If you read Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures, then you’ll love Solarpunk Creatures. If you didn’t, but get tired of reading dystopia in scifi, and also wonder if there’s a better, happier vision for the future, then solarpunk is your jam; and this, along with Multispecies Cities, is an excellent entry-point into the genre.

There are so many great stories here—writing prompts gone wildly adventurous. I loved:

The Business of Bees by Andrew Knighton is a delightful story that centres a curious cat and really clever bees.
Quarropts Can’t Dance by Rodrigo Culagovski made me laugh out loud.
Hunting for Rain by Lyndsey Croal, about a robotic dog that hunts for rain;
The Colorful Crow of Web-Life Park by Sandra Ulbrich Almazan, which is about life from a bird’s perspective.
Threadloom by N. R. M. Roshak, about art made by a—well, it’s not a machine, and it’s not an animal; perhaps something in-between.
Rabbits, Rivers and Prickly Pears by Justine Norton-Kertson follows a rabbit on an epic adventure across the desert.
AI Dreams of Real Sheep—More at 8 by Commando Jugenstil and Tales from the EV Studio is about LIN.C.O., an AI poet who wants to be recognised as a person.
Solar Murder by A. E. Marling was another amusing story, until it was scary.
The Wetlands Versus the Mayor by Jerri Jerreat was cool because the wetlands won.
I love this series from World Weaver Press because each time I read or re-read a story, I come away thinking differently about the world, about the species we co-exist with, and about our future. Highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and to World Weaver Press for early access.

Solarpunk Creatures is a collection of stories about futuristic animals, fungi, robots, and the like. The synopsis really gives a piece of every story within it.

Overall, some of the stories were fun and memorable, while others were forgettable. I always enjoy a collection of short stories. It’s fun to hop from one world to the next. This is a solid 3/5 stars.

Solarpunk Creatures places at the helm of each story non-human perspectives — and the book spans a whole multitude of creatures (and even elements like water or ice) leading the way and trying to survive. From sentient roombas and mythical loombeasts to robot dogs and singing octopuses, we're treated to a series of stories by different authors looking to give voices to the notoriously silent.

It's not often you read fiction from the point of view of animals or trees, and while it can take a minute to get used to — when it's done poorly, it comes off as cutesy and saccharine — it can truly open your eyes to new feelings and new ideas.

I mean this honestly, as even I, a hardcore cat person, found myself moved nearly to tears by the story told from the vantage point of a former fighting dog that learns to love and be loved in a futuristic sanctuary for survivors. (See? It sounds too cartoony in print, but in the skilled hands of a writer who knows what they're doing, it just works.)

And while we may never get to fully understand non-human beings or create new languages with them, we can at least art to open our minds and help us empathize with the beings we share this world with.

I cannot recommend this collection enough to readers seeking either solarpunk or stories written from a non-human perspective.

I was drawn in by the wild cover, but stayed for the bizarrely beautiful stories that really stretched the definition of what defines as a 'creature.' While many of the stories presented were cozier and more traditional solarpunk experiences (animal lovers will adore 'Hopdog' and 'Threadloom', for example), I was mostly interested in the stories that involved even more non-traditional narrators, which also took a 'harder' sci-fi approach.

My top 5 stories were as follows, from 5th favorite to top favorite:

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5. 'Quorum Sensing' by Calliope Papas, perhaps the coolest setting of any story, and easily the 'spaciest' story in the collection, set in a biodome on Jupiter's moon Europa.

4. 'An Inconvenient Unicorn' by Geraldine Briony Hunt, showcasing the potential and power of fantasy in solarpunk, which I never considered before or expected to enjoy. Wonderfully fun story!

3. 'Hunting for Rain' by Lyndsey Croal, featuring the POV of a robot designed to search for rain in a drought-ridden (and possibly dystopic) desert, proof that a setting does not need to be a green utopia to be solarpunk.

2. 'Water Cycle' by Lauren C Teffeau, an elegant and innovative observation written from the perspective of... water!... so beautiful and insightful with how it describes our planet's hydrosphere which pervades every single aspect of weather and biology. (This and the number 1 story reminded me of some of my favorite non-human narrative stories written by my favorite author, Ted Chiang, which is the highest praise I can give).

1. 'Flyby' by the poet Pria Sarukkai Chabria, I lack the words to describe how beautiful this piece was to me. Describing the path and observations of a comet with a billion-year orbit, this is a miraculously-written poem in the guise of hard science fiction, this is my favorite story in the collection. Though I am biased being a lover of less traditional 'story' structures such as this and 'Water Cycle' (written more as treatises than traditional stories), I am not exaggerating when I say this art simply MUST be experienced by any lover of poetry, space, or the immense scale of time that could only be experienced by something as ancient as a comet.

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I appreciate the editors of this collection putting such a diverse range of stories in this collection so that I could find these unique gems which satisfied my sometimes-picky taste in science fiction. The editors - and especially the authors, who all seem important players in envisioning a better world and making that world a reality - truly understand solarpunk as a genre to its core, in that it is more a philosophy than a genre, a way of learning and a way of acting. Thank you to them, and Netgalley, for letting me discover these stories and writers in exchange for an honest review.

This was a lovely, optimistic collection of stories about human interactions with other types of beings. I was very impressed by the overall quality of the stories - there were a few I didn't care for, but on the whole I thought they were very readable and engaging. The range of settings and beings was also commendable, including AI, environments, and both real and fantastical critters. Some favorites: "The Business of Bees", "Water Cycle", "AI Dreams of Real Sheep - More at 8", "Thank Geo", "Hopdog", and "Leaf Whispers, Ocean Song". There is also some art, which looks very interesting but which I wasn't really able to examine in detail because I was reading on my phone.

I really loved a handful of the stories, but as with all compilations, there were more that felt like they needed polishing. My largest issue is with the intro, it could do a better job at describing what Solar Punk is instead of summarizing subsequent stories. It's also theory dense and hard to follow, even for an avid anti-capitalist and decolonial theory reader like myself. For optimistic short stories, it really swerved the tone. If my shop had more punk minded customers, I would add this in a heartbeat; however, the entirety of the collection just isn't strong enough to convince hardcore or new sci-fi readers.

The ones I loved:

Threadloom, by N.R. Roshak
The Business of Bees, by Andrew Knighton
AI Dreams of Real Sheep- More at 8, by Commando Jugenstil
Night Fowls, by Ana Sun
Microbia, by the Center for Militant Futurology

I really enjoy short story anthologies that are all on a theme but include stories from a variety of authors, and this one really fit the bill. The stories were all clearly united by the common theme of imagining a sustainable future where humans live as one equal part of a connected and diverse ecosystem rather than placing themselves above all others, but took the concept in radically different directions, leading to a story collection that felt hopeful, expansive, and thought-provoking. I especially liked the story (the name escapes me at the moment) that was told from the perspective of a dog who had been used for dogfighting. The conception of that world and its warmth for all organisms growing and healing from trauma and entering into community made me cry. In a time where I and many others feel afraid for our future, stories like this help give us hope that a better, sustainable future is possible and give us a vision to work towards rather than resigning ourselves to the bleak visions of the future that we fear and predict. With so many systems of power working against humanity, the planet, and the ecosystem, it is nice to read stories that affirm the fact that there is goodness, hope, and infinite collaborative potential within humanity.

Dive into a dazzling world of sustainable futures with this Solarpunk anthology! A breath of fresh air in speculative fiction, it celebrates the diversity of voices and delivers a captivating array of short stories. Each tale unfolds unique and intriguing premises, painting a vivid mosaic of possibilities where technology and nature coalesce. A must-read for those seeking a hopeful glimpse into tomorrow.

This is a book about healing. It conjures dogs, wetlands, trash islands, birds, unicorns, gentle AI, and more lifeforms to tell hopeful stories about how we can fix the world. (Still, one story stands out for not being like the others. “Solar Murder” by A.E. Marling is an unhinged revenge fantasy against crows who drop pebbles on the character's solar panels. Though I'm honestly not sure how it fits with the rest of the collection, it certainly was a wild ride through a darker side of solarpunk.) The best stories were also the most imaginatively provocative ones like “Sonora’s Journey” by Kai Holmwood about a desert ecosystem that journeys across the continent to stay alive, or “Microbia” by Center For Militant Futurology about how people turned a trash island into a rich soil where life can flourish. The artworks were a nice addition (however challenging to appreciate on Kindle) to create a greater vision of other worlds. It is my sincere hope that the editors succeed in their aspirations, and that many will read this collection and be inspired to heal our world and its creatures.

This is one of those books that's almost painfully sincere, it can even be hard to read with how determined and genuine and hopeful the protagonists are. It's a series of short stories that imagine a more sustainable way of life in harmony with nature, and it's everything from people moderating arguments between different birds, to revitalizing a desert climate. My favourite stories are the hare & prickly pear, the one with the poet roomba, and the love story with language. They were all such delightful reads with good triumphing and people being patient and joyous about discovery. It's a book built from, and about, love.

This review was made possible via an ARC through NetGalley

Solarpunk Creatures is a collection of stories and art set in a solarpunk setting and exploring the possibilities of how different organisms can live together. The contributors to this anthology include a collective, published authors from a variety of cultures, and artists who focus on sustainability.

Threadloom by N. R. M. Roshak is a story about an artistic loombeest who wants to make new creations while the grandmother who owns them wants to make a traditional quilt and the granddaughter wants to make the loombeest happy.

My favorite was An Inconvenient Unicorn by Geraldine Briony Hunt, an exploration of giving the land back to nature and the creatures who were previously there when corporations actually follow through with their goals to prioritize the environment.

Other stories include the journey of a comet, a roomba who achieves sentience and wants to be a shepherd, and humans who are connected to different species to keep the peace and create a utopia. Many of the art pieces are explorations of different ideas of what a solarpunk world could look like.

I would recommend this to fans of solarpunk and those who want to dip their toes into the subgenre.

3.75, rounding up. I really like the premise of <i>Solarpunk Creatures,</i> an anthology featuring "more-than-human protagonists: organic and digital, alien and fantastic, tiny and boundlessly large." The editors note that a key theme of the collection is "nonhuman agency" and the negotiation involved in diverse species making community and living together.

It is hard to rate this collection as, inevitably, I enjoyed some stories more than others; one I didn't finish for 'content warnings' related reasons, and two I did not finish just because they didn't hold my attention. The rest, I enjoyed. A few favourites include:
-"Sonora's Journey" by Kai Holmwood - a personification of a desert as a protagonist, and an interesting structure
-"The Business of Bees" by Andrew Knighton - a cat protagonist, so of course I loved it
-"AI Dreams of Real Sheep - More at 8" by Commando Jugendstil and Tales from the EV Studio - a linguistic classification program gains sentience
-"Quarropts Can't Dance" by Rodrigo Culagovski - hilarious song and dance battle
-"Leaf Whispers, Ocean Song" by Tashan Mehta - beautiful story of beyond human language, grief, and communing with those around us

<i>Content warnings:</i> animal cruelty / violence against non-human animals, animal death, human death, grief, violence, sexual harassment, child abuse, mention of sexual assault of a child (in the past, not graphic)

Thank you to World Weaver Press & NetGalley for providing an ARC for me to review.

4.5 / 5.0

These stories have all my love. Every one was fun, fantastical, and solarpunk (the new steampunk I think). I especially loved the Threadloom, so imaginative and entertaining.

This is for anyone that needs some whimsy and inventive fantasy. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for access to this eARC.

Until Next Time,
MC