Clockwork's Recommended List of Works in the Solarpunk Genre.
Notes about what is considered to be "Solarpunk" although a solarpunk story does not need to incorporate all of these things. This is just a list of trend tropes and similarities in solarpunk stories that I've found and am now listing.
- High Tech, though this can be anywhere from age of steam to the age of starships. Seems to be High Tech in the old GURPs sense where nearly any level of industrialization qualifies. For reference an ancient village with people burning wood for fuel and with a windmill to grind grain likely wouldn't qualify.
- Non polluting power sources that are not nuclear fission. This one makes sense, it's where the solar in the name comes from. Energy sources such as Solar, Wind, Hydro (usually small scale), Tidal, Muscle, Nuclear Fusion (if it's safe), Geothermal, Biofuels, or other things of the like. Will also often include things like high energy efficiency and passive design so that low amounts of energy are used in the first place. It's more likely for someone to see an bicycle in a solarpunk story than a fusion powered SUV carrying a single person to work.
- More Utopian less Dystopian. This one is odd in that some people claim that all solarpunk work must be completely utopian. Since utopia is more of a goal than a actual possibility, solarpunk works have a tendency to slide more on the utopian side of things than the dystopian side of things. Although there can still be systematic problems and inequality inside of these societies.
- Hope for the Future. Speaks for itself, solarpunk is meant to be similar to Hopebright, the opposite of Grimdark. It's meant to have a positive impact on people's opinion of the future and provide hope for what may be accomplished. To ensure that whatever seas of depression and apathy the present resembles, that there is a light in the darkness.
- Respect and Stewardship of Nature. The characters of solarpunk stories will almost certainly have a bond to nature that cannot be broken. This can be expressed anywhere from them keeping loads of houseplants to being a hermit out in the woods. May include a spiritual connection to nature as well, expect many 1960s hippy tropes here.
-Science not Magic? Not sure about this one. It seems as though books that focus on scientifically caused environmentally sustainable semi utopias, are more likely to be considered solarpunk over those with more of a magical influence. For example I thought about including the stormlight archives as a novel series, due to the storms ability to recharge crystal shards and perform fears of wonder. But this is inherently magic as stated by the author, not science. Though I have found some solarpunk stories that include either magic or magical realism in the writings, the heavy lifting of the setting has to be done by science or pseudoscience for something to be considered solarpunk. From this I glean that solarpunk works must include at least 51% science propping up their settings in order to be considered solarpunk.
Novels and Fictional Books in the Solarpunk Genre.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk and Robot 1): Never read it but everyone seems to be raving about it over at NPR so I'll give it a read when I can grab a copy.
Always Coming Home by Octavia Butler, on the reading list.
Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach. Ever wonder what would happen if somehow Washington, Oregon, and California were to succeed from the United states? Unrealistic as it sounds this book shows a possible semi utopian society from the perspective of the first reporter allowed in the country within a generation of a succeeding. I actually enjoyed the book somewhat, it gave me vibes of the movie Demolition Man. And half gave me the vibe of a Cory Doctorow novel. Decent book, I would recommend it.
Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky: Just found it and I want to read this as I tried writing a similar story called "The Veil of Crimson Dust" But I'm also a big fan of Adrian. I think his children of time series is one of the best books I've read in years. Some might say that story is also solarpunk where as I view it mostly as biopunk.
Illusions, by Richard Bach, on the reading list.
Long Way from Home by Thomas Tortorich: Looks new, might check out.
Memoirs of a Mad Scientist One Solarpunk Outlaw: No clue what this is just found it.
Parable of the Sower. Fantastic Book, easily the best thing I've read in the entire Solarpunk genre. Written in the early 90s and it has managed to predict the problems of 2020s California with an incredibly high degree of accuracy. The West is on fire, there's a drug crisis, massive water shortages, breakdowns in infrastructure, homelessness, breakdowns in public order, political apathy. Written 30 years before it's time period, this book is gave an incredibly accurate prediction of the future. A great story, accurate setting, reminds me somewhat of the road by Cormac McCarthy.
Red Mars. The first time I tried to read this book I was 14 and it didn't click with me at all. Ten years later after I had written my own book with a similar plot (it went terrible and remains unpublished), at that point I couldn't set Red Mars down. The plot and setting are incredibly well researched and shows a realistic portrayal of what would happen if humanity just started gearing all of their focus towards going towards mars. This books mostly reminds me of an older game known as Sid Meier's Alpha Centari where the long term fate of the planet is at stake between different faction's ideologies. Even on the journey over to the red planet, old ideologies are cast off for the sake of surviving the red planet. Nobody even considers the idea of not living there, instead the strife occurs between different factions who have different ideas about what the future of humanity on the Red Planet should be. I heavily recommend it.
Seveneves. There's a disaster about to happen, the earth is going to be pretty much completely uninhabitable in 2 years. Surprisingly the world's immediate reaction is not to hurl nukes at the the problem, and instead begin sending people into space in an insane rate to try and keep the torch of earth burning. A great book by Neal Stephenson, I heavily recommend it. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed the Martian book or movie, and or enjoyed reading xkcd's what if blog.
Suncatcher: Seven Days in the Sky by Alia Gee, on the reading list.
The City by Clifford D Simak, on the reading list.
The Eden Syndrome by Thomas Tortorich: Looks new, might check out.
The Ember Series by Jeanene DuPrau. Originally read this series as a kid, never saw the movie and was told it was pretty meh. The first book is about a society of people living underground who don't even know what above is. Problem is the city was never meant to last 200 years and things are breaking down. Long term in the series, and by that I mean by late book 4 (book 3 is skippable and is actually a prequel) a solarpunk society is formed in the ruins of the old world. This is a children's story, although it's not a bad one, so I recommend these books to anyone looking for a gift to children/young adults. The main themes of this series seems to have sustainability as a backdrop, and the main issue being how different groups of people with approach problems, who will ignore them/ take advantage/ sow chaos/ working on fixing things.
The Iron Heel by Jack London, on the reading list.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. This is actually a great book in my opinion and I look forward to the sequels. It's a classic tale of a scrappy crew on a semi functioning ship trying to get jobs done for fun and profit. It feels somewhere midway between the vibe of Firefly and Mass Effect. The worldbuilding is also interesting though I don't want to spoil anything. I will say it has a pretty interesting take on the idea of "Elon musk is going to bring us all to Mars don't worry about climate change" idea. An uplifting story suitable to anyone who needs a dose of brightness in their life.
The Redwood Revenger by Johannes Jones: Looks like a near future action-y cowboy book. Looks neat, on the reading list.
The Tower Through the Trees: Not sure what this is, it has 0 reviews at the moment. Have a feelign it really wants to be Dhalgren.
Walkaways by Cory Doctorow. Absolutely fantastic in my opinion. A good near future look at the problems of society and asks the question, What if people looked at the current setup, saw it was always going to prop up the rich and powerful and just decided to walkaway from it all? I expected this book to be more about traveling vagabonds looking for a place to call home all the while hitching rides on old trains and decaying infrastructure. But this is a Cory Doctorow novel, so it's more like if the future started being build by pseudo anarchistic garage inventors, with a strong wanderlust vibe. I recomend this book to anyone who would like a combination of Makers (also by Cory Doctorow), The Sum Fallout Tactics Anarchy Mod, The Bobiverse, and Anyone who has had the song Roam by the B52s stuck in their head for a long period of time.
Wheelers by Matt Stephens. Never heard of it, looks somewhat interesting though. Only three ratings at the moment so this looks new.
Wilders By Brenda Cooper: A story about the strange places between the megacities. Looks neat on the list.
Nonfiction Books:
The Foxfire Books. Stories and practical knowledge from the Appalachian mountains. Less a narrative and more of a series of articles on the people who lived in the mountains and how they lived. If you're the kind of person who watches the Townsends YouTube channel or reads Mother Earth News. I heavily recommend this book series.
Short Story Compilations.
Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers. Not bad, a good deal of the stories are skippable in my opinion. With much of them hit or miss but I enjoyed the compilation overall.
Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters. This one I actually prefer to a degree, it shows more actual issues in the genre like being more at the mercy of the elements. Again the different stories are incredibly hit or miss.
Biketopia: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories in Extreme Futures. Purely ok, a relatively short - short story collection that all have something vaguely to do with bikes in the stories. The stories range from ok to a lifetime movie where all men are evil. Can't really say I recommend it unless you really really want stories about bicycles
Ecopunk! speculative tales of radical futures. Less solarpunk, more biopunk. Probably my favorite of the short story compilations, just because of the wide imaginative routes that biopunk has.
Wings of Renewal: A Solarpunk Dragon Anthology. Haven't read yet, on the list though.
Fix the World, twelve scifi writers save the future:
Save the World, twenty scifi writers save the future:
Gaia Awakens, a climate Crisis Anthology:
Afterglow, Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors:
Movies/Shows in the Solarpunk Genre.
The Works of Hayao Miyazaki. If you ever have a bad day and need something to uplift you, the works of Hayao Miyazaki are probably going to help. Works that partially have a solarpunk feel are Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa Valley of the Wind, My Neighbor Totoro, and Howls Moving Castle. All of these movies have themes of freedom, joy, environmentalism, so they seem to embody the ideas of solarpunk well. In any case, I recommend these movies to anyone who's having an awful day and needs any amount of joy.
L'An 01 (The Year 01). A French movie about a worker strike? Not sure, will see this and come back to it.
WALL-E. People who have seen this movie may wonder what I'm talking about. But the core message of the movie is probably don't produce so much trash and to that the earth will do well as long as someone actually cares for it. Spoiler alert as well, at the end credits it shows the characters coming together to make a solarpunk society in the ruins of old earth.
Electric City. A web project starring Tom Hanks. This show just oozes solarpunk vibes. The worldbuilding is my favorite part as the plot seemed a little lacking in my opinion. Set in a world after some kind of horrible resource war the survivors wound up building the city to run off, passive and concentrated solar, wind turbines, and muscle power from convicts. Everything is made out of wood and the most advanced technology around are ultralight aircraft, mini airships, and vacuum tube radio systems. The main plot is centered around a semi dystopian knitting society who's job is to keep the city running, and their agents doing the dirty work. The main conflict seems to stem the the knitting society doing whatever it takes to ensure stability and to make sure the electric city keeps running in the face of... AM radio. As a side note, no one seems to care about this webshow and you can watch the whole thing free here.
Games in the Solarpunk Genre.
Games on Steam.
Eco. Minecraft with a twist! The world is small and densely populated with different species like deer and wolves. A hunter can accidentally overhunt meat and accidentally exterminate the species. If a tree is chopped down it takes a while to grow back again. At the same time as the player needs to make sure that they aren't destroying the planet, there's another larger threat destroying the planet. A massive meteor is going to hit said planet if the player doesn't stop it. To save the world, planet has to be impacted, it's up to you to determine how much though.
Floatsam. A post-apocalyptic game where there's a little electric boat, kept charged by someone turning a dynamo in the back. You control a small group of sailors attempting to turn the starting boat into a massive flotilla made of scavenged material and trash from the drowned world. Probably the cutest post-apocalyptic game I've ever seen. But it also makes you think of resource management as surviving with nothing but floating trash in the middle of the ocean is no easy task. Nearly every resource has to be processed heavily to get it to a workable degree. A good mix of the possibilities of the work needed to build alternative societies and what can be accomplished by those same efforts.
TerraNil. A reverse factory building game where using advanced technology the wastelands of the earth are reclaimed by nature. Resources are limited and figuring out how to apply them the best is the name of the game. I suppose that this is a puzzle game, it certainly feels like one. The game I'm reminded of most when playing this is World of Goo. By the way the demo is free and the full game is name your own price.
Timberborn. One of the oddest ideas for a game I've heard of, yet it just makes perfect sense once you think about it. The humans are long dead, now it is the age of the intelligent beaver. It's a city builder where the goal is to build a thriving river valley civilization as water is the literal boundary of life in this post apocalyptic world. And when the dry season comes, the fertile land's ability to sustain life leaves with the water. So as beavers, their job is to dam up the river and begin diverting water to irrigate the whole map and have the city expand. All the game's resources are either grown or recycled from the old world, and with such heavy themes of the climate literally changing this seems like an obvious solarpunk pick.
Vintage Story: Another Minecraft-like game, but this one is very different to ECO I assure you. This was originally built to be like the old terrafirmacraft Minecraft mod. Except it's based off it's own engine so it's much less janky and prone to crashing. Vintage story is a post apocalyptic game set far after an advanced steampunk/clockpunk civilization ruined the world through some Call of Cthulhu events. Think the resonance cascade but with steampunk tech. The modern world's reality is somewhat broken after the industrialized society screwed things up. Combine this with harsh yet realistic survival elements, and an emphasis on a changing world with seasons and high biodiversity. This game feels incredibly solarpunk to me. I invite you to check out the trailer and a 100 days playthrough of an old version.
Common'Hood: Linking to the free demo here. There's an abandoned factory/warehouse, time to turn it into a community for the unhoused.
Solare: Linking to the free demo here.
Arcadia: Name your price type game, art style looks neat. Haven't played yet.
Solarpunk: Coming soon, a game of floating islands and building airships. Looks neat but it isn't out yet.
Mikiwam Solarpunk Herbalism: A game where you use herbs to run a shop and influance people. Looks neat.
Farm Folks: As of me writing this it's not out yet. Looks like a 3d farming sim with a cute art style.
Gilded Shadows: A solarpunk vs cyberpunk visual novel. Not really a visual novel type guy, but maybe someone else is.
Re Fresh: A harvest moon like game not out yet about saving and interacting with a town as a cute little robot. Looks neat.
Sunline: A 3d running game taking place in a solarpunk city. Run fast enough to save the town. Also it's free, so that's nice.
Power to the People: Wondered weather to include this or not. A game about running a power company trying to deliver power to a small region. Really good at showing off all the different pros and cons of all power types. Would recommend.
Save the Earth: Right there on the tin, how hard can it really be? Oh and it's free, go for it.
Stardew Valley. I've wondered weather or not to include this, but at it's core Stardew Valley has deep themes of environmentalism and community building. The game is a farming simulator I've thrown an embarrassing amount of time into. The game starts with the player's character quitting their dead end job at a soul sucking company that seems to be Amazon/Wallmart/Dollar General all in one. They arrive in town to their grandfather's abandoned farmstead and begin getting to work trying to get the farm into shape. Working the land by fishing/mining/foraging/fighting monsters/ and as you probably guessed farming is the primary gameplay loop. But the deeper game is becoming a member of the community in the town helping the residents out and letting them help you. The game also makes an interesting choice for how to advance and unlock new features. There's a Dollar General stand in that's nearly bankrupting the locally owned general store. The player has the choice of weather or not to support the Dollar General Corp and be able to buy seeds on Wednesday, or pursue the questline with fey sprites appearing around town repairing things as they go, all you need to do is make offerings to them. If any of this sounds in the least bit interesting, I recommend giving it a play.
My Time At Portia: Post Apocalyptic farming simulator. Much scavenge from the old world to build a homestead in this Stardew valley like game. Or just explore the town on the tranquil shore.
My Time At Sandrock: The spiritual sequel to My Time At Portia, this time in the desert with cowboys.
No Place like Home: Humans are pretty much all gone from the earth. They trashed it, and now it's up to the protagonist to clean it all up with the help of some super intelligent chickens. Has a good deal of walle vibes.
Games to be played in Browser:
Solarpunk Games on Itch.
Solarpunkification: Little Arcady game where the objective is to avoid the cops while guerilla gardening.
Mycelium Child: Short Sci Fi interactive fiction game you can play in your browser. Would recommend, times change and we change with them
Epoch of Rest: Looks neat, haven't played yet. Another short interactive fiction game.
The Forest Train: Another short interactive fiction game. Just s short trip on a train through a solarpunk world. Kinda neat.
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