Solarpunk and the Joy of Books

I want to talk about some books. If you haven't read anything by Becky Chambers, you absolutely have to read something by Becky Chambers. I just finished my third book of hers, and I have to say that she might be my favorite contemporary author. There has not been a single moment where I was not delighted and engaged by her work. The first book I read was The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, the first book in the Wayfarer series. I haven't read the others (yet), but my god was it fun. It's a far-flung space-faring future, and the first book centers on the crew of a wormhole drilling ship. It's exciting, it's silly, it's just fun. The second and third books of hers that I read are Psalm for the Wild-Built which came out in the latter half of 2021 and its sequel Prayer for the Crown-Shy, which technically doesn't come out until July (I got an advanced readers' copy because my wife works at an indie bookstore and she's cool that way). These are really quick reads, each only about 120-130 pages, and I don't have the words to express to you the absolute unbridged joy of reading them. Every single page is like a hug. The characters are friendly and likeable, the plots are meandering and uncomplicated, and the stakes are about emotional growth rather than danger and trauma. I cannot possibly recommend Psalm for the Wild-Built highly enough, and its sequel when it gets a full release in a few months. One of the reasons I am so drawn to these books, the Monk and Robot series especially, is that they portray worlds and futures where people got their shit together and figured it out. For the Wayfarer series, that presents itself in much smaller but noticeable ways: Humans who grew up in space-bound colonies are staunch pacifists, having fled a violent homeworld. There are many different species, some of whom bear no resemblance at all to humanity, and their identities and physical needs are always considered and actively accommodated. Pronouns, accessibility changes, social morays and rituals, and more are all out in the open, seen and respected by everyone else. It's really beautiful how...normal it all feels within the world of the book. For the two Monk and Robot books I've read, it's more about a world post environmental collapse. These books live within a genre/aesthetic that I was only recently made aware of called Solarpunk. Solarpunk is meant in part to be a direct opposite to steampunk. Where steampunk is heavy metals and industrial decay and whirring gears, solarpunk is about renewable energy, rooftop gardens, and sustainable building. It's an aesthetic that says "we figured it out, and we're okay now." And God is that something that's nice to hear. The Monk and Robot books also address a progressive social world: the main character is nonbinary and has casual sex with people of several genders, representation currency has been made obsolete, and a few other things. But that's not the real focus. Psalm for the Wild-Built and its sequel deal very directly with the reality of post environmental collapse. In fact, they refer to it as "The Collapse," the point where industrial life crumbled under the weight of itself. There are science fiction elements to it, sentient robots deciding to leave society and forge their own paths, but it's remarkably...real, and often very scientific. Fabricating with casein instead of plastic, greywater reclamation systems, ecologically sustainable fishing and farming are all just realities of the world, presented as unremarkable, but also as very intentional. These books are set in a world that fell apart and rebuilt itself better, and it clearly left a mark on every person, even hundreds of years later. When I tell you that I really needed to read a book like that right now...yeah, it was really important to me. And the sequel that I just read in one sitting yesterday because I couldn't stop felt the same way. They make me hopeful in a way that very few other things have been able to. I love these books, and I can't wait to see more people pick them up. And I can't wait to see the real world figure its shit out and find its way to that reality. It's going to be beautiful.