#bookstodon

[star12mt@masto.nyc]

#bookstodon

Hi My husband loves to read sci-fi but has been feeling a bit depressed and it's not helping. I suggested solarpunk and he's open to it so I'm asking for any suggestions. Anything that isn't just fighting/war and more positive would be great! Thank you
#solarpunk #books

[matthew_alderautomation@mastodon.social]

@Star12Mt hi! I just picked up "a Psalm for the wild-built" by Becky Chambers. I haven't read it yet but it sounds pretty good. I am going to try to start it in the next day or so.

[greendragon@mastodon.art]

@Star12Mt not sure if Harald Kaup books exist in English. It’s a form of cozy sci-fi (utopia setting), aliens, battles but they focus on finding a good life.

[bluejay@ohai.social]

@Star12Mt I second “A Psalm for the Wild-Built” and its sequel, “A Prayer for the Crown-Shy,” by Becky Chambers (they’re available now in the same volume, as “Monk and Robot”). So good, with a hopeful vision for the future. I also liked her Wayfarers series, starting with “The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet.” Her stories tend to be uplifting ones about found family. Check out @susankayequinn’s books too!

[purplelotus13@mastodon.social]

@Star12Mt I really enjoyed New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson! https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/7368a59b-494a-4054-b287-3d637f03f27e

Also, A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys is also great! https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/eec66b70-50ce-4341-880c-117f026e7390

[chantaryu2@pataterie.ca]

@Star12Mt I'm not sure it officially counts as solarpunk but did he read Project Hail Mary? It's feel good sci fi and everyone is going nuts about it.

[bluejay@ohai.social]

@Star12Mt I made some other recommendations in this old thread - you can scroll up and down from this link for some good suggestions

Bluejay (@bluejay@ohai.social)

@GeePawHill@mastodon.social Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot books and the Wayfarers series - great hopepunk/solarpunk stuff Katherine Addison, The Goblin Emperor Ruthanna Emrys, A Half-Built Garden Kage Baker’s The Company series - outstanding, and a shame it seems to be a bit forgotten these days. Same for Rosemary Kirstein and her Steerswoman series. Aliette de Bodard’s Vietnam-inspired space fantasies Zen Cho - excellent British as well as Malaysian-inspired fantasies

ohai.social (ohai.social)

[frugalgamer@snug.moe]

@Star12Mt Multispecies Cities is an anthology I picked up a while back and really enjoyed. Short stories are a great intro to new genres in general

www.goodreads.com/book/show/56906532-multispecies-cities

[troytop@mastodon.top]

@Star12Mt try some @annaleen like Automatic Noodle or The Terraformers.

[susankayequinn@wandering.shop]

@bluejay thanks for the tag!

@Star12Mt Your husband might like my solarpunk power grid mystery novel series!
https://susankayequinn.com/series/nothing-is-promised

But I've also got a couple solarpunk short story collections and a podcast BRIGHT GREEN FUTURES with even more suggestions:

Bright Green Futures | Susan Kaye Quinn | Substack

We lift up stories about a more sustainable and just world and talk about the struggle to get there. To build better futures, we need to imagine them first. Click to read Bright Green Futures, by Susan Kaye Quinn, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.

(brightgreenfutures.substack.com)

[diazona@techhub.social]

@chantaryu2 @Star12Mt This was my thought as well. It's good enough that its popularity is justified!

I would imagine the same goes for The Martian (same author), although I haven't yet read that book. The movie was great though.

[derek@social.coop]

@Matthew_AlderAutomation @Star12Mt great read.

[curtzt@mas.to]

@Star12Mt

For optimistic sci-fi, I like Kim Stanley Robinson. He could start with NY 2140.(Some of the others, like The Ministry for the Future, start out grim or have ups and downs, but are pretty optimistic in the end.)

[clew@ecoevo.social]

_Children of Time_, Tchaikovsky, kind of slant

@Star12Mt

[gbargoud@masto.nyc]

@Star12Mt

The Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein. Some of the best pacing I've seen in world building. The way the setting unfolds is incredible.

It's not solarpunk but does have interesting social structures that can fill some of the same needs.

[bluespruce@mstdn.games]

@Star12Mt Looks like you’ve collected a lot of great suggestions. For Becky Chambers, I’d recommend her novella To Be Taught, If Fortunate. It’s my favorite of her works, very sci-fi (scientists exploring life on another planet), and deeply hopeful, though not specifically solarpunk like Monk and Robot. Her first series (Wayfarers) is also hopeful space sci-fi.

For Kim Stanley Robinson, my favorite of his works is the Mars Trilogy. Like all of his work it can be a long slog, heavy worldbuilding, pages and pages of geology, etc. But all of it’s good, like an epic story wrapped up in a fascinating nature documentary, all imagining a better future.

Another one I'd add, that’s very sci-fi and also very solarpunk, is Jayan F.R.’s novel The Wind of Venus (set in a community of airships floating around Venus). It’s a wholesome coming of age story for the first half, then there’s more action the second half. I gather it’s book one of a forthcoming series.

I also strongly second Ruthanna Emrys’ A Half Built Garden, hopeful sci-fi first-contact story, and very solarpunk. Susan Kaye Quinn’s Nothing is Promised series is a great read too, more near-future climate tech intrigue on Earth.

[khiebert@twit.social]

@Star12Mt bobiverse by Dennis Taylor.