Sunvault

by Daniel José Older

[Quirky Cat]

First things first: I received an ARC of this in exchange for an honest and fair review.
Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation is a collection of a variety of creations (short stories, poems, and artwork) all along the same theme; as the title suggests, the theme is Solarpunk and Eco Speculation. I’ll be honest with you here, I had never heard of either of these until I got approached to review this book. Needless to say, it was a pretty happy discovery for me, and I now have something new to follow.
The first thing I thought upon seeing this cover (which is beautiful, by the way) is “what on earth is Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation?!” After a quick google search I learned that Solarpunk is a movement or statement of intent for hope for the future. Basically it’s imagining a future where humans have sorted things out properly (saving the environment and learning to live with it, etc). Eco-Speculation is writing (or any other form of expression really) with the focus of the environment or climate in mind, it is often speculative, which is where the name comes from.
Despite this preliminary research, I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I dove into Sunvault. I am delighted to say that I was pleasantly surprised; Solarpunk really does live up to its description and was much more uplifting and hopeful than I expected. It was a refreshing change from not only my reading life, but my day-to-day life as well.
Sunvault rotates between short stories, poetry, and artwork in a perfect balance that manages to keep one interested throughout - though I’ll admit some of the short stories really made me want more – trust me when I say I’ll be following up with those authors! My favorite stories included Speechless Love, Dust, the Death of Pax, Last Chance, the Trees Between, and Solar Child.
That being said, for the sake of honest; like any collection out there, there will be some hits and some misses. I felt that there were more hits or decent stories/works than anything else, which is always the best one can hope for.
The description of Sunvault makes it sound like there will be following anthologies; which is pretty exciting. I can assure you that I will be keeping up with any future volume that comes out, as I’m too curious not to!

For more reviews, check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks