homme capable de se connecter au cerveau d'animaux doit entrer dans l'endroit d'un chien pour fouiller ses souvenirs afin de prouver sa culpabilité ou son innocence dans un crime
18. Arfabad de Rimi B. Chatterjee : très honnêtement, je n'ai rien compris à cette nouvelle, ni qui étaient les personnages, ni ce qu'ils faisaient, ni quels étaient les enjeux ...
19. The Mammoth Steps de Andrew Dana Hudson : un adolescent entreprend un voyage avec son meilleur ami, un mammouth, pour voir les "cousins" de celui-ci, les éléphants d'Asie
20. Wandjina de Amin Chehelnabi : un équipage tenté de sauver des animaux d'un incendie dans le désert australien
21. The Streams Are Paved With Fish Traps de Octavia Cade : une biologiste prend soin des poissons et des anguilles qui se sont installés dans les égouts d'une ville inondée
22. Crew de E.-H. Niessler : à une époque où la frontière entre humains et animaux est devenue floue, un trio faut de la plongée sous-marine pour une ONG environnementale
23. The Songs That Humanity Lost Reluctantly to Dolphins de Shweta Taneja : du jour au lendemain, les enfants du monde entier vont dans l'océan, appelés par le chant des dauphins qu'ils sont les seuls à entendre ; quand ils reviennent, ils sont changés, muets, mais destinés par leur simple présence à provoquer une révolution verte
24. The Birdsong Fossil de D.K. Mok : un enfant est fasciné par le fossile d'un oiseau datant du Crétacé ; une fois adulte, il conçoit des animaux-robots, en espérant pouvoir sauver la culture des espèces en voie d'extinction et pas seulement leur forme physique
Si le projet de cette anthologie était prometteur, je dois dire que l’exécution n’a pas toujours été à mon goût. Certaines nouvelles partent d’une bonne idée mais manquent de rythme, de personnages vivants ou tout simplement d’enjeux narratifs. Parfois, les textes présentés se contentent de décrire un décor sans vraiment raconter une histoire. D’autres, par contre, sont très réussis et m’ont beaucoup plu.
Globalement, c’est une anthologie intéressante mais desservie par l’hétérogénéité de qualité entre les textes qui la composent. Je la conseille donc à celles et ceux qui veulent vraiment continuer à explorer le genre solarpunk après avoir déjà lu des textes plus accessibles.
L’ouvrage commence par une très bonne introduction qui joue pleinement son rôle : éclairer le projet de cette anthologie et donner envie de lire les nouvelles qui la composent.
Voici un rapide aperçu de chacune des nouvelles :
1. Listen : A Memoir de Priya Sarukkai Chabria : une jeune fille qui vit avec ses grands-parents est capable d'entendre les animaux et les plantes qui l'entourent, et même la Terre, le ciel et les étoiles
2. By the Light of the Stars de N. R. M. Roshak : à Hawaï, une jeune femme originaire du Minnesota partage un premier rendez-vous avec une autre jeune femme, au cours duquel elles découvrent des tortues qui viennent de naître et ne trouvent pas le chemin de l'océan à cause des lumières artificielles des rues et des maisons en bord de plage
3. Old Man's Sea de Meyari McFerland : une jeune femme habituée à plonger dans l'océan pacifique au large de Seattle rencontre un orque grincheux, son amertume étant due au service forcé et aux implants cybernétiques que l'armée lui a imposés pendant longtemps
4. Deer, Tiger, and Witch de Kate V. Bui : une scientifique employée par l'administration d'un gouvernement qui n'existe plus vraiment traverse le Vietnam de village en village pour rendre des services malgré sa réputation de sorcière
5. Vladivostok de Avital Balwit : un couple canadien part à la recherche d'un tigre d'une espèce rare aperçu à Vladivostok, dans l'espoir de remporter un concours organisé dans le jeu en réalité virtuelle dans lequel ils se sont rencontrés
6. The Exuberant Vitality of Hatchling Habitats de D.A. Xiaolin Spires : dans le cadre de l'exposition organisée par leur école, deux adolescents préparent une statue géante éphémère pour sensibiliser à la survie des mouettes, en apparence très présentes dans les villes mais menacées d'extinction
7. Untamed de Timothy Yam : une adolescente qui a une relation difficile avec sa famille est condamnée à des travaux d'intérêt général à caractère environnemental, au cours desquels elle rencontre un vieil homme
8. It Is the Year 2115 de Joyce Chng : en 2115, alors que l'humanité semble avoir surmonté la crise climatique, le dôme qui protège une cité-jardin tombe en panne
9. A Rabbit Egg for Flora de Caroline M. Yoachim : une mère tout juste séparée de sa compagne chercher à offrir à sa fillette de quatre ans le cadeau dont elle rêve, un lapin, dans le cadre d'un jeu où des drones déposent des œufs donnant vie à des animaux grâce à la nanotechnologie, après que les habitants de la ville aient préparé un écosystème favorable à la vie de nouvelles espèces
10. Iron Fox in the Marble City de Vlad-Andrei Cucu : un super-soldat cybernétique démobilisé après une longue mission rentre au Japon et doit trouver sa place dans une ville de Tokyo qui a beaucoup changé en son absence
11. Mariposa Awakening de Joseph F. Nacino : dans un futur où les grandes métropoles des pays riches ont construit des murs et des barrages pour se protéger de la montée des eaux, une ingénieure vénitienne en intelligence artificielle et hydrologie se rend aux Philippines pour découvrir le projet révolutionnaire de la ville de Manille, qui fait travailler la nature et l'homme main dans la main
12. A Life With Cibi de Natsumi Tanaka : dans le futur, l'humanité a inventé le Cibus, un être vivant mi-animal mi-végétal conçu à la fois comme un animal de compagnie que comme une source d'alimentation ; en effet, consommer régulièrement sa chair lui permet de se réformer et de prolonger sa vie
13. Children of Asphalt de Phoebe Wagner : alors que le lamantin et le morse sont des espèces éteintes depuis la fin des années 2020, un animal qui semble un hybride des deux est aperçu en ville
14. Down the River de Eliza Victoria : une histoire de vengeance, de sacrifice et d'émotions contradictoires entre deux jeunes hommes, autour d'un fleuve sacré et d'un hôtel qui en perturbe l'équilibre
15. Becoming Martians de Taiyo Fujii : un père originaire de Mars échange par message vidéo avec son fils tout juste diplômé qui vient d'obtenir sur Terre le poste de chercheur dont il rêve depuis longtemps, alors que la terraformation de la planète rouge est en train d'échouer
16. Abso de Sarah E. Stevens : dans le désert martien, la rencontre un vieil homme qui vit seul avec son chien mécanique dans un dôme individuel et la livreuse qui vient le ravitailler en oxygène
17. In Two Minds de Joel R. Hunt : un homme capable de se connecter au cerveau d'animaux doit entrer dans l'endroit d'un chien pour fouiller ses souvenirs afin de prouver sa culpabilité ou son innocence dans un crime
18. Arfabad de Rimi B. Chatterjee : très honnêtement, je n'ai rien compris à cette nouvelle, ni qui étaient les personnages, ni ce qu'ils faisaient, ni quels étaient les enjeux ...
19. The Mammoth Steps de Andrew Dana Hudson : un adolescent entreprend un voyage avec son meilleur ami, un mammouth, pour voir les "cousins" de celui-ci, les éléphants d'Asie
20. Wandjina de Amin Chehelnabi : un équipage tenté de sauver des animaux d'un incendie dans le désert australien
21. The Streams Are Paved With Fish Traps de Octavia Cade : une biologiste prend soin des poissons et des anguilles qui se sont installés dans les égouts d'une ville inondée
22. Crew de E.-H. Niessler : à une époque où la frontière entre humains et animaux est devenue floue, un trio faut de la plongée sous-marine pour une ONG environnementale
23. The Songs That Humanity Lost Reluctantly to Dolphins de Shweta Taneja : du jour au lendemain, les enfants du monde entier vont dans l'océan, appelés par le chant des dauphins qu'ils sont les seuls à entendre ; quand ils reviennent, ils sont changés, muets, mais destinés par leur simple présence à provoquer une révolution verte
24. The Birdsong Fossil de D.K. Mok : un enfant est fasciné par le fossile d'un oiseau datant du Crétacé ; une fois adulte, il conçoit des animaux-robots, en espérant pouvoir sauver la culture des espèces en voie d'extinction et pas seulement leur forme physique
Si le projet de cette anthologie était prometteur, je dois dire que l’exécution n’a pas toujours été à mon goût. Certaines nouvelles partent d’une bonne idée mais manquent de rythme, de personnages vivants ou tout simplement d’enjeux narratifs. Parfois, les textes présentés se contentent de décrire un décor sans vraiment raconter une histoire. D’autres, par contre, sont très réussis et m’ont beaucoup plu.
Globalement, c’est une anthologie intéressante mais desservie par l’hétérogénéité de qualité entre les textes qui la composent. Je la conseille donc à celles et ceux qui veulent vraiment continuer à explorer le genre solarpunk après avoir déjà lu des textes plus accessibles.
August 21, 2021
As often happens with anthologies, some stories connect, but others not so much. I loved some stories, didn’t like others, and some I didn’t get a chance to read because of too many competing projects, my window of opportunity closed too soon! As an “ecology now” kid from the 70s, and an “apocalypse now” adult today, I want to read the rest of this book. I love the idea of solar punk.
April 4, 2021
**Thank you to Netgalley and World Weaver Press for the eARC of this collection of stories in exchange for honest feedback!**
I absolutely adored this collection and will be purchasing a copy to have on my shelf once it is published (April 13th, 2021.)
The intro to this book alone was beautiful and really spoke to me. I have never read anything of the "Solarpunk" variety, and found a lot of parallels to what I consider "Cli-Fi" or Climate Fiction. As humans we are not the best at being receptive of our environment and this collection really highlights where we go wrong as a population and how we could be better as a whole.
The stories in this collection worked to examine how we can be better advocates for the planet and the plants/animals that are just trying to survive alongside us. I loved the stories that involved a symbiotic relationship between humans and animals, and the stories that emphasized how we can be better "listeners" when it comes to the environment around us.
Out of the 23 stories in this collection my two favorites are Children of Asphalt by Phoebe Wagner and The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps my Octavia Cade. There was a wide range of writing styles in this collection, and with some of the stories being translated from different languages I could see how some people could find the lack of cohesion a little jarring. I recommend reading this in short clips, I would pick it up and read a story at a time rather than trying to read it as a whole. A couple of the stories missed the mark for me, but I would say at least 90% of them left me with a lot to reflect on.
I would recommend this book if you care about the environment, enjoy sci/fi and cli/fi stories, or stories involving animals. I know some of the stories in this collection will be sticking with me for a long time.
I absolutely adored this collection and will be purchasing a copy to have on my shelf once it is published (April 13th, 2021.)
The intro to this book alone was beautiful and really spoke to me. I have never read anything of the "Solarpunk" variety, and found a lot of parallels to what I consider "Cli-Fi" or Climate Fiction. As humans we are not the best at being receptive of our environment and this collection really highlights where we go wrong as a population and how we could be better as a whole.
The stories in this collection worked to examine how we can be better advocates for the planet and the plants/animals that are just trying to survive alongside us. I loved the stories that involved a symbiotic relationship between humans and animals, and the stories that emphasized how we can be better "listeners" when it comes to the environment around us.
Out of the 23 stories in this collection my two favorites are Children of Asphalt by Phoebe Wagner and The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps my Octavia Cade. There was a wide range of writing styles in this collection, and with some of the stories being translated from different languages I could see how some people could find the lack of cohesion a little jarring. I recommend reading this in short clips, I would pick it up and read a story at a time rather than trying to read it as a whole. A couple of the stories missed the mark for me, but I would say at least 90% of them left me with a lot to reflect on.
I would recommend this book if you care about the environment, enjoy sci/fi and cli/fi stories, or stories involving animals. I know some of the stories in this collection will be sticking with me for a long time.
did-not-finish
June 7, 202129% DNF'ed the book after DNF'ing 3 stories. I did like a couple of the ones I finished, but these are "explain the idea in excruciating detail" rather than character- or plot-driven stories. Maybe it's for some people, but not for me.
August 12, 2025
very unique and creative short stories! took me almost two years to read through the anthology, but some of the stories were engaging and unforgettable.
January 7, 2025
This one had been on my radar for a bit, so I'm glad to knock it out. This is what it says on a tin, so I'm not going to waste time trying to describe the book. As with every anthology, the stories are pretty imbalanced and while I loved some, I didn't really care for a lot of the others. The selection is pretty diverse though, so would recommend if this is something that interests you.
You can find most of my individual ratings and thoughts in the progression updates, so just some highlights...
My Favourite Pieces:
🌈 By the Lights of the Stars by N.R.M. Roshak ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The short story asks an interesting question: Could you date someone who doesn't believe in the stars? The story was really compassionate and I felt that it was also bridging a lot of differences and I loved that. It's also sapphic and there are sea turtles involved!
🌈 Old Man's Sea by Meyari McFarland ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is a consequences of global warming story, narrated by Kef who lives on sea her whole life. If you like reading about sea-life this is a story for you! There are also talking orcas and probably a sapphic relationship, although they could also be gal-pals.
A Life With Cibi by Natsumi Tanaka ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Found myself thinking about this one a lot mostly because it was very unnerving. I would pitch it as "cannibalism done cozy" but the story technically doesn't contain cannibalism, just feels like it to me...
Mariposa Awakening by Joseph F. Nacino ⭐⭐⭐,5
I really liked the worldbuilding in this on, it is a story set on Philippines showing mangroves networks used to fight floods that are results of climate change. There isn't really much of a plot but I loved the reveal at the end.
Children of Asphalt by Phoebe Wagner ⭐⭐⭐⭐,5
Touched me in a way and made me cry. Didn't stick that well to me though.
In Two Minds by Joel R. Hunt ⭐⭐⭐⭐,5
This one was brilliant. It took me quite a bit to understand the ending, but oh boy... kind off tragic. Tomo and his rats though, gotta love...
Crew by E.-H. Nießler ⭐⭐⭐⭐,5
Another marine story featuring whale and octopus and I am always a fan of that! So yeah, loved it. Grouchy whales are a trope at this point and I'm here for it!
You can find most of my individual ratings and thoughts in the progression updates, so just some highlights...
My Favourite Pieces:
🌈 By the Lights of the Stars by N.R.M. Roshak ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The short story asks an interesting question: Could you date someone who doesn't believe in the stars? The story was really compassionate and I felt that it was also bridging a lot of differences and I loved that. It's also sapphic and there are sea turtles involved!
🌈 Old Man's Sea by Meyari McFarland ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is a consequences of global warming story, narrated by Kef who lives on sea her whole life. If you like reading about sea-life this is a story for you! There are also talking orcas and probably a sapphic relationship, although they could also be gal-pals.
A Life With Cibi by Natsumi Tanaka ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Found myself thinking about this one a lot mostly because it was very unnerving. I would pitch it as "cannibalism done cozy" but the story technically doesn't contain cannibalism, just feels like it to me...
Mariposa Awakening by Joseph F. Nacino ⭐⭐⭐,5
I really liked the worldbuilding in this on, it is a story set on Philippines showing mangroves networks used to fight floods that are results of climate change. There isn't really much of a plot but I loved the reveal at the end.
Children of Asphalt by Phoebe Wagner ⭐⭐⭐⭐,5
Touched me in a way and made me cry. Didn't stick that well to me though.
In Two Minds by Joel R. Hunt ⭐⭐⭐⭐,5
This one was brilliant. It took me quite a bit to understand the ending, but oh boy... kind off tragic. Tomo and his rats though, gotta love...
Crew by E.-H. Nießler ⭐⭐⭐⭐,5
Another marine story featuring whale and octopus and I am always a fan of that! So yeah, loved it. Grouchy whales are a trope at this point and I'm here for it!
August 21, 2022
Disappointing. Some stories were so unintelligible that they were hardly readable. Few had elements of solarpunk as described at wikipedia:
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.
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.
March 25, 2023
I picked this up becuase I enjoyed Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation, a short story collection edited by Phoebe Wagner, who has a story appear in this book.
It definitely delivers on its theme. These sci-fi stories focus on the interactions between humans and non-humans, whether those are animals, plants, or machines. The editors desrve recognition for curating this collection. The book contains a website with survey for reader feedback. The authors come from a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and countries, and there's a little Bio at the end of each story. Representation from India, the US, Canada, Vietnam, Singapore, Romania, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Germany, and New Zealand.
I didn't care for the introduction, which explains the general idea of Solarpunk but goes into unecessary detail about the story plots (I don't like spoilers in my Introduction). The stories also vary between character / plot- driven action, and mere illustrations of a concept. These illustrations might make you think of something new, but mostly they just fizzle into "Wouldn't this idea be neat?" without much more substance or stakes. They're Utopian visions of how nice it would be if everyone thought correctly. But it's hard to have an anthology where they're all winners.
Top Picks:
Deer, Tiger, and Witch
Children of Asphalt
Down the River
In Two Minds
Birdsong Fossil.
Listen: A Memoir, Priya Saukkai Chabria - Creative use of language that sets the scene of a destroyed Earth, but gives hope for the future. Solid opener. 4/5
By the Light of the Stars, N.R.M. Roshak - A first date in Hawaii turns into a rescue mission. Cute and romantic. 3/5
Old Man's Sea, Meyari McFarland - Governments create cyborg sea creatures to fight in their wars, but aren't sure what to do with them afterwards. After the ice caps melt, society's undesirables are forced to live on the sea and talk to whales. 4/5
Deer, Tiger, and Witch, Kate V. Bui - Great Example of the Solarpunk Genre. Pollution and plastic have wreaked havoc on the environment and a "witch" is making things better with Science. 5/5.
Vladivostok, Avital Balwit - A couple who met on a video game go to Russia to film Siberian Tigers for said game. Contrasts the Return-to-nature-Guaranteed-Basic-Income Utopia with a Ready-Player-One-Virtual-Reality Dystopia. 4/5
The Exuberant Vitality of Hatchling Habitats, D.A. Xiaolin Spires - Two friends' science project sets off a domino effect of sustainability. An optimistic and hopeful fantasy. 3/5
Untamed, Tiomthy Yam - A juvenile delinquent gets sentenced to help in a rooftop garden. She connects with others and learns a valuable lesson. A bit predictable and hits all the beats you'd expect. 4/5
It is the Year 2115, Joyce Chng - Singapore is in a bubble to protect their utopia from the outside world. Then things go wrong. But not too wrong. A bit dull, and full of environemtnal buzzwords. 2/5.
A Rabbit Egg for Flora Caroline M. Yoachim - How do we replenish the environment? Gamify it. Pokemon Go but with real animals. Another low-stakes Utopia, but has cute worldbuilding.. 3/5.
Iron Fox in the Marble City, Vlad-Andrei Cucu - A cyborg discharged from war returns to Tokyo to find it an egalitarian commune. However, the villains are out to ruin it for financial gain. One-dimensional characters and stilted writing. 2/5
Mariposa Awakening, Joseph F Nacino -Manila combines technology with trees to fend off rising sea levels. Interesting worldbuilding that feels like Chapter 1 of a novel and leaves you wanting more. 3/5
A Life with Cibi, Natsumi Tanaka - A world with perfectly nutritious plants that are freely available to eat. And they can walk, talk, and become your friend. But don't get too close. The weirdest story in the book. 2/5.
Children of Asphalt, Phoebe Wagner - In the future, mysterious and strange animals roam the lands and destroy fields and cities, like Mutants or Kaiju. But what if humans were chill and tried to live alongside the monsters? 5/5.
Down the River, Eliza Victoria - Nature is angry and out for revenge. Explores the connection between capitalism and ancient religion. Solid character-driven drama. 5/5.
Becoming Martians, Taiyo Fujii - An epistolary story told through messages from a father on Mars to his son on Earth. Mars has been terraformed for three generations and the remaining humans are learning from the past and planning for the future. A fun read, took unepxected turns. 4/5.
Abso, Sarah E. Stevens - Also on Mars. A veteran and an oxygen delivery worker bond over a robot dog. Delightful. 4/5.
In Two Minds, Joel R. Hunt - Very solarpunk. People use brain implants to mind meld with Animals. Some for good, some for evil, some for lawful neutral. Sci-fi version of that movie "Beastmaster." Fast-paced and fun. 4/5.
Arfabad, Rimi B. Chatterjee - A refugee, guided by nature spirts, goes on a journey through a collapsing society to a promised land. Interesting world-building but feels incomplete. 4/5.
The Mammoth Steps, Andrew Dana Hudson - Mammoths have been brought back from extinction. One of them wants to visit relatives. Pleasant and cute, but a one-note concept. 3/5.
Wandjina, Amin Chehelnabi - In a Dystopian Australian outback, a group of environmentalist rebels drive their giant souped-up vehicle through a wildfire on a rescue mission. Action and dialogue like a Saturday morning cartoon. Like if the Planeteers were in Mad Max. 2/5.
Streams are Paved with Fish Traps, Octavia Cade - Environmentalists turn the sewers under their city into an ecological park. Another low-stakes illustrative story, but well-written with good descriptions. 3/5.
Crew, E.H. Niessler - Governments create cyborg sea creatures to fight in their wars, but aren't sure what to do with them afterwards (If I had a nickel...). The animals earn a living by working with humans to salvage old ships, buildings, and military equipment. A likeable cast of characters. 4/5.
The Songs that Humanity Lost Reluctantly to the Dolphins, Shweta Taneja - Hyper-intelligent sea creatures, but these ones are tired of humanity oppressing nature and take revenge. Less optimistic. Beautifully written. 4/5.
The Birdsong Fossil, D.K. Mok - In a world of extinct animals, scientists are conflicted at whether to clone them or make robots versions. Politics, money, and the bureacracy of academia ruin everything. One scientist, along with her Android pal, aims to capture the spirit of the original animals. Great closer. Hits you emotionally. 5/5.
It definitely delivers on its theme. These sci-fi stories focus on the interactions between humans and non-humans, whether those are animals, plants, or machines. The editors desrve recognition for curating this collection. The book contains a website with survey for reader feedback. The authors come from a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and countries, and there's a little Bio at the end of each story. Representation from India, the US, Canada, Vietnam, Singapore, Romania, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Germany, and New Zealand.
I didn't care for the introduction, which explains the general idea of Solarpunk but goes into unecessary detail about the story plots (I don't like spoilers in my Introduction). The stories also vary between character / plot- driven action, and mere illustrations of a concept. These illustrations might make you think of something new, but mostly they just fizzle into "Wouldn't this idea be neat?" without much more substance or stakes. They're Utopian visions of how nice it would be if everyone thought correctly. But it's hard to have an anthology where they're all winners.
Top Picks:
Deer, Tiger, and Witch
Children of Asphalt
Down the River
In Two Minds
Birdsong Fossil.
Listen: A Memoir, Priya Saukkai Chabria - Creative use of language that sets the scene of a destroyed Earth, but gives hope for the future. Solid opener. 4/5
By the Light of the Stars, N.R.M. Roshak - A first date in Hawaii turns into a rescue mission. Cute and romantic. 3/5
Old Man's Sea, Meyari McFarland - Governments create cyborg sea creatures to fight in their wars, but aren't sure what to do with them afterwards. After the ice caps melt, society's undesirables are forced to live on the sea and talk to whales. 4/5
Deer, Tiger, and Witch, Kate V. Bui - Great Example of the Solarpunk Genre. Pollution and plastic have wreaked havoc on the environment and a "witch" is making things better with Science. 5/5.
Vladivostok, Avital Balwit - A couple who met on a video game go to Russia to film Siberian Tigers for said game. Contrasts the Return-to-nature-Guaranteed-Basic-Income Utopia with a Ready-Player-One-Virtual-Reality Dystopia. 4/5
The Exuberant Vitality of Hatchling Habitats, D.A. Xiaolin Spires - Two friends' science project sets off a domino effect of sustainability. An optimistic and hopeful fantasy. 3/5
Untamed, Tiomthy Yam - A juvenile delinquent gets sentenced to help in a rooftop garden. She connects with others and learns a valuable lesson. A bit predictable and hits all the beats you'd expect. 4/5
It is the Year 2115, Joyce Chng - Singapore is in a bubble to protect their utopia from the outside world. Then things go wrong. But not too wrong. A bit dull, and full of environemtnal buzzwords. 2/5.
A Rabbit Egg for Flora Caroline M. Yoachim - How do we replenish the environment? Gamify it. Pokemon Go but with real animals. Another low-stakes Utopia, but has cute worldbuilding.. 3/5.
Iron Fox in the Marble City, Vlad-Andrei Cucu - A cyborg discharged from war returns to Tokyo to find it an egalitarian commune. However, the villains are out to ruin it for financial gain. One-dimensional characters and stilted writing. 2/5
Mariposa Awakening, Joseph F Nacino -Manila combines technology with trees to fend off rising sea levels. Interesting worldbuilding that feels like Chapter 1 of a novel and leaves you wanting more. 3/5
A Life with Cibi, Natsumi Tanaka - A world with perfectly nutritious plants that are freely available to eat. And they can walk, talk, and become your friend. But don't get too close. The weirdest story in the book. 2/5.
Children of Asphalt, Phoebe Wagner - In the future, mysterious and strange animals roam the lands and destroy fields and cities, like Mutants or Kaiju. But what if humans were chill and tried to live alongside the monsters? 5/5.
Down the River, Eliza Victoria - Nature is angry and out for revenge. Explores the connection between capitalism and ancient religion. Solid character-driven drama. 5/5.
Becoming Martians, Taiyo Fujii - An epistolary story told through messages from a father on Mars to his son on Earth. Mars has been terraformed for three generations and the remaining humans are learning from the past and planning for the future. A fun read, took unepxected turns. 4/5.
Abso, Sarah E. Stevens - Also on Mars. A veteran and an oxygen delivery worker bond over a robot dog. Delightful. 4/5.
In Two Minds, Joel R. Hunt - Very solarpunk. People use brain implants to mind meld with Animals. Some for good, some for evil, some for lawful neutral. Sci-fi version of that movie "Beastmaster." Fast-paced and fun. 4/5.
Arfabad, Rimi B. Chatterjee - A refugee, guided by nature spirts, goes on a journey through a collapsing society to a promised land. Interesting world-building but feels incomplete. 4/5.
The Mammoth Steps, Andrew Dana Hudson - Mammoths have been brought back from extinction. One of them wants to visit relatives. Pleasant and cute, but a one-note concept. 3/5.
Wandjina, Amin Chehelnabi - In a Dystopian Australian outback, a group of environmentalist rebels drive their giant souped-up vehicle through a wildfire on a rescue mission. Action and dialogue like a Saturday morning cartoon. Like if the Planeteers were in Mad Max. 2/5.
Streams are Paved with Fish Traps, Octavia Cade - Environmentalists turn the sewers under their city into an ecological park. Another low-stakes illustrative story, but well-written with good descriptions. 3/5.
Crew, E.H. Niessler - Governments create cyborg sea creatures to fight in their wars, but aren't sure what to do with them afterwards (If I had a nickel...). The animals earn a living by working with humans to salvage old ships, buildings, and military equipment. A likeable cast of characters. 4/5.
The Songs that Humanity Lost Reluctantly to the Dolphins, Shweta Taneja - Hyper-intelligent sea creatures, but these ones are tired of humanity oppressing nature and take revenge. Less optimistic. Beautifully written. 4/5.
The Birdsong Fossil, D.K. Mok - In a world of extinct animals, scientists are conflicted at whether to clone them or make robots versions. Politics, money, and the bureacracy of academia ruin everything. One scientist, along with her Android pal, aims to capture the spirit of the original animals. Great closer. Hits you emotionally. 5/5.
August 13, 2022
This is the first "solarpunk" I've read, and while the collection was uneven, I am very glad I picked it up. It's refreshing to read optimistic scifi and works by non-Western authors such as those represented here. Some readers seem to think "optimistic" means there shouldn't be any mention of distressing things like climate change or species extinction, but the editors begin the book saying "What if stories could plant the seeds of hopeful futures?" and I think most of the stories did that.
What I found most intriguing was the emphasis on how animals and even plants have intelligences that humans ignore at our peril. I loved how many stories showed humans, animals and plants as allies in the creation of a more just, more healthy planet.
Some of the stories were poorly translated and others were a bit confusing, but there were several that were excellent.
- Listen, A Memoir by Priya Sarukkai Chabria, starts off the collection with just the right touch, asking what would it be like if we could hear the stars, the flowers, the squirrels? "I do not understand, but their tone delights me" is a mantra the reader should repeat with each story, seeking to delight in the tones even if complete understanding is at times elusive.
- Untamed by Timothy Yam. This story is set in Singapore and the author did a great job using the local patois to make me feel like I was there. In this future Singapore, buildings have roof gardens that must be tended in order to provide food and keep the city cool. The main character is a youth who must learn from an elder how to take care of one such garden. In quick scenes, the author does a masterful job of showing us how these two people have very different lives and perspectives, and we see how one person can be a positive influence on others.
- A Rabbit Egg for Flora by Caroline M. Yoachim. Very inventive world building, where repopulating the world with extinct animals has been gamified.
- The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps by Octavia Cade. One of the standout stories in the whole book. It takes a particularly gifted author to make underground water pipes seem interesting and inviting. If you haven't read The Stone Weta by Cade, run out and get it now, it's an amazing book.
- The Songs that Humanity Losts Reluctantly to Dolphins by Shweta Taneja. This is more of a fantasy, a dreamlike (or maybe nightmarish?) very short story of humanity reborn, not as cyborgs or superbeings, but closer to our animal brethren. Very unique and disturbing, in a good way.
- The Birdsong Fossil by D.K. Mok. The other standout, this is the story of a roboticist who focuses on bringing extinct animals back to life as robots. But not just any robots . . . The science behind the story is very sketchy, and this reader had to put aside a lot of skepticism that what was suggested will ever be possible, but the story was so well told that by the end, I was cheering.
What I found most intriguing was the emphasis on how animals and even plants have intelligences that humans ignore at our peril. I loved how many stories showed humans, animals and plants as allies in the creation of a more just, more healthy planet.
Some of the stories were poorly translated and others were a bit confusing, but there were several that were excellent.
- Listen, A Memoir by Priya Sarukkai Chabria, starts off the collection with just the right touch, asking what would it be like if we could hear the stars, the flowers, the squirrels? "I do not understand, but their tone delights me" is a mantra the reader should repeat with each story, seeking to delight in the tones even if complete understanding is at times elusive.
- Untamed by Timothy Yam. This story is set in Singapore and the author did a great job using the local patois to make me feel like I was there. In this future Singapore, buildings have roof gardens that must be tended in order to provide food and keep the city cool. The main character is a youth who must learn from an elder how to take care of one such garden. In quick scenes, the author does a masterful job of showing us how these two people have very different lives and perspectives, and we see how one person can be a positive influence on others.
- A Rabbit Egg for Flora by Caroline M. Yoachim. Very inventive world building, where repopulating the world with extinct animals has been gamified.
- The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps by Octavia Cade. One of the standout stories in the whole book. It takes a particularly gifted author to make underground water pipes seem interesting and inviting. If you haven't read The Stone Weta by Cade, run out and get it now, it's an amazing book.
- The Songs that Humanity Losts Reluctantly to Dolphins by Shweta Taneja. This is more of a fantasy, a dreamlike (or maybe nightmarish?) very short story of humanity reborn, not as cyborgs or superbeings, but closer to our animal brethren. Very unique and disturbing, in a good way.
- The Birdsong Fossil by D.K. Mok. The other standout, this is the story of a roboticist who focuses on bringing extinct animals back to life as robots. But not just any robots . . . The science behind the story is very sketchy, and this reader had to put aside a lot of skepticism that what was suggested will ever be possible, but the story was so well told that by the end, I was cheering.
June 30, 2021
As the possibility of an actual climate-change apocalypse grows more and more real, I have become less able to stomach dystopias and post-apocalyptic stories. None the less, I can't help but devour cli-fi as I come across it, especially if it has the more positive (or at least, adaptive) markers of solar punk. Before picking up Multispecies Cities, I had not noticed that while many of these stories dealt with conservation of animal life, most did not bring up the idea of cohabitation, and shared civilization with other living beings on the planet.
This selection of short stories from a diverse range of authors, including a strong contingent from south eastern and Pacific Asia, is set up in the form of an experiment: what would the future be like if other forms of life were acknowledged and made part of our society as fellow organisms, and can stories of such futures affect the reader's opinions on the subject. The twenty-six stories all imagine a different future. Some aren't so far off - Timothy Yam's "Untamed" sends a teen on community service up to care for a rooftop gardens that now dominate the skyline of their city, and form an important social as well as climatic role.On the other hand, E.-H. Nießler's excellent "Crew" posits a not unimaginable world where a human, an octopus, and an ex-military sperm whale may make a great marine salvage team. The most important aspect of each of these stories is that they for the most part focus not on how humans can "conserve" nature and animals, but how we could live if we acknowledged that other organisms are just as valid as us, with rights to exist, have culture, and share space with us in our cities. Perhaps there could be a time when we don't think of them as "our" cities at all.
A few of these tales fell flat, either due to characters I didn't quite believe or narratives that did not flow as well as their neighbors. A handful I might even call little speculative fables. However, even the rough ones really inspired thought. The editors ask the readers to fill out a survey on-line before and after they begin reading, to hopefully document if and how people's thinking might have been changed. I whole-heatedly approve of this experiment, and while I won't tell you how my answers might have changed, I can tell you that they did shift. We live in a time that requires radical, revolutionary change, and Multispecies Cities is an engrossing, palatable,and necessary call to arms/fins/paws/psudopods.
This selection of short stories from a diverse range of authors, including a strong contingent from south eastern and Pacific Asia, is set up in the form of an experiment: what would the future be like if other forms of life were acknowledged and made part of our society as fellow organisms, and can stories of such futures affect the reader's opinions on the subject. The twenty-six stories all imagine a different future. Some aren't so far off - Timothy Yam's "Untamed" sends a teen on community service up to care for a rooftop gardens that now dominate the skyline of their city, and form an important social as well as climatic role.On the other hand, E.-H. Nießler's excellent "Crew" posits a not unimaginable world where a human, an octopus, and an ex-military sperm whale may make a great marine salvage team. The most important aspect of each of these stories is that they for the most part focus not on how humans can "conserve" nature and animals, but how we could live if we acknowledged that other organisms are just as valid as us, with rights to exist, have culture, and share space with us in our cities. Perhaps there could be a time when we don't think of them as "our" cities at all.
A few of these tales fell flat, either due to characters I didn't quite believe or narratives that did not flow as well as their neighbors. A handful I might even call little speculative fables. However, even the rough ones really inspired thought. The editors ask the readers to fill out a survey on-line before and after they begin reading, to hopefully document if and how people's thinking might have been changed. I whole-heatedly approve of this experiment, and while I won't tell you how my answers might have changed, I can tell you that they did shift. We live in a time that requires radical, revolutionary change, and Multispecies Cities is an engrossing, palatable,and necessary call to arms/fins/paws/psudopods.
November 7, 2023
Yup, this one was also on special at World Weaver Press, so I grabbed it as well. I was completely intrigued by the idea of an urban focus for this sort of science fiction - that humans won't have to abandon living in cities to survive the impacts of climate change, but they also don't have to be the technological nightmarish warrens of Bladerunner etc. At the same time, they can't be the same as they generally are now: where we restrict greenery to a few parks, loathe pigeons and rats as the carriers of disease, and so on. There are a few apartment buildings in my city that are starting to introduce the idea of green walls... that just needs to be taken much, much further. Which is part of what this anthology envisions.
As always, didn't love every story, but as with Glass and Gardens there was no story that I thought was out of place. There's a big variety in what the stories focus on - human stories that happen to intersect with animals, stories of the city itself, stories of animals and humans together. Where I said that previous anthology felt North-American heavy, this one has consciously set out to be different: there are, deliberately, a range of stories that explore the Asia-Pacific. I LOVE this.
There are a few stories where animals interact, in a deliberate way, with humans. Meyari McFarland's "Old Man's Sea" has orcas that have been modified for war, and how they might relate to the humans they now come across. Joel R Hunt has people whoa re able to jack into the minds of animals, in "In Two Minds," and it's about as horrific as you might imagine. "The Mammoth Steps" by Andrew Dana Hudson is along similar lines as Ray Nayler's "The Tusks of Extinction," with mammoths having been brought back and humans interacting with them... although Hudson's version is a bit more hopeful. E.-H Nießler also has an orca-human interaction story, in "Crew;" he adds in a chatty octopus as well.
Shout out to Amen Chehelnabi and DK Mok, too: Aussies represent! Chehelnabi's "Wandjina" is one of the grimmer stories, set basically in the middle of a bushfire, but manages to have hope in there too. Mok's story "The Birdsong Fossil" is SO Australian, and also on the grimmer end, connecting visions of how science might be/is viewed with the de-extinction fascination; like Chehelnabi, it also ends hopefully, and is a fascinating way to conclude the entire anthology. (And Octavia Cade; NZ is totally Aussie-adjacent... plus her story "The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps" is brilliant.)
A really interesting, varied, anthology.
As always, didn't love every story, but as with Glass and Gardens there was no story that I thought was out of place. There's a big variety in what the stories focus on - human stories that happen to intersect with animals, stories of the city itself, stories of animals and humans together. Where I said that previous anthology felt North-American heavy, this one has consciously set out to be different: there are, deliberately, a range of stories that explore the Asia-Pacific. I LOVE this.
There are a few stories where animals interact, in a deliberate way, with humans. Meyari McFarland's "Old Man's Sea" has orcas that have been modified for war, and how they might relate to the humans they now come across. Joel R Hunt has people whoa re able to jack into the minds of animals, in "In Two Minds," and it's about as horrific as you might imagine. "The Mammoth Steps" by Andrew Dana Hudson is along similar lines as Ray Nayler's "The Tusks of Extinction," with mammoths having been brought back and humans interacting with them... although Hudson's version is a bit more hopeful. E.-H Nießler also has an orca-human interaction story, in "Crew;" he adds in a chatty octopus as well.
Shout out to Amen Chehelnabi and DK Mok, too: Aussies represent! Chehelnabi's "Wandjina" is one of the grimmer stories, set basically in the middle of a bushfire, but manages to have hope in there too. Mok's story "The Birdsong Fossil" is SO Australian, and also on the grimmer end, connecting visions of how science might be/is viewed with the de-extinction fascination; like Chehelnabi, it also ends hopefully, and is a fascinating way to conclude the entire anthology. (And Octavia Cade; NZ is totally Aussie-adjacent... plus her story "The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps" is brilliant.)
A really interesting, varied, anthology.
May 6, 2021
Who says that cities can’t teem with biodiversity?
Efe had spent her entire life on a small boat in the ocean in “Old Man’s Sea.” While diving for food and supplies, she was surprised by one of the many dangers that awaited anyone who wandered into the wrong territory. I was mesmerized by her resourcefulness and smiled at each plot twist. While I learned enough about her life to put all of the pieces together, this was definitely a world I’d love to revisit in a sequel someday. There were so many layers to life in this version of the future that could be explored in much greater detail, especially when it came to the identity of the old man referenced in the title.
Some of the stories in this anthology would have benefitted from more development in my opinion, and “The Exuberant Vitality of Hatchling Habitats”was one of them. It followed Xueli and Camila as they worked on a biodegradable sculpture for a school project. I was intrigued by their reasons for creating it but wished the narrator had gone into more detail about how it worked and why this art display attracted so much attention from outsiders. The entire concept never quite gelled together for me.
In “A Life with Cibi,” the narrator described what it was like when humanity invented a new mobile food source that was mobile and could speak but had more in common with plants than animals. I was fascinated by the idea off walking up to a Cibus and asking to slice off a part of its body for my lunch. These creatures were engineered in such a way that they were healthier if humans pruned them regularly. The narrator gave a tantalizing glimpse of how human culture changed as a result of this invention. It was a great deal of fun to follow those thought processes to their logical conclusions and wonder what else this society might come up with next.
Multispecies Cities – Solarpunk Urban Futures was an eclectic and creative anthology that I’d recommend to anyone who loves the science fiction genre in general.
Efe had spent her entire life on a small boat in the ocean in “Old Man’s Sea.” While diving for food and supplies, she was surprised by one of the many dangers that awaited anyone who wandered into the wrong territory. I was mesmerized by her resourcefulness and smiled at each plot twist. While I learned enough about her life to put all of the pieces together, this was definitely a world I’d love to revisit in a sequel someday. There were so many layers to life in this version of the future that could be explored in much greater detail, especially when it came to the identity of the old man referenced in the title.
Some of the stories in this anthology would have benefitted from more development in my opinion, and “The Exuberant Vitality of Hatchling Habitats”was one of them. It followed Xueli and Camila as they worked on a biodegradable sculpture for a school project. I was intrigued by their reasons for creating it but wished the narrator had gone into more detail about how it worked and why this art display attracted so much attention from outsiders. The entire concept never quite gelled together for me.
In “A Life with Cibi,” the narrator described what it was like when humanity invented a new mobile food source that was mobile and could speak but had more in common with plants than animals. I was fascinated by the idea off walking up to a Cibus and asking to slice off a part of its body for my lunch. These creatures were engineered in such a way that they were healthier if humans pruned them regularly. The narrator gave a tantalizing glimpse of how human culture changed as a result of this invention. It was a great deal of fun to follow those thought processes to their logical conclusions and wonder what else this society might come up with next.
Multispecies Cities – Solarpunk Urban Futures was an eclectic and creative anthology that I’d recommend to anyone who loves the science fiction genre in general.
August 4, 2023
"How different would we be if we'd evolved in a world where the waves didn't call to us, where the stars didn't sing to us, where the blush and fade of dawn and didn't draw us from day to day? Our souls were given form by the poetry of our lands, and our stories wove our chaotic, sometimes brutal, existences into heroic narratives."
Solarpunk, as a futuristic genre that emerged in response on the bleak futures of cyberpunk, seeks to depict future potentials for human interactions with nature, while not entirely being naively optimistic about such possibilities. The emphasis of this solarpunk anthology is on urban settings and human-animal interactions. Throughout these stories, technology is often recentered from its traditionally human-focused nature in science fiction towards envisioning ways to create a more cooperative and sustainable relationship with the natural world. Thus, communication with and the preservation of animals is a recurring feature throughout many of the stories. This anthology of 24 stories, then, highlights a great diversity in terms of characters, situations, and different takes on what it means for humans civilizations to have an better and more reciprocal habitation along with (rather than in spite of) nature and its creatures.
Four of my favorite stories here were:
By the Light of the Stars by N. R. M. Roshak - while not really futuristic in any sense, it, nevertheless, provides a telling example of the unintended effects of human settlements on nature.
Untamed by Timothy Yam - a tale about a troubled girl discovering the joy in nature through being mandated to work caring for rooftop gardens.
Abso by Sarah E. Stevens - another charming tale about a gruff old man living in a remote place on Mars with his robotic dog.
Crew by E.-H. Nießler - quick, but lovely tale about a marine researcher's job with her animal co-workers.
Solarpunk, as a futuristic genre that emerged in response on the bleak futures of cyberpunk, seeks to depict future potentials for human interactions with nature, while not entirely being naively optimistic about such possibilities. The emphasis of this solarpunk anthology is on urban settings and human-animal interactions. Throughout these stories, technology is often recentered from its traditionally human-focused nature in science fiction towards envisioning ways to create a more cooperative and sustainable relationship with the natural world. Thus, communication with and the preservation of animals is a recurring feature throughout many of the stories. This anthology of 24 stories, then, highlights a great diversity in terms of characters, situations, and different takes on what it means for humans civilizations to have an better and more reciprocal habitation along with (rather than in spite of) nature and its creatures.
Four of my favorite stories here were:
By the Light of the Stars by N. R. M. Roshak - while not really futuristic in any sense, it, nevertheless, provides a telling example of the unintended effects of human settlements on nature.
Untamed by Timothy Yam - a tale about a troubled girl discovering the joy in nature through being mandated to work caring for rooftop gardens.
Abso by Sarah E. Stevens - another charming tale about a gruff old man living in a remote place on Mars with his robotic dog.
Crew by E.-H. Nießler - quick, but lovely tale about a marine researcher's job with her animal co-workers.
August 24, 2023
A third read and the book is overall horrible. Maybe there are still stories that I might like, but at this point only one caught my attention.
Here's what I really don't like: I was expecting to read something solarpunky, and fresh from different Asian cultures and what I got was more like nowpunk from yankee millennial/zoomer internet culture . The authors might be ethnically Asian themselves, but their minds sure are not (unless Asians now have completely fallen to USA soft power).
When reading these stories it seems I'm reading the fiction of some XXI century yankee teen. The writers are technically competent but their plots, character development, and imagination lack maturity. Except for the story of the Vietnamese yellow dressed science lady, the action feels a bit aimless - there's just (not very interesting) stuff happening.
It feels like these writers were invited to write something to this anthology. Like somebody called them and said "hey wanna write a shortstory for an anthology with vibes of Asian eco-conservationism?" The stories seem blend, there was not much commitment to their writing.
Anyway, gonna try to read at least 3/4 of the book, if it continues to suck I quit.
Here's what I really don't like: I was expecting to read something solarpunky, and fresh from different Asian cultures and what I got was more like nowpunk from yankee millennial/zoomer internet culture . The authors might be ethnically Asian themselves, but their minds sure are not (unless Asians now have completely fallen to USA soft power).
When reading these stories it seems I'm reading the fiction of some XXI century yankee teen. The writers are technically competent but their plots, character development, and imagination lack maturity. Except for the story of the Vietnamese yellow dressed science lady, the action feels a bit aimless - there's just (not very interesting) stuff happening.
It feels like these writers were invited to write something to this anthology. Like somebody called them and said "hey wanna write a shortstory for an anthology with vibes of Asian eco-conservationism?" The stories seem blend, there was not much commitment to their writing.
Anyway, gonna try to read at least 3/4 of the book, if it continues to suck I quit.
September 27, 2022
The positives:
* Some of the stories are great and very well written (I particularly liked "In Two Minds" and there were a couple of others that I recommended to other people)
* The diversity of backgrounds, subjects, and writing styles in the stories makes it a truly exploratory anthology
* The idealism of the subject matter and the exploration of how non-human and human life could live together better was fascinating
The negatives:
* Many of the stories were not compelling to me. The characters were flat, the plot was uninteresting, and the authors were too concerned with ideas rather than with writing
* There is a certain life of romanticism and unrealisticness that gets to be too much for me, and some of these stories reached that point
Overall: I'd recommend this book to someone who wants to explore solarpunk as a genre if they feel ok skipping stories after getting started on them. It's too easy for me to get bogged down in the relentless quest to finish something that I started, even if it's not bringing joy or value to me.
* Some of the stories are great and very well written (I particularly liked "In Two Minds" and there were a couple of others that I recommended to other people)
* The diversity of backgrounds, subjects, and writing styles in the stories makes it a truly exploratory anthology
* The idealism of the subject matter and the exploration of how non-human and human life could live together better was fascinating
The negatives:
* Many of the stories were not compelling to me. The characters were flat, the plot was uninteresting, and the authors were too concerned with ideas rather than with writing
* There is a certain life of romanticism and unrealisticness that gets to be too much for me, and some of these stories reached that point
Overall: I'd recommend this book to someone who wants to explore solarpunk as a genre if they feel ok skipping stories after getting started on them. It's too easy for me to get bogged down in the relentless quest to finish something that I started, even if it's not bringing joy or value to me.
September 28, 2023
A collection of broadly hopeful stories of futures in which we treat the planet and its living inhabitants with respect, Multispecies Cities is, like any multi-author anthology, a mixed bag of stories. An early highlight for me was N. R. M. Roshak's "By the Light of the Stars", which is barely science fictional at all and instead looks at some pretty clear but unobvious ways human activity negatively affects wildlife. The last story, "The Birdsong Fossil" by D. K. Mok, is perhaps my favourite (but that could be recency bias), as it looks at animals beyond the mechanical as part of our world. There are other stories that worked for me and others that did not, as well as some editorial slips along the way. For someone living in North America, it is a valuable reminder not only of the work being done globally in fiction, but also in science and learning how to live with the planet as the wealthy members of our society destroy it. Overall, a good collection of stories in which to find some hope.
July 3, 2025
As evidenced by the title, this anthology is full of stories about imagined futures where humans and animals coexist in cities. The theme was pretty great, exploring some really cool ideas like a interspecies team (whale,octopus and human) of underwater salvage experts, or a resurrected wooly mammoth's odyssey from the artic to a state in India that has been taken over by elephants. Some of the stories fell a bit flat, but most were fun to read and thought provoking. My favorite was 'The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps' by Octavia Cade, a story about a woman who explores the new underwater aquatic ecosystems in the acient sewer system of an unnamed major city while coping with a strained marriage. Unlike many other solarpunk stories I have read, most of these stories were set in an apocalyptic future. For me, this genre is therapeutic- helps me productively deal with both general eco-anxiety and my fury over the fossil fueled fascist death spiral currently happening in the US.
May 21, 2021
A great foray into sci-fi with many stories from non-western voices. It's always refreshing to gain new perspectives from authors of different backgrounds.
This book is an anthology and contains many enjoyable reads.
My favorite is "Mariposa Awakening" by Joseph Nacino.
The story is an exploration into the flooding earth and the ingenious way its inhabitants combat the rising sea levels.
While unfortunately a short story and doesn't have much in the way of character development, it does bring to mind echoes of reading Frank Herbert's Dune. In this case, it's not a desert landscape providing fertile ground for the imagination (hello stilt suits) instead we get... mangrove flood control AI
This book is an anthology and contains many enjoyable reads.
My favorite is "Mariposa Awakening" by Joseph Nacino.
The story is an exploration into the flooding earth and the ingenious way its inhabitants combat the rising sea levels.
While unfortunately a short story and doesn't have much in the way of character development, it does bring to mind echoes of reading Frank Herbert's Dune. In this case, it's not a desert landscape providing fertile ground for the imagination (hello stilt suits) instead we get... mangrove flood control AI
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December 2, 2023When talking about climate change, we tend to criticize more than we construct. These stories showcased creative ways to prepare for the future. Mangrove forests are implemented as natural dams. Robots become the backbone of a wildlife conservation project. Life grows between the cracks despite environmental catastrophes. At times, character development is shaky, but the solutions presented are wildly innovative and the connections between humans and other species are refreshing. The Asia-Pacific setting added an original atmosphere that made the stories feel as familiar as they did futuristic. I’ve found a new appreciation for what cities *could* be.
May 10, 2021
Received a copy of this through LibraryThing's advance reading program, in exchange for an honest review. Honesty! Try it today!
It's an interesting collection, as they all are. They're all written the viewpoint of showing a particular type of future. Some of them are more successful, by which I mean as stories. Some seem more interested in showing off the future they built. However, what did or didn't work for me may have different results for you. I particularly liked "The Songs That Humanity Lost Reluctantly to Dolphins," by Shweta Taneja. YMMV.
It's an interesting collection, as they all are. They're all written the viewpoint of showing a particular type of future. Some of them are more successful, by which I mean as stories. Some seem more interested in showing off the future they built. However, what did or didn't work for me may have different results for you. I particularly liked "The Songs That Humanity Lost Reluctantly to Dolphins," by Shweta Taneja. YMMV.
August 8, 2021
Very strong theme for a solarpunk collection, with some great stories. Some personal highlights were Deer, Tiger and Witch by Kate Bui, set in a Vietnamese town; The Mammoth Steps by Andrew Dana Hudson, about a smart mammoth on holiday; Untamed by Timothy Yam, about a bratty Singaporean teenager and a roof garden mickey bird; and A Rabbit Egg For Flora by Caroline M Yoachim, about platform ecosystem repair.
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