Comment by AdrianB1

I grew up with sci-fi as it was one of the very few genres allowed in Communist Romania. It was a mix of authors from Asimov to Strugatski, from Philip K. Dick to Ursula K Le Guin. It was sometimes very dark, sometimes moderate, but overall even Asimov's future is not optimistic in many ways, but I don't think I missed anything or it was better to be different. I did not become a grumpy pessimist nor an antisocial geek, I think reading a lot made me a better person overall, including the mix of sci-fi that was for sure not optimistic.