Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers

The future, while not always perfect, still has its bright, shining moments, as revealed in this forward-thinking collection. The 17 stories tackle a variety of ethical, moral, philosophical, and technological issues with an eye toward imagining a sustainable world. The emphasis is on thoughtful, even radical solutions, such as in D.K. Mok’s delightful “The Spider and the Stars,” which traces the life and career of a young woman focused on applying entomology to space research, and Holly Schofield’s “The Call of the Wold,” about an introvert tasked with solving a community’s disagreements. In “The Heavenly Dreams of Mechanical Trees,” Wendy Nikel pictures a world in which artificial forests struggle to handle the functions of the real trees they’ve replaced; Blake Jessop’s “New Siberia” sees humans adapting to extraterrestrial conditions while learning from the past. This anthology is a welcome relief from dystopias and postapocalyptic wastelands, and a reassurance that the future need not be relentlessly bleak. (June)