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A review by jwillis81
Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers by Wendy Nikel, Julia K. Patt
2.0
I only recently discovered the solarpunk subgenre and I immediately became very excited to read more about it. I love its aesthetics and themes, and some of the solarpunk artwork that I've seen has been truly stunning. This was y first foray into solarpunk writing, and I have to say that it left me feeling a little disappointed.
Ultimately, most of the stories in this collection suffer from a style over substance issue, where they do a great - and sometimes downright beautiful - job of conveying the stylistic elements of solarpunk and describing them in excellent visual detail... but the story and characters are often lacking. Most of the stories in this anthology weren't compelling or exciting to read, and I rarely found myself feeling anything for the characters in them.
I know that solarpunk is a relatively new genre and many people are still figuring out what elements the genre consists of. While I understand that and can even appreciate that this is an early collection of works in a new genre, I feel like constants in fiction of any kind are "tell a good story" and "make us care about the characters," which is not something this collection of stories was able to accomplish very often.
I would definitely like to read more in this subgenre, but I'm not sure another collection of short stories along these lines will be one of them.
Ultimately, most of the stories in this collection suffer from a style over substance issue, where they do a great - and sometimes downright beautiful - job of conveying the stylistic elements of solarpunk and describing them in excellent visual detail... but the story and characters are often lacking. Most of the stories in this anthology weren't compelling or exciting to read, and I rarely found myself feeling anything for the characters in them.
I know that solarpunk is a relatively new genre and many people are still figuring out what elements the genre consists of. While I understand that and can even appreciate that this is an early collection of works in a new genre, I feel like constants in fiction of any kind are "tell a good story" and "make us care about the characters," which is not something this collection of stories was able to accomplish very often.
I would definitely like to read more in this subgenre, but I'm not sure another collection of short stories along these lines will be one of them.