Book Review: Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers

Are you looking for futuristic stories that address the climate crisis in a creative and upbeat way? Be sure to check out a short story anthology called Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers.

Short story anthologies are one of the best ways to read a variety of takes on a theme in a single book. This tends to make for a good reading experience across all genres and styles of literature, but is especially helpful in the case of climate fiction.

Most, but not all, climate fiction strives in some way to envision a world that doesn’t exist yet. If the story is set in the present day, it may explore climate catastrophes or climate solutions that are possible today, but haven’t actually happened. If the story is set in the near or far future, it may explore a world ravaged by climate consequences far more severe than anything the world has experienced to date, or remarkable technological and social solutions that are far beyond anything that exists in the here and now.

Either way, an anthology with multiple stories by multiple authors can bring a broad range of visions and styles to the task of imagining what a world changed by the climate crisis, and its responses, will look like.

All of the stories in Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers share a few very basic elements. They all take place decades or even centuries in the future. They also all envision a world in which humanity has made substantial progress, “realistic” or otherwise, in responding to the climate crisis. And technological advancements all play an important role in all of these stories.

Beyond that, I’m tempted to say that the sky’s the limit. But not all of these stories take place on Earth, so even the sky isn’t the limit!

The stories in this anthology have so many creative and compelling premises.

“The Most Dangerous Blend” is a murder mystery that takes place at a weather manipulation facility in a future greatly affected by the climate crisis. This is another example of how climate fiction can often take the form of an otherwise standard tale in another genre that happens to include some climate elements in the plot and setting.

“Midsummer Night’s Heist” features a colorful cast of characters organizing a massive, whimsical, ecologically-themed guerilla art installation in Milan under the cover of darkness.

“Under the Northern Lights” tells the tale of a DIY solar-powered airship that crash lands in a small ecovillage where a strawberry farmer takes the pilot in and helps her on her journey across the ocean.

In “Grow, Give, Repeat,” a young child deals with the challenges and weirdness of living in a community and society that has dealt with ecological crisis and scarcity through a combination of technological innovations, including genetic engineering, and a sharp focus on efficiency of food and energy systems. Her struggles lead her to develop remarkable innovations that may have applications beyond her small homestead and town.

“The Heavenly Dreams of Mechanical Trees” is the surreal tale of a mechanical forest designed to replace lost biological forests.

There are even two stories related to space travel.

“The Spider and the Stars” features a high-tech ecological society where one innovator develops new technology inspired by spiders that ultimately plays a role in humanity’s reaching for the stars.

In “New Siberia,” all humans have become interplanetary climate refugees, leaving Earth behind in search of a new start with the help of an alien species.

These stories vary dramatically in terms of the tone, style, and degree of optimism about how the climate crisis will play out. Even so, the one big thread tying these stories together is the exploration of solutions. They all tell stories where communities and societies have used a combination of social and technological innovations to survive the challenges of the climate crisis and come out the other side with new ways of living and relating with one another.

This broad range of solutions-focused short stories makes Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers excellent reading for anyone who wants to envision what a future shaped by climate solutions will look like.