Explore Solarpunk SciFi with Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation

I first heard of Solarpunk when reviewing Fiyah Lit Mag #1 about a year ago. This melding of science fiction with eco-speculative fiction, mixed up with the Fight the Man sensibility of any -punk genre is 100% on time for our current political moment. The Sunvault anthology from small press Upper Rubber Boot Books in Nashville, TN covers a lot of ground — writers and styles, voices, main characters, settings — and each short story succeeds in its own way. There’s also a liberal sprinkling of poetry and original art throughout, to further vary the content. If you enjoy solid variety in your sci fi, and demand inclusion in writers and themes (as I do), then this is a good anthology to pick up. A few overall themes stand out. First, the future is international. Gone are the days when all the stories of the future are centered in North America and Europe. These stories take place across a variety of settings in Africa and Asia, as well as various levels of orbit over the Earth itself. This invites the curiosity of the reader, truly introducing new ideas and cultural norms, and defies any kind of nationalism. These stories are frequently so far into the post-apocalyptic future that some current boundaries of culture no longer relevant, but some still are. I’m thinking particularly of the story “Speechless Love” by Yilun Fan (translated by S. Qiouyi Lu). The twist of this tale of connection, romantic and philosophical, hinges on congee, a rice porridge eaten in many Asian countri…