Solarpunk discussion

Galacia Aguirre is Mediator of Otra Vida, a quasi-utopian city on the shores of a human-made lake in Death Valley. She resolves conflicts within their sustainable money-free society, and keeps the outside world from meddling in their affairs.
When a scientific method of uncovering past lives emerges, Galacia learns she’s the reincarnation of Thomas Ramsey, leader of the Planet B movement, who eschewed fixing climate change in favor of colonizing another planet.

Learning her reincarnation result shakes the foundations of Galacia’s identity and her position as Mediator, threatening to undermine the good she’s done in this lifetime.

Fearing a backlash, she keeps the results secret while dealing with her political rival for Mediator, and outsiders who blame Otra Vida for bombings that Galacia is sure they had nothing to do with. But under the unforgiving sun of Death Valley, secrets have a way of coming to light.

oh great! Looking forward to this! :-)
especially since it's written by the woman who brought together the Solar Punk Summers /Winters collections which we have already enjoyed...

Nicole wrote: "oh great! Looking forward to this! :-)
especially since it's written by the woman who brought together the Solar Punk Summers /Winters collections which we have already enjoyed..."

Completely agree. 🙂

There. I’ve read it in one go. Hadn’t realized beforehand it was so short, almost a novella.

The first part had a bit too much description in it for my taste, telling us what exactly can be found in this solarpunk oasis. Also, I wish that in utopian/solarpunk novels, all such details actually make sense, i.e. are good suggestions for the real world. With this book, the author admits that flooding Death Valley is perhaps not a real solution. I might add that glasshouse gardens make more sense in cold countries than in hot deserts, and vertical farming in cities more than open landscapes, and electric light farming (if at all, then) in situations where sunlight is not abundantly available. And so on.
Maybe I am too picky. How picky are you? With this one, or with utopian /solarpunk novels in general?

I did get drawn into the story later on, and was happy to see that the characters do find many of the wisdom solutions I would have wanted to suggest to them anyway. I liked the general spirit and many of the conversations. On looking for more than an either-or scenario, on living with past wrongs, on complementarity rather than competition etc. Happy to discuss in more detail with anyone who has read up to that point...

I still haven’t started. I’ve been really busy, but I’m going to order a copy today.

I finally got around to reading it, and I really liked it. It is short, but works quite well in my opinion.

really? that's so interesting! Like I said, I got somewhat irritated by the way that technical solutions seemed to be applied out of context, so they didn't make sense any more.
Or even by inconsistencies in the social realm: these people are mature enough to have a shared bank account with no controls, but they can't even sit through a panel discussion without turning into a violent mob? I don't know...
that being said, there were a number of themes in the book I really liked

Hi Nicole. Yes, it worked for me, but of course, people have different tastes, and I’m not saying everything in this would work in real life. Like the flooding of Death Valley, I have no idea if that would work, or if it is something that is feasible to do. I do know some have actually talked about doing something similar to a part of Australia, but it hasn’t got beyond the idea stage.

However greenhouse in the desert can make sense. In cold climates greenhouses work because they make a hotter place to grow things in, but in very hot places, greenhouses can be used to hold humidity better than it would be possible out in the open. There is a problem with the heat inside the greenhouses in very hot places, but I’ve seen some interesting solutions to that.

What happens to provoke that violent reaction in the society is to me big enough that it would be hard to see how people would just sit down for a panel discussion about it. So there is a very strong reaction, but no one dies, not because of that at least. So when I read this I didn’t come across anything that stopped me enjoying this.

What themes did you like about this book?

I liked the themes of reconciliation in the novel. I read the main theme as making peace with one's own past, as well as that of others. Both individually and collectively, culturally. Forgiving our own ancestry (without accepting any lingering present-day injustices, of course). I also liked other themes of reconciliation in the novel, like that between the "scientific" and the "spiritual" communities.

I agree with you about that. I think that part is very well handled. I don’t remember reading a novel where previous lives have played such a prominent part of the plot where I thought it actually worked. It makes for an interesting connection between the past and the present, guilt and innocence. There is also the thing about why people do what they do, what is behind the actions in the past and what is behind them in the present. I found it interesting.