Can anyone recommend any good novels or short stories set in a solar punk setting? I read a lot of sci-fi but somehow have never read anything set in this setting, I guess The Culture books could be considered solar punk in some ways but it’s almost too futuristic.
If you check out our Fiction community at https://slrpnk.net/c/fiction you’ll find some useful posts with good recommendations
Thanks, will definitely have a look there!
“Psalm for the Wild-Built” is set in a solar punk world! Can’t recommend Becky Chambers highly enough.
I recently listened to the audiobooks of this and its sequel, ‘A Prayer for the Crown Shy’ for free on Libby.
It made a very nice change from my usual dark dystopian sci fi reads…
I’m not sure it totally fits, but Always Coming Home by Ursula K LeGuin was an amazing read. The premise is that an ethnographer of the future is writing about a future, post climate change California people called the Kesh. Most of the book is actually stories the Kesh themselves tell, be it poetry, folk tales, an autobiography, and even a snippet from a novel.
It’s an absolutely transformative book that I can’t recommend it enough. It’s like nothing else I’ve ever read.
“Green Days in Brunel” by Bruce Sterling is a classic post-oil solar up story. Written before the genre was systematized. For a novel series, there’s the Mars Trilogy by Stanley Kim Robinson. It’s a classic, deals with terraforming, humanity’s relation to nature, transhumanism, and libertarian socialism.
Thanks, I’ll check it, haven’t read Sterling for a long time!
I’ve recently read The Ministry of the Future. It’s a good book that I would consider climate fiction. It’s set in near present day and follows a transition to a solar based society. This is interwoven with chapters consisting of hard climate science. Definitely worth a read if you are interested in learning more about our forthcoming transition but I think it falls short as a traditional fiction read.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy is set on Mars, and is a great epic. Ministry of the Future is set now, and is very intense and grounded.
Nice! Never heard of this book, I love Ursula K LeGuin but there are some books I’ve not read yet! Will definitely check it thanks!
@pablonaj I’ve heard really, really great things about Becky Chamber’s “Monk and Robot” novellas.
Short stories are where you see a lot of great #Solarpunk stuff.
The “Glass and Gardens” collections edited by @sarenaulibarri are great and were one of my first introductions to the genre. Her “Another Life” novella is also great.
The “Sunvault” collection edited by @Pheebsdw is well regarded.
I’ve also subscribed to “Solarpunk Magazine” and I’ve been genuinely impressed by the stories.
Definitely second the /c/fiction recommendation but I’ll also add for short stories that I’ve enjoyed these two magazines: https://reckoning.press/ and https://littlebluemarble.ca/
I’ve recently been reading The Terraformers, and have found an interesting mix of solarpunk ideals in the main characters and the set dressing, and some very cyberpunk stuff in the background of the planet and larger galactic society. So often genre is almost about what part of a setting you zoom in on and they’re much more mingled so far than I’d expected here.
I’ll also always recommend Ecotopia, if only because I don’t see it pop up as often.
I love Kim Stanley Robinson in general and really enjoyed one of his earlier works, ‘Pacific Edge’.
Whilst it’s the third in his ‘Three California’s Trilogy’, each book is stand-alone and set in a different ‘future’ so have no direct baring on one another. I didn’t enjoy the other two books quite as much, but they were good in their own ways.
Songs from the Stars by Norman Spinrad has an interesting take on a semi-solar punk post apocalyptic setting.
Thanks I’ll check it!
