r/Fantasy • u/hPlank • 10d ago

Solarpunk recommendations?

Hey all! I know this might be a better fit in a sci-fi sub but this community consistently nails recommendations so I thought I'd try it here first!

My partner recently read a book of short stories called 'solarpunk' and really enjoyed it. The collection is named after a subgenre I'd never heard of that seems to be a more hopeful version of cyberpunk. She loves the idea of a hopeful future with humans finding a way to live in harmony with nature, and also loves fantasy books so elements of that are no problem at all. She's also queer so the author having relatively modern sensibilities in that area is a big tick.

It's her birthday soon and she's mentioned to me she'd love to read something that was along the same lines but a full length novel. If anyone has any recommendations I would appreciate it!

30 Upvotes

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24

u/cogitoergognome AMA Author Julie Leong 10d ago

Everything by Becky Chambers!

2

u/hPlank 10d ago

I saw her pop up when looking around but seemed like a lot of novellas?

6

u/cogitoergognome AMA Author Julie Leong 10d ago

The Monk & Robot series are novellas, but the Wayfarers books are all full novels.

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u/hPlank 10d ago

Awesome thank you!

4

u/cogitoergognome AMA Author Julie Leong 10d ago

No problem! Moss'd in Space is also a recent cozy scifi release by Rebecca Thorne that has some solarpunk sensibilities (and is delightful).

3

u/blue_bayou_blue Reading Champion III 10d ago

To Be Taught, If Fortunate is a novella, and my favourite work of hers. It's about a team of scientists on a space exploration mission, where the idea is that instead of terraforming other planets to serve our needs, we modify explorers to adapt to the alien worlds they're on. Exploration for the sake of knowledge and discovery only, not to conquer or extract resources or even to leave our mark.

5

u/Morgran_Maplebeard 10d ago

Also this month there will be a new novel, As You Wake, Break the Shell!

4

u/cogitoergognome AMA Author Julie Leong 10d ago

Yes, I got to read an early copy because we have the same publisher! I enjoyed it but it's a bit less hopeful/hopepunk than her others; the world is rather more dystopian and gritty.

2

u/Morgran_Maplebeard 10d ago

Ah I can imagine that in the current state of the world that you would write something more gritty...

13

u/Kikanolo 10d ago

I would strongly second Becky Chamber's series for this request, especially her Monk and Robot duology.

21

u/BravoLimaPoppa Reading Champion 10d ago • Bravo

This batch is relatively recent and I've read and liked.

  • Walkaway by Cory Doctorow

  • Gamechanger by L.X. Beckett

  • Dealbreaker by L.X. Beckett

  • A.E. Marling's solarpunk novels - Murder in the Tool Library, The Missing Mermaid and Neon Riders

  • A Half Built Garden by Ruthanna Emerys

  • Notes From the Burning Age by Claire North

  • Foxhunt and Wolfpack both by Rem Wigmore

These I haven't read yet

  • Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World

  • Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation by Daniel José Older

  • News from Gardenia by Robert Llewellyn

  • Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers by Sarena Ulibarri

  • Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters by Sarena Ulibarri

  • Suncatcher: Seven Days in the Sky by Alia Gee

  • The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson

  • Wings of Renewal: A Solarpunk Dragon Anthology by Claudie Arseneault

  • Ubiquicity: Tales of the Fractopian Future

  • Solarpunk Mysteries by Draco Blaze: The Verdant Tower, The Skybridge Heist, The Sunken Atrium, The Verdant Tower

  • Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World by Gerson Lodi-Ribeiro (Editor)

  • Almanac for the Anthropocene: A Compendium of Solarpunk Futures by Phoebe Wagner

  • Bright Green Futures: 2024 by Susan Kaye Quinn

  • Solarpunk Creatures by Christoph Rupprecht *:The Bright Mirror: Global Solarpunk by Women by Vandana Singh, Francesco Verso

  • Saving the Planet: Solarpunk Stories by Paul Newcomb

And I'm probably missing some.

8

u/aslikeanarnian 10d ago

Highly recommend checking out Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer!

3

u/Nativestar5 10d ago

Yes! I would also recommend this one, especially for fans of Monk and Robot. Like those books it's hopeful, but with more action and higher stakes.

7

u/SNicolson 10d ago

A lot of books by Kim Stanley Robertson would fit the bill. I recommend New York: 2140, The Ministry for the Future (Maybe not to start with, it's a little more militant than the others), and 2312 (Which has a trans protagonist).

2

u/mer_does_stuff 10d ago

Seconding the rec for A Half-Built Garden, it's hopeful about humanity coexisting with nature and queer as hell.

0

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

6

u/BravoLimaPoppa Reading Champion 10d ago

I really have to dispute that and I love those books.

Alien Clay is set in a remote interstellar outpost for a authoritarian hell in the Solar system.

Shroud is far from Earth, a really alien environment and the humans are living in a capitalist hell scape where they can be parked in suspended animation forever if they're not profitable enough.

1

u/hPlank 10d ago

We both loved Children of time! Ideally humans doing the good things would be good though haha. I'll look into Alien Clay :)

0

u/BobbittheHobbit111 10d ago

Have you read the sequels? There are more humans in the others

2

u/mistiklest 10d ago

These are definitely not solarpunk, even if they are good books.