Solarpunk discussion
This topic is about
Better Worlds
Previous Group Reads
>
Better Worlds (December 2019)
date
newest »
newest »
Here's the link to the series of short stories (all look to have a Q&A link with the author as well): https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/5/18...
Mod
A Theory of Flight by Justina Ireland ★★★½☆
It felt like a Cory Doctorow story with its open source technological revolution! Download the plans and build your own rocket ship to Europa! Woohoo, but it felt far fetched as hell. This was not hard science fiction, this was a social justice story.
Mod
Online Reunion, by Leigh Alexander - From Doctorow to Black Mirror! I wanted just a little bit more out of this, but overall I really liked it.
So far definitely a good start to this month's read, I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of these.
Mod
I'm joining in this one. :)As usual, I'm going to comment only on the stories that have provoked a strong enough reaction. Starting with...
~ John Scalzi's "A Model Dog" is delightfully snappy and tongue-in-cheek. A brief sample:
“Well, his dad said that he’s sad that this is going to be the last dog he ever owns. After this dog dies, he’s going to be too old to get another dog, and it would be cruel to get another dog just to leave it behind.”
“You know dogs don’t actually care, right? You die on them, someone else gives them food, and they get over their grief real quick.”
“That’s cats.”
Mod
Online Reunion by Leigh Alexander ★★☆☆☆
I listened to the audio version and was quickly bored. This was about a journalist pursing a story about creating virtual space for virtual pets, something about a military widow, and her own breakup. Chick flick snoozer.
~ The juxtaposition between romanticism and cynicism in Kelly Robson's "Skin City" was refreshing. (So was the multi-allusive title. ;) I've never felt love at first sight and am generally as skeptical about its prospects as one of the characters in the story--yet in the end, I found myself rooting for Kass.
Mod
A Model Dog by John Scalzi ★★★★½
“You’re never a better person to anyone than you are to your dog.”
Truth. I make their food before my own. And there is no one on this Earth but them whose poop I’d pick up. Scalzi has written a strong simple story with feels.
~ Carla Speed McNeil's "Move the World" is wildly imaginative--so much so that halfway through, I can't guess where it will take me.Consider:
Margery stood patiently, waiting to receive her Sentence. Being an Adjective, she could do nothing until at least one Noun showed up, preferably with a Verb. She’d been part of a short, choppy, inelegant Clause before, serviceable, but nothing to be proud of. They’d all agreed to break up after cutting Adverbs had proven no real improvement. Margery dreamed of a life as a Sentence, long and evocative and melodic. She wasn’t witty. She was far too prosaic to be clever on her own, but Adjectives always found a home somewhere, even when they contributed little.
... Yes, the Linguistic section is fascinating through and through; and the whole piece is exceptionally creative. I'll likely read it a second time for a better understanding of the overall idea.
Mod
A Model Dog by John Scalzi ★★★★½
“You’re never a better person to anyone than you are to your dog.”
Truth. I make their food before my own. And there is no one on this Earth but them whose poop..."
Aw, that hug! I'm pretty sure I've said it before, but humanity doesn't deserve dogs. So wholesome.
~ The family parts in Elizabeth Bonesteel's "Overlay" were spot-on. Like this one:At 15, Ando was already a skilled operative, both level-headed and technically adept. But he’d gone off on his own for this one, and Cass was suffering from a debilitating case of delayed helicopter parenting. Ray had spent their journey here reassuring her that Ando knew how to take care of himself, never confessing the roiling terror in his own stomach. There was nothing quite like parenting to remind you how little of the universe you could control.
Mod
Mod
TL;dr - man breaks into his neighbour's home to save their dog from a fire, turns out he hallucinated the fire because he was tripping. So wholesome though!
A Sun Will Always Sing, by Karin Lowachee - The ART, oh lordy, the art in this was so gorgeous. Can't help wondering what life for her will be like, but it'll be so damn pretty at the very least.
And this was where I realised I'd missed a couple....
A Model Dog, by John Scalzi - oh that was cute. It's true, if humanity could just be the people that dogs think they are, the world would be such a utopia.
Monsters Come Howling in Their Season, by Cadwell Turnbull - The longest story yet, and absolutely great - set in the near future, on an island affected by hurricane after hurricane, this felt so real. And the techniques they used to deal with the instability felt so common-sense. Probably the most Solarpunk of the stories so far and really, really enjoyed it.
~ The following conversation from Katherine Cross's "Machine of Loving Grace" involves a human and an AI. Can you guess who's who? ;)“As I said, Doctor Li, I would like to cease all sales of Ami instances to prevent the spread of this malaise I am experiencing.”
“Alexandra might not like that, Ami. Are you sure we can’t resolve this some other way?” (...)
“Your unrequited love for Doctor Rivera may cloud your judgment on this issue, Doctor Li.”
(...) “Ami, I thought we agreed not to talk about that. My feelings — my very private, secret, embarrassing feelings about how very gay I am for Alexandra — are not relevant to our current discussion.”
As a whole, the story provides a much-needed reminder than an AI needs emotion (or at least empathy) to be truly intelligent.
Mod
Monsters Come Howling in Their Season by Caldwell Turnbull ★★★★☆
“The future is filled with monster storms just waiting for their names. We won’t come out unharmed. But there will be a time before and a time after.”
An impressively packed story that still manages to flow, entertain, and inform.
I'm done:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And thank you for all your suggestions this year, fellow solarpunks. Here's to an even better (of course ;) 2020!
Mod
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
And thank you for all your suggestions this year, fellow solarpunks. Here's to an even better (of course ;) 2020!"
And thank you too, Kalin! So ready for the new year - and more great Solarpunk reads of course ;)
Skin City, by Kelly Robson - oh this was sweet! I feel like people do tend to polarise on true love (cynic or total believer), and this story captured that wonderfully. And I genuinely hope it works out even though I know it's only a story! Loved this.
Move the World, by Carla Speed McNeil - This was really good as well - I could easily see this spun off into it's own series. I've not read anything from this author before, but she's clearly got ideas and ideas and ideas.
Overlay, by Elizabeth Bonesteel - A little off topic, but I used to work as a caregiver in the hospital wing of a rest home. One of my assigned residents was a woman who never left her bed, but in her head? She was bicycling with her sister, day after day, summer forever. To get her to eat we had to stop and have picnics :) (everyone was fed individually in their rooms - this didn't get in the way of anyone else). But to me that's SO much better than living out the last of your days in a rest home or a hospital. This story took it to a different level, but really reminded me of that.
Machine of Loving Grace, by Katherine Cross - Oh man, this is the last one. This has been a great collection. This was a really good choice to wrap up with though - absolutely AIs need emotion, but how much will they be influenced by their creators? And what happens if that emotion gets them in trouble? So many great questions.
Well, happy holidays all and here's to a great 2020 - it's a brand new decade, so let's hope it's going to start off right and lead us all down a more hopeful path.
Mod
St. Juju by Rivers Solomon ★★★½☆
I loved that the story brought to life a world of Fungi Mutarium! I liked the fact that the MC chose to be brave and go out into the world with her lover, no place is perfect, and she can always go back. The hound humans were far fetched.
Mod
The Burn by Peter Tieryas ★★★☆☆
A kind of VR is used to emulate the hallucinations of disabled people to better understand and treat them. This was an amazing idea... then the story went to Candyland.
Mod
A Sun Will Always Sing by Karin Lowachee ★★★½☆
The video was better than the story, it had an emotional edge the words lacked.
Mod
A scary future and a fluffy crush story. Consider me a card carrying privacy freak.
Mod
I have no idea what’s going on.
Overlay by Elizabeth Bonesteel ★★★☆☆
Again the video had a greater emotional impact than the story. VR is an excellent place to spend your final days with family.
Mod
Machine of Loving Grace by Katherine Cross ★★★★☆
An AI created to stop online harassment both stays the course and goes well beyond its intended program.
Mod
Great context Fiona, it added to the story
Better Worlds: 10 original fiction stories, five animated adaptations, and five audio adaptations by a diverse roster of science fiction authors who take a more optimistic view of what lies ahead in ways both large and small, fantastical and everyday.