Travel Documents 118: Solarpunk Winters

by Sarena Ulibarri , Wendy Nikel , et al.

Genre:  near-future, solarpunk, social change, climate change

The Dust Cover Copy

This anthology envisions winters of the future, with stories of scientists working together to protect narwhals from an oil spill, to bring snow back to the mountains of Maine, to preserve ecosystems—even if they have to be under glass domes. They're stories of regular people rising to extraordinary circumstances to survive extreme winter weather, to fix a threat to their community's energy source, to save a living city from a deep-rooted sickness. Some take place after an environmental catastrophe, with luxury resorts and military bases and mafia strongholds transformed into sustainable communes; others rethink the way we could organize cities, using skybridges and seascrapers and constructed islands to adapt to the changes of the Anthropocene. Even when the nights are long, the future is bright in these seventeen diverse tales.

The Scene

Worldbuilding

I’ve heard it said in the last few years that what we’re setting ourselves up for isn’t ‘global warming’, as an experience. It’s ‘climate weirding’. The hots will get hotter, and there’s every chance that the colds will get colder. In this world, we’ll need our community connections to get stronger, our coping mechanisms to get clever, and our solutions to get really, really good.
In these stories, that’s just what happens, in all the best possible ways.

The Crowd

Characterization

Given that this is a story collection, I won’t dive too deep here, except to say that each of these stories has in it real and wonderful people. Whether it’s the desperately eager and incredibly klutzy Halps of Halps’ Promise, the sweet and angsty Tommi in On The Contrary, Yes or the powerfully grounded and wise Meri of Oil and Ivory, all these stories are full of wonderful characters. I have a few particular favorites: the aforementioned Halps, the sensible and smart Doc Katie of Recovering the Lost Art of Cuddling, and the wonderful crew portrayed in VIAM INVENIEMUS AUT FACIEMUS, IE Stabby, Loopy And Friends Save The Day! But none of these tales falters in their portrayal of the human condition.

Writing Style

Some stories are spare and melodic. One is written as a funny first-person admission essay begging a university to accept a kid who’s either going to invent something amazing or blow himself up. Some stories are raw, and some are kind, and some are cold and crystalline as the world they’re set in.

All of them are delightful.

The Moves

Plot

None of these stories fell down on the plot either. What I particularly appreciated was the immediacy of the problems: this wasn’t saving the whole planet, this was getting through the snowstorm to save your neighbors from freezing to death and then trusting your sled dogs to get you home. This was hiking a mountain to fix a broken pipe that creates power for your community, or figuring out how to fix the transformer before the temperature crashed in the pod, or helping migrating narwhals deal with thick ice. Each of these stories was small and immediate. And read together, each story weaves into a portrayal of the small daily acts that will let us clean up our act and help the world heal from our actions.

Overall Rating

Put on the kettle the next time it snows. Make something hot. Make some toast. Grab your favorite blanket. Get comfy. Then open up this powerful book, and dive into a world of cold hands, warm hearts, and bright hopes.
You’ll be glad you did.