Comment by wwalker3
1 day ago
Even as a writer of optimistic sci-fi myself, it's very difficult for me to come up with more than a handful of examples that are less than ten years old.
Becky Chambers is probably the single best young author working in this genre today. She's got two great series, one that begins with "A Psalm for the Wild-Built", and one which begins with "The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet".
I'd argue Andy Weir's "Project Hail Mary" is hopeful sci-fi, and the movie adaptation was great. You could perhaps put Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Elder Race" and "Service Model" in there too, since both are pretty hopeful in overall outlook. And if you broaden to include fantasy, Travis Baldree's "Legend and Lattes" series is very much in the same vein as Becky Chambers.
It seems like hopeful sci-fi movies and TV are more common, like the recent "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds".
Perhaps the recent troubles the world is undergoing will lead to more light-hearted fare to distract us? One can only hope.
Stargate SG-1 was maybe optimistic sci-fi.
Actually it was settled in the present but it was full of good human vibes and human values.
It had an incredible vibe of “humanity is good and humanity will stand against anything bad”. It was really naive in how it described the human nature but I’m sure it was deliberate.
And also it was fun.
That was 20 years ago (1997–2006) (sorry), Eureka was a little more recent and very optimistic (2006 - 2012), the new star treks are recent but they have lost their optimism, I'm not really sure what they are.
Discovery went dark, true (sometimes literally) but I've heard the new one is positive?
And Lower Decks was absolute blast with so much Star Trek energy in it, and it was pretty optimistic too.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is fun and optimistic and knows what it is, but you're right about Picard and Discovery. Very confused shows with no good self-identity and Picard especially posits a dystopian future and dystopian responses to it which is a huge letdown for a Trek show.
Strange New World feels like TOS. Picard was amazing for season 3 (and, lord knows, most ST gets better in the later seasons).
Adding Ode to the Half-Broken [1] to the list. Read it a few weeks ago and it has stuck with me.
>Wrestling with themes of loneliness, connection, and purpose, this hope-punk sci-fi is for fans of Becky Chambers’s Monk & Robot duology
1. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/787289/ode-to-the-h...
Cyberpunk is turning into optimistic sci-fi. Competent corporations, mafia sells amazing biotech for cheap, and apartments are abundant and cheap.
...and in warhammer 40k, the warp enables faster-than-light travel; one can only read that as optimistic sci-fi by ignoring the subtext - scratch that - ignoring the text.
I really liked Paradox (1: On the Brink of Eternity, 2: Beyond Eternity, 3: Eternity). It is foundationally positive and optimistic, yet still "realistic", as far as sci-fi goes. Also not much known on the US-side, as far as I know, which is unusual for good sci-fi.
I was going to say the Commonwealth Saga is pretty optimistic until i realised thats from 2 decades ago already. Time sure flies.
I don't think Service Model is really hopeful. The society has collapsed and robots are stuck on useless errands.
Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Children of Time” is net optimistic.
Caveat: net optimistic on a grand time scale, under the assumption humanity becomes better only after it is humbled by other species first.
Came to the comments to see if anyone was talking about Becky Chambers - thank you for not disappointing me! I picked up Monk and Robot with an intention to save it for an upcoming vacation, but started reading the first few pages early and couldn't put it down. I'm really looking forward to her next book in October.
Agree. Writing optimistic scifi is tough. And writing dystopia is tough considering that we either are living in one or are on the brink of one.
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