Ecopunk!speculative tales of radical futures by Liz Grzyb

Ecopunk!speculative tales of radical futures Reviews

• 
  Lena

  
  Milk and Honey by Jason Fischer ★★★★★
  Oh hell yes! I was not expecting an alternate history story in this anthology so the first page caught me off guard. But wow, this hit it out of the park.
  
  “Imagine that, the whole world at war and all because one liar wanted to become a famous artist.”
  
  This is only the second WWII-didn’t-happen alt history I’ve read, but I five starred
  The Black Sun by Lewis Shiner as well.
  
  And just incase you didn’t know, that’s a diprotodon.
  
  
  
  The Butterfly Whisperer by Andrew Sullivan ★★★★½
  I enjoyed this Batman style tale of a genius billionaire action hero saving the world and staying ahead of the government one identity at a time.
  
  
  The Wandering Library by D.K. Mok ★★★★☆
  While not on the same level as The Spider and the Stars, D.K. Mok delivers a colorful bio-engineered world rebuilding itself after the consequences of global warming.
  
  It reminded me of Cable Town Delivery by M. Lopez da Silva that was also featured in
  Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers.
  
  
  Island Green by Shauna O’Meara ★★★★☆
  A competitive reality show about sustainable farming?!? Yes! Count me in for every episode!
  
  
  First Flight Ian Nichols ★★★★☆
  The inaugural flight of the second generation of transportation blimps has come. This is one of those eco futures that is close to coming true!
  Airlander 10:
  https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnn....
  
  Broad Church by Tess Williams ★★★☆☆
  “Change exacts a high price. Refusing to change, an even higher one.”
  
  A trans deacon of a post diluvian faith helps a mother deal with her son’s decision to modify his body into a cetacean.
  
  It was eerie and unsettling because it felt real, like this was just the next wave of counterculture.
  
  “He feels the receding pull of one wave of social resistance and the gathering storm of the next.”
  
  
  The City Sunk, the City Risen by R. Jean Mattieu ★★★☆☆
  Ladle quietly fights the patriarchy to rebuild a coral reef and save her community.
  
  
  Monkey Business by Janeen Webb ★★★☆☆
  Told from several points of view this story lightly explores the problematic relationships between capitalism and environmentalism. It was a flippant but visually striking.
  
  
  The Today Home by Jason Nahrung ★★★☆☆
  A climate migration story: Mautake gets work in the Solarpunk farms of the future Australian outback but has trouble seeing it as home.
  
  Such things take time.
  
  
  The Mangrove Maker by Thomas Benjamin Guerney ★★★☆☆
  An engineer used her ex-husband’s money to try to the mangrove forest and corresponding aquatic culture. I’m not sure why there was such conflict with the arcology.
  
  From the Dark by Emilie Collyer ★★★☆☆
  In a future recycling work release program for teen offenders Katya finds a young man she knows she can help. The way she didn’t help her son.
  
  FYI - the first time I heard the term Indigo Child was on an episode of CSI.
  
  
  Future Perfect by Matthew Chrulew ★★★☆☆
  “If science is harmful and art is useless, it will have to be magic.”
  A climate change artist decides on a final flight with his subjects.
  
  
  The Scent of Betrayal by Jane Routley ★★★☆☆
  I imagine arcologies as gorgeous green, friendly, sustainable places. Here they are depicted as places of unnamable horrors: the dreamlands of the One Percenters.
  
  
  The Right Side of History by Jane Rawson ★★½☆☆
  “I’m tired of the weight of being human, of always making things worse. I want to be part of nature."
  
  I didn’t like this story either, it felt like a satire of the environmental movement.
  
  Happy Hunting Ground by Corey J. White ★★☆☆☆
  A commune with tense city relations is the backdrop for a story about a man who leaves his family to starve.
  
  
  Pink Footed by Marian Womak ★���☆☆☆
  Sad story of the last pink footed goose, hunted down for a meal. I think the author was going for funny. She failed.
  
  
  The Radiolarian Violin by Adam Browne ★★☆☆☆
  So that’s a radiolarian and imagining thousands of them covering a sunken city in an acidic ocean making music is the only enjoyable part of the story.
  
  The rest is not eerie enough for weird fiction or delightful enough for fantasy: it’s lazy bullshit.
  
  Trivalent by Rivqa Rafael ★★☆☆☆
  Another story taking place in a world of toxic patriarchy, condescension, and ignorance.
  
  Mr. Mycelium by Claire McKenna ★☆☆☆☆
  Ugh. Male dominance polygamy, really? That’s how you start your ecological future book? Depressing.
  
  Average: 3.21 While it’s interesting to read an Australian perspective, I did not find these stories as hopeful, or enjoyable, as I would have liked.
• 
  Lukasz

  Solarpunk ideas are close to my heart. I would love to read more good fiction about a sustainable future, but it's hard to find it. Sure, there are anthologies I approach with plenty of hope, just to be disappointed shortly after. I feel too many solarpunk writers focus too much on ideas and not on characters. It doesn't work. It's by making a character relatable, or the story fun and entertaining you'll engage the reader and let him think about ideas explored in the plot.
  
  Even though some stories were weak, I think Ecopunk! is the best solarpunk anthology on the market. It explores important issues and contains some excellent stories.
  
  Mr. Mycelium by Claire McKenna ★★☆☆☆ 
  
  Disappointing. Also, the first story in the anthology. After finishing it, I asked myself what I was getting into?
  
  It presents a high tech Australian society, engineered animals,  farming, fungi and various conflicts between people (concerning the pros and cons of the agricultural technology, pollution, traditional marriage, and multiple partners). While some ideas impressed me (applications of the fungi in bioleaching of waste materials) I found it uninspiring. 
  
  The Right Side of History by Jane Rawson ★★★☆☆ 
  
  Was it supposed to be a satire? A twisty little story? I'm not sure. In the near future, humans are abandoning their houses and lands to make more room for animals. Some go as far as to go through the process of the “transference” to become an animal. Others aren't crazy about the idea. Two closely related POV characters make very different choices.
  
  The Wandering Library by D.K. Mok ★★★★★
  
  I need more stories from DK Mok. In a future of risen seas and fractured communications, Lani Bashir runs a mobile library service. With her faithful alpacamel, she brings colorful stories to the children of the isolated communities. When she meets an enigmatic boy with an aversion to stories, she is forced to question her own understanding of friendship, purpose, and home. Great pacing, distinct voice, relatable characters, and an intriguing story. Also, it shows a dystopia brought by scientific overreach (genetic manipulation of animals).
  
  The Radiolarian Violin by Adam Browne ★☆☆☆☆
  
  Meh. Nice visuals, but it barely has a plot.
  
  Broad Church by Tess Williams ★★☆☆☆
  
  A climate-change dystopia, with the story focusing a woman dealing with her son’s choice to become a dolphin. It didn't thrill me.
  
  Trivalent by Rivqa Rafael ★★☆☆☆
  
  Not for me.
  
  Milk and Honey by Jason Fischer ★★★★★
  
  An alternate history story in which Adolf Hitler became a famous painter and is considered one of the most influential Jews in the world. Eloise Hitler wants to do good by cloning and genetically enhancing Diprotodons, but she soon discovers death makes her feel good. Brilliant ending. Memorable and entertaining.
  
  Island Green by Shauna O'Meara ★★★★☆
  
  Three teams of scientists compete in an ecological reality show. They are supposed to restore food production to the salinated land and depleted reef of a former resort island to fight with food shortage. It has growing stakes, believable conflict, sense of danger, and good humor.
  
  The City Sunk, The City Raisen by R. Jean Mathieu ★☆☆☆☆
  
  Boring, bland, uninspiring. Sorry.
  
  Monkey Business by Janeen Webb ★★★★★
  
  Fast, furious, doesn't treat itself too seriously. Plus, it confirms my belief that life without coffee would be unbearable.
  
  The story revolves around politics, environment, and illegal crops of the coffee plant. It entertains but also shows the escalating conflict between food security and biodiversity. Captain Brunelli - the coffee lover, physically and cybernetically augmented woman warrior rescues a baby capuchin monkey while defending a precious patch of rainforest. She then travels to rescue a daughter of her employers and wreaks havoc. Frankly, I wouldn't mind reading more adventures of Cap Brunelli.
  
  The Today Home by Jason Nahrung ★★☆☆☆
  
  Today Home touches issues of a mass-migration caused by climate changes. A good idea, but it didn't speak to me.
  
  The Mangrove Maker by Jason Nahrung ★★☆☆☆
  
  From the Dark by Emili Coyler ★★★☆☆
  
  Indigo children, refugees.
  
  The Butterfly Whisperer by Andrew Sullivan ★★★★★
  
  An ambitious journalist on a mission to unmask the true face of Terry Shark, a mysterious billionaire helping people. She believes he does it by manipulating the weather for his financial gain. Terry Shark rhymes with Tony Stark, and it's a good parallel. The story is fast-paced, exciting, and clever. Loved it.
  
  Future Perfect by Matthew Chrulew ★★☆☆☆
  
  A climate change artist mourns dying species. Interesting idea, but nothing in this story hooked me.
  
  The Scent of Betrayal by Jane Routley ★★☆☆☆
  
  It turns out arcologies are populated by depraved one percenters. Stereotypical, and uninspiring.
  
  First Flightt by Ian Nichols ★★★☆☆
  
  The inaugural flight of a new airship approaches and transport and air companies have a problem with that. How far will they go to stop the ecological air travel?
  
  Happy Hunting Ground by Corey J. White ★★☆☆☆
  
  Dystopia set in the future in which food is controlled by corporations supported by the police. Obviously, there's a community that opposes them. It's the type of setting that allows for creative and new ideas. Unfortunately, what we get instead is a boring story about responsibility, parenthood, and (gay) love.
  
  Pink Footed by Marian Womack ★★☆☆☆
  
  I suppose it was intended as humorous, but it isn't. A sad little tale about the last pink-footed goose.
  
  As you see most stories didn't work for me, but that's ok. I'm glad I've read Ecopunk anyway as I've found few veritable gems. My favorite ones are:
  
  The Wandering Library by D.K. Mok - after finishing it I bought two books by DK Mok and I plan to read them shortly.
  Milk and Honey by Jason Fischer
  The Butterfly Whisperer by Andrew Sullivan
  Monkey Business by Janeen Webb - I need more stories about Captain Brunelli.
  Island Green by Shauna O'Meara
  
  Worth trying.
• 
  Darby Karchut

  What a refreshing change! These tales are filled with hope and possibilities and brighter futures for us all. My favorite story in this anthology is D.K. Mok's “The Wandering Library." She had me at the title, but holy moly, what a read! This author can write and then some. Can't wait to dive into the other stories. Highly recommended.
• 
  Fiona

  RTC, but a solid collection. In this case, three stars is a true "I liked it".
• 
  Jackie McMillan

  I'm not really a short story fan, as leaving characters I like so quickly always seems to frustrate me, so reading Ecopunk! was a bit of a departure from type for me. That said, I actually quite enjoyed this collection, mainly because it starts with climate change as a given. Living in Australia under a Liberal government has started to make me feel crazed because of their constant denial of changes to the climate we can see and experience, so these stories help to put you back together. Like most anthologies, it's a mixed bag, but none of them deny that radical change is coming.
  
  My favourite stories were Island Green by Shauna O'Meara that played with the Survivor genre and the impact of running these game-shows in other people's countries, and Monkey Business by Janeen Webb, which dealt with corrupt governments and environmental destruction including habitat destruction. I also enjoyed The Today Home by Jason Nahrung because it emphasised the impact of climate change on Pasifikan peoples who will be the first to lose their homes with rising sea levels (another group our government studiously ignores).
• 
  Dave Versace

  Extremely entertaining and thought-provoking collection of ecological science fiction. It's honestly hard to pick out the highlights with such a wide range of great ideas supporting great stories, but a few I liked the most include Claire McKenna's sly Jack and the Beanstalk riff with black market fungal stocks in "Mr Mycelium", D K Mok's optimistic post-flooding "The Wandering Library", Rivqa Rafael's intrepid vaccination squad in "Trivalent" and Shauna O'Meara's disaster-recovery-science reality television show in "Island Green". But ask me on a different day and I might give you four completely different faves - if this kind of near-future, cautiously optimistic SF is your bag at all, this whole collection is worth checking out.
• 
  ػᶈᶏϾӗ

  On the whole, I didn't care much for this collection.
  
  Strengths certainly included some of the ideas. It's nice to see what at least LOOKS like real science in cli-fi, and so some of the ideas are cool. There's a couple stories worth reading just for the vision, but I'm not sure that tilts the entire collection favorably.
  
  Weaknesses included a lot of the depictions of marginalized people, or the heroic depiction of white settler australians. Gimme a break. You're not the heroes in this story, guyz.
• 
  Dion Perry

  Ecopunk is a collection of short stories about ecological issues that have a positive spin. Whilst I found a few stories to be too abstract for me, I generally enjoyed this book. The stories were well written, cleverly done and unique. I was disappointed that there weren’t any stories that had permaculture as a theme. I think this is an area that is sadly missing from fiction stories. I can recommend the book and I hope to see more only these lines.
• 
  Brian

  Always look on the bright side of....
  
  Life, death, the whole extinction thing, look things could be worse. Despite the detestation of climate disruption that is the baseline for these stories, at least we haven’t been hit by an asteroid. Biology finds a way, and humans tag along. Having some tech doesn’t hurt. A couple of the stories are really great. I especially liked the one by Annette Fellows, and plan to read her novel.
• 
  Chloe

  Most of these stories were really bad. However, I did enjoy "Mr Mycelium" by Claire McKenna, "The Right Side of History" by Jane Rawson, "The Wandering Library" by D.K. Mok, and "Island Green" by Shauna O'Meara. I would've given up if I didn't have to read it for an assignment.
• 
  Liz

  Of course I loved it... I edited it! :)
• 
  Heidi Wunder

  These stories make you think
  
  Interesting stories that make you ponder about how the future may turn out. I love short stories because of the variety in writing styles you can read.
• 
  Jason Bleckly

  As with all anthologies there are some really good ones, and some utter shite that should not have seen print. This anthology is about 50/50.
• 
  Gunjan

  Although I liked a lot of the short stories and I look for a full-blown work of fiction of this genre, I lack a certain something in this anthology. I miss the creation of 'worlds' and 'characters' as in mainstream science fiction. But I do understand that this genre is very young and look forward to a proper novella or novel in this category.