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ahawkin11's review
5.0
**Thank you to Netgalley and World Weaver Press for the eARC of this collection of stories in exchange for honest feedback!**
I absolutely adored this collection and will be purchasing a copy to have on my shelf once it is published (April 13th, 2021.)
The intro to this book alone was beautiful and really spoke to me. I have never read anything of the "Solarpunk" variety, and found a lot of parallels to what I consider "Cli-Fi" or Climate Fiction. As humans we are not the best at being receptive of our environment and this collection really highlights where we go wrong as a population and how we could be better as a whole.
The stories in this collection worked to examine how we can be better advocates for the planet and the plants/animals that are just trying to survive alongside us. I loved the stories that involved a symbiotic relationship between humans and animals, and the stories that emphasized how we can be better "listeners" when it comes to the environment around us.
Out of the 23 stories in this collection my two favorites are Children of Asphalt by Phoebe Wagner and The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps my Octavia Cade. There was a wide range of writing styles in this collection, and with some of the stories being translated from different languages I could see how some people could find the lack of cohesion a little jarring. I recommend reading this in short clips, I would pick it up and read a story at a time rather than trying to read it as a whole. A couple of the stories missed the mark for me, but I would say at least 90% of them left me with a lot to reflect on.
I would recommend this book if you care about the environment, enjoy sci/fi and cli/fi stories, or stories involving animals. I know some of the stories in this collection will be sticking with me for a long time.
I absolutely adored this collection and will be purchasing a copy to have on my shelf once it is published (April 13th, 2021.)
The intro to this book alone was beautiful and really spoke to me. I have never read anything of the "Solarpunk" variety, and found a lot of parallels to what I consider "Cli-Fi" or Climate Fiction. As humans we are not the best at being receptive of our environment and this collection really highlights where we go wrong as a population and how we could be better as a whole.
The stories in this collection worked to examine how we can be better advocates for the planet and the plants/animals that are just trying to survive alongside us. I loved the stories that involved a symbiotic relationship between humans and animals, and the stories that emphasized how we can be better "listeners" when it comes to the environment around us.
Out of the 23 stories in this collection my two favorites are Children of Asphalt by Phoebe Wagner and The Streams are Paved with Fish Traps my Octavia Cade. There was a wide range of writing styles in this collection, and with some of the stories being translated from different languages I could see how some people could find the lack of cohesion a little jarring. I recommend reading this in short clips, I would pick it up and read a story at a time rather than trying to read it as a whole. A couple of the stories missed the mark for me, but I would say at least 90% of them left me with a lot to reflect on.
I would recommend this book if you care about the environment, enjoy sci/fi and cli/fi stories, or stories involving animals. I know some of the stories in this collection will be sticking with me for a long time.
shonatiger's review
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley and to World Weaver Press for this DRC.
This book is solarpunk; definition, from the introduction:
"[Stories about] refusing to surrender to the temptation of violent, dystopian post-apocalypse imaginaries. Seeking ways of practicing solidarity, embracing human ingenuity from traditional ecological knowledge to scientific research, celebrating diverse forms of being in the world, from personal expression to relationships."
Very cool, right? The focus was on authors from the Asia-Pacific region.
My favourite stories:
By the Light of the Stars, By N. R. M. Roshak, set in (future?) Hawaii, about the effects of light pollution;
Old Man's Sea, by Meyari McFarland, about an orca with military spec mods in a flooded world;
Deer, Tiger and Witch, by Kate Bui, set in Vietnam (very fave);
Untamed, by Timothy Yam, about roof gardening (and a young protagonist in trouble with the police);
It is the Year 2115, by Joyce Chng, about a domed city;
A Rabbit Egg for Flora, by Caroline M. Yoachim, which is perfectly charming (won't spoil it);
A Life with Cibi, by Natsumi Tanaka, translated by Toshiya Kamei -- not a fave so much as utterly disturbing, about living food
This book is solarpunk; definition, from the introduction:
"[Stories about] refusing to surrender to the temptation of violent, dystopian post-apocalypse imaginaries. Seeking ways of practicing solidarity, embracing human ingenuity from traditional ecological knowledge to scientific research, celebrating diverse forms of being in the world, from personal expression to relationships."
Very cool, right? The focus was on authors from the Asia-Pacific region.
My favourite stories:
By the Light of the Stars, By N. R. M. Roshak, set in (future?) Hawaii, about the effects of light pollution;
Old Man's Sea, by Meyari McFarland, about an orca with military spec mods in a flooded world;
Deer, Tiger and Witch, by Kate Bui, set in Vietnam (very fave);
Untamed, by Timothy Yam, about roof gardening (and a young protagonist in trouble with the police);
It is the Year 2115, by Joyce Chng, about a domed city;
A Rabbit Egg for Flora, by Caroline M. Yoachim, which is perfectly charming (won't spoil it);
A Life with Cibi, by Natsumi Tanaka, translated by Toshiya Kamei -- not a fave so much as utterly disturbing, about living food
journey_sloane's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
relaxing
medium-paced
4.5
This is the book that introduced me to Solar Punk. Highly approve.
bexapril1's review against another edition
Very boring -- the stories were amateurish
ryttu3k's review
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
blauerbuchling's review
5.0
Wonderful, and as inspiring as I’d hoped it would be. Each story was delightful in its own way, truly a very creative and at times rather touching collection of dreams and visions poured into short stories.
wildwoila's review
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Solarpunk of variable quality by diverse authors. Less utopian than expected. Some very cool ideas: recording & revival of animal culture, animal mind-melds, cybernetic mangroves, comms-enabled interspecies teamwork.
tomatocultivator's review
4.0
As the possibility of an actual climate-change apocalypse grows more and more real, I have become less able to stomach dystopias and post-apocalyptic stories. None the less, I can't help but devour cli-fi as I come across it, especially if it has the more positive (or at least, adaptive) markers of solar punk. Before picking up Multispecies Cities, I had not noticed that while many of these stories dealt with conservation of animal life, most did not bring up the idea of cohabitation, and shared civilization with other living beings on the planet.
This selection of short stories from a diverse range of authors, including a strong contingent from south eastern and Pacific Asia, is set up in the form of an experiment: what would the future be like if other forms of life were acknowledged and made part of our society as fellow organisms, and can stories of such futures affect the reader's opinions on the subject. The twenty-six stories all imagine a different future. Some aren't so far off - Timothy Yam's "Untamed" sends a teen on community service up to care for a rooftop gardens that now dominate the skyline of their city, and form an important social as well as climatic role.On the other hand, E.-H. Nießler's excellent "Crew" posits a not unimaginable world where a human, an octopus, and an ex-military sperm whale may make a great marine salvage team. The most important aspect of each of these stories is that they for the most part focus not on how humans can "conserve" nature and animals, but how we could live if we acknowledged that other organisms are just as valid as us, with rights to exist, have culture, and share space with us in our cities. Perhaps there could be a time when we don't think of them as "our" cities at all.
A few of these tales fell flat, either due to characters I didn't quite believe or narratives that did not flow as well as their neighbors. A handful I might even call little speculative fables. However, even the rough ones really inspired thought. The editors ask the readers to fill out a survey on-line before and after they begin reading, to hopefully document if and how people's thinking might have been changed. I whole-heatedly approve of this experiment, and while I won't tell you how my answers might have changed, I can tell you that they did shift. We live in a time that requires radical, revolutionary change, and Multispecies Cities is an engrossing, palatable,and necessary call to arms/fins/paws/psudopods.
This selection of short stories from a diverse range of authors, including a strong contingent from south eastern and Pacific Asia, is set up in the form of an experiment: what would the future be like if other forms of life were acknowledged and made part of our society as fellow organisms, and can stories of such futures affect the reader's opinions on the subject. The twenty-six stories all imagine a different future. Some aren't so far off - Timothy Yam's "Untamed" sends a teen on community service up to care for a rooftop gardens that now dominate the skyline of their city, and form an important social as well as climatic role.On the other hand, E.-H. Nießler's excellent "Crew" posits a not unimaginable world where a human, an octopus, and an ex-military sperm whale may make a great marine salvage team. The most important aspect of each of these stories is that they for the most part focus not on how humans can "conserve" nature and animals, but how we could live if we acknowledged that other organisms are just as valid as us, with rights to exist, have culture, and share space with us in our cities. Perhaps there could be a time when we don't think of them as "our" cities at all.
A few of these tales fell flat, either due to characters I didn't quite believe or narratives that did not flow as well as their neighbors. A handful I might even call little speculative fables. However, even the rough ones really inspired thought. The editors ask the readers to fill out a survey on-line before and after they begin reading, to hopefully document if and how people's thinking might have been changed. I whole-heatedly approve of this experiment, and while I won't tell you how my answers might have changed, I can tell you that they did shift. We live in a time that requires radical, revolutionary change, and Multispecies Cities is an engrossing, palatable,and necessary call to arms/fins/paws/psudopods.