In 2018, for its Tor.com Publishing imprint, Tor Books commissioned science fiction author Becky Chambers to write a two-book novella series in the emerging solarpunk genre.

Without their AI and robot workers and high-tech automated factories, the humans switch to a sustainable solarpunk lifestyle, with farms and small communities.

[5] Critics praised the novella as a feel-good, "joyful experience" with Jacob Aron of New Scientist saying that it left a "warm, fuzzy feeling inside" after reading.

"[6] Writer Amal El-Mohtar criticized "moments...found jarring in their familiarity, where the thing depicted is so fundamentally at odds with the society Dex seems to inhabit that [it feels] dislocat[ing]."

She found that seeing issues such as social media usage being pitted against "Dex's world of generosity and equity" was jarring, but praised the hopeful and optimistic tone all the same.