Ecolution: Solarpunk Narratives to Transform Reality

by Francesco Verso, Michael Colbert, Sally McCorry (translator)

Set in the same narrative universe as The Roamers, the solarpunk stories collected in Ecolution were written by Francesco Verso over the last four years. Inside the volume, which is enriched by illustrations by the students of the School of Comics of Rome, you will find an android capable of weaving “sea silk” in Sardinia, ailanthus trees that occupy the entire Porta di Roma shopping mall, bizarre phosphorus-vegetal lighting experiments, a skilled “nanosmith” expert in the art of Sichuan pepper programming in China; terraforming projects to house climate migrants rejected in the Mediterranean Sea, and native bio-inspired solutions against land expropriation around Lake Baikal in Russia.
“Each story in the anthology is an ecological solution to the problems of cities and also a suggestion to ‘work with’ rather than ‘work against’ nature. In moments of crisis humans always acted according to the scheme of escape. Are temperatures rising? I’m moving north. Is food decreasing? Change continent. This behavior was successful as long as humanity lived in hunter-gatherer tribes. The moment we became sedentary, cities were founded, we need to change our adaptive response. Like vegetables, cities cannot escape. It’s time to risk new behaviors and it is more likely that the people "on the margins" of the city will abandon their usual responses to seek innovative remedies to environmental changes.” - Clelia Farris

Francesco Verso (born 1973 in Bologna) is a Science Fiction writer and editor. His novels have been translated into various languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Chinese. His works Antidoti umani, e-Doll, Nexhuman, Zendroide (with Duan Ziqi), Bloodbusters, Futurespotting, and the first Italian and European solarpunk novel The Roamers (consisting of The Pulldogs and No/Mad/Land). He has won three Europe Awards, two Urania Awards, two Italy Awards, an Odissea Award, and a Galaxy Award for the promotion of Chinese Science Fiction. In 2014, he founded Future Fiction, an indie press publishing the best Science Fiction in the world, translated from 14 languages and more than 40 different countries, in the form of books, comics, and audiobooks. Since 2019, he works as the Creative Director of the Fishing Fortress Science Fiction Academy in Chongqing, China.

Table of Contents
Foreword by Andrew Dana Hudson
new seeds from the ashes of the future
The Sea Weaver
The Nutators
Greenglimmer
The Maestro of Small Things
The Green Ship
Ecolution
How Green Is The City of Clelia Farris
Interview with Francesco Verso by Arielle Saiber

Cover illustration by Marzia Cardinale

205 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 9, 2024

About the author

Francesco Verso (Bologna, 1973) is a multiple-award Science Fiction writer and editor. He has published: Antidoti umani, e-Doll, Nexhuman, Bloodbusters, Futurespotting and I camminatori (made of The Pulldogs and No/Mad/Land). Nexhuman and Bloodbusters have been published in Italy, US, UK and China. I camminatori will be published by Flame Tree Press as The Roamers in Spring 2023. He works as editor of Future Fiction, scouting and translating the best SF from 12 languages and more than 30 countries. He’s the Honorary Director of the Fishing Fortress SF Academy of Chongqing. He may be found online at www.futurefiction.org.