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A review by catcherinthepi
Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation by Brontë Christopher Wieland, Phoebe Wagner
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
2.5
This was an incredibly frustrating read. As someone who strongly advocates for the power of speculative fiction to shape how we approach problems in real life, this was a let-down: solarpunk is supposed to be a hopeful perspective on how to confront the climate crisis, and this anthology simply didn't follow its own definition of solarpunk! Admittedly, this is one of the earlier, still accessible collections of solarpunk written work, but my goodness, they were scraping the bottom of the barrel here.
It's important to pay attention to the subtitle: "Stories of solarpunk and eco-speculation". Tbh this collection is more of the latter: how would humans terraform other planets? How would humans interact with sentient beings in symbiotic ways? While these are interesting questions, they are not solarpunk. Moreover, a LOT of these stories take place in post-apocalyptic settings...my understanding was that solarpunk stories 1) focus on science fiction futures on Earth, and 2) in part or full evade a total climate collapse, and 3) ultimately have a hopeful tone. A lot of these stories have at most one of those three criteria.
Also...the writing is so heavy-handed and bad in so many of these stories. I can't say I could do much better, but...finesse was not the strong suit of this collection. There were several stories I simply did not finish because the writing was so bad.
I did enjoy some of the stories/poems that weren't totally solarpunk: "A catalog of sunlight at the end of the world" by A.C. Wise, "Speechless love" by Yilun Fan, "The death of Pax" by Santiago Belluco, "Pop and the CFT" by Brandon Crilly
Stories/poems I found were actually solarpunk and that I liked: "Solar child" by Camille Meyers, "Strandbeest Dreams" by Lisa M Bradley and Jose M Jimenez, "The Reset" by Jaymee Goh
It's important to pay attention to the subtitle: "Stories of solarpunk and eco-speculation". Tbh this collection is more of the latter: how would humans terraform other planets? How would humans interact with sentient beings in symbiotic ways? While these are interesting questions, they are not solarpunk. Moreover, a LOT of these stories take place in post-apocalyptic settings...my understanding was that solarpunk stories 1) focus on science fiction futures on Earth, and 2) in part or full evade a total climate collapse, and 3) ultimately have a hopeful tone. A lot of these stories have at most one of those three criteria.
Also...the writing is so heavy-handed and bad in so many of these stories. I can't say I could do much better, but...finesse was not the strong suit of this collection. There were several stories I simply did not finish because the writing was so bad.
I did enjoy some of the stories/poems that weren't totally solarpunk: "A catalog of sunlight at the end of the world" by A.C. Wise, "Speechless love" by Yilun Fan, "The death of Pax" by Santiago Belluco, "Pop and the CFT" by Brandon Crilly
Stories/poems I found were actually solarpunk and that I liked: "Solar child" by Camille Meyers, "Strandbeest Dreams" by Lisa M Bradley and Jose M Jimenez, "The Reset" by Jaymee Goh