Recent optimistic science fiction?

[Altherion]

I was looking at old science fiction and I noticed that a lot of the old, famous universes were a lot more optimistic than the modern variety. For example, consider Star Trek in the United States or the works of the Strugatsky brothers in the Soviet Union (both originating in the 1960s). Both feature post-scarcity societies where most of the problems plaguing ours have been eliminated. Of course, much of the time the story follows the characters operating at the edge of these societies as their lives are more exciting, but even so the values of the nearly utopian culture inform their actions. That is, when they encounter a new planet or something of the sort they don't try to strip-mine it for whatever resources it has regardless of who or what is there at the time. However, this vision of the future seems to have gone out of style -- there are some examples from the 1970s and 1980s (e.g. I.M. Banks Culture series), but not much later than that. The existing universes continued as long as the authors lived or even beyond that when there was a continuity of ownership (as in the case of Star Trek), but new ones are rare.

When I look at modern science fiction, the most famous worlds both in literature and on television (e.g. Firefly or the Expanse or Old Man's War) feature societies which are basically the same as ours, but with better technology and more widely spread out. Does anyone know of recently (i.e. past decade or two) created worlds where humanity has transcended our current problems in some way rather than simply updating them according to the circumstances?

[maarsen]

I have read just about everything Kim Robinson has written and I suppose  he could be considered an optimistic writer. It is just that you need to go through hell first. 

Neal  Stephenson is another writer who can be considered an optimist. Seveneves may start with a decidedly pessimistic premise but things do get better in the long run.

[maarsen]

10 minutes ago, Mandy said:

I personally find The Expanse series (Leviathan Wakes is the first book and the series only gets better) by James S.A. Corey to be optimistic, even though very bad things do happen.  I personally have a difficult time reading too much negativity (how the hell I came to a board about ASOIAF, got involved and stayed for so long, I'll never understand.)  I read Cormac McCarthy's The Road and it seriously affected my mood for quite some time.  It's unhealthy for me to read such downers 

If you find any other positive scifi, please do tell.  I love Richard Morgan, but his scifi is decidedly darker.  Thanks @maarsen for reminding me to read Seveneves!!

I share your reluctance to read downers. I get the same way. Any time I can help you I will. Right now I have to get ready for work but I will work on that list.

[Altherion]

15 hours ago, Triskan said:

I have not read any of the authors in this article, but this piece may be what you're looking for. 

Thanks. I've read it and I think it mainly talks about Kim Stanley Robertson. This is the type of work that I meant, but again, his most famous stories are from 2-3 decades ago (although it appears he has written some new stuff which I will check out).

2 hours ago, Mandy said:

I personally find The Expanse series (Leviathan Wakes is the first book and the series only gets better) by James S.A. Corey to be optimistic, even though very bad things do happen.

I meant something a bit different. The Expanse is what I would consider realistic: it is not dystopian (well, at least not everywhere) and things might end well for the central characters, but humanity itself is practically the same as it is now -- even the humans modified enough to inspire a kind of racism are still obviously human. Contrast this to some of the older books wherein a future Earthling is hopelessly confused upon encountering a society like the one we have now.

[polishgenius]

While Alastair Reynolds is best known for his decidedly darker Revelation Space universe, his Poseidon's Children series is based on this premise- let's imagine what humanity can do! It's about the journey there so you won't encounter that world fully-formed.


It doesn't quite fit the kind of worldbuilding you're talking about but one of my favourite optimistic SF books ever is the wonderful Kethani, by Eric Brown. Rather than being about such a society from the inside, it's about how humanity would react to first contact with such a utopic-seeming society and what it offers, so there are the expected human reactions (it's presented in the form of vignettes and short stories from the perspective of a series of people from a particular village), but the overall tone is optimistic. It's a book I absolutely loved when I read it a few years back, doesn't get nearly enough chat imo.


Karen Lord's Best Of All Possible Worlds might be worth a look. The world's not quite utopic, but it's taken a step along the way, and the tone of the piece, despite a dark start, is optimistic and very much a romantic take on future-space.

[williamjm]

My first thought was Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet. I'd say it's definitely an optimistic book, although if you're looking primarily at the world/society it's maybe not optimistic in the way you're looking for.

I'd say Ken Macleod has a couple of optimistic settings in The Cassini Division and Learning The World, although most of the time he's more pessimistic about future societies.

[Joe Pesci]

I just finished the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown, it contains some of the elements you may be looking for. And it's really a fantastic series to read.

[Darth Richard II]

[polishgenius]

I've not read Red Rising yet - well, the first few pages- but isn't it a dystopia? Like, literally the opposite of what OP asked for?

[Darth Richard II]

I don't want to spoil but I think certain events in book 5 of the expanse disqualify it for anything remotly considered optimistic.

[Muwhahaha]

Yeah, Red Rising is not what you want.  Poseidon's Children is a great series and very optimistic, in my opinion.  I highly recommend it. 

[Maester Llama]

Yeah, Red Rising is ... not this. Pretty much the opposite of this. There's an optimism in Red Rising insofar as the series is about a desire and a determination to enact a revolution, for sure, I agree, but the society that's actually depicted throughout the trilogy is straight-up dystopic, racist and classist to an enormous degree.

 

Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch trilogy, while I think it's wonderful, falls into a similar place in some ways: On the level of what happens to a number of the individual characters it's an optimistic work, sometimes extremely so, filled with hope, but it takes place in a society fraught with darkness and inequality and colonialism.

 

I would second Becky Chambers' The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet as coming at least closer to what's being looked for: Chambers' Galactic Commons isn't a utopia, and humanity [as one of the member species of the GC] isn't free of flaws, but there's certainly been an evolution in humanity relative to our current moment, and the GC is making an honest -- though sometimes pretty flawed -- attempt to run a just and positive galaxy. It's a very socially optimistic book.

[Jo498]

I am somewhat confused: A lot of the famous science fiction from the late 19th through the mid-20th century is not all that optimistic. Of the four of five most famous HG Wells stories I would not call a single one "optimistic". How many of PK Dicks stories are "optimistic"? Even technocratic space opera is usually not simply optimistic, is it? Part of this might be, that on the one hand, optimistic stories often tend to be trite (one needs some conflict for a story, even if there is a happy ending), on the other hand that SF is almost always a social commentary on current society, exaggerating some conflicts or tendencies.

I have not read any Strugatzky yet. Which ones are recommendable?

[polishgenius]

The only Strugatzky I've read so far is the first 100 pages or so of Hard to Be a God (also: seen the first half hour of the recent adaptation of the film). While I certainly want to get back to both, so far it's not at all optimistic... but then the book was written as a scathing and very ballsy condemnation of the Soviet rule there at the time, among other things, so I can imagine their less directly political SF might have been brighter.

I third A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.

[Mars447]

The Confederation series by Tanya Huff is pretty optimistic, in the sense that yes, humanity can get along with other species and yes,

peace can be won after a long and bloody war.

[williamjm]

Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga might qualify to some extent, while human society might have too many flaws to count as a utopia, I seem to remember that there hadn't been a serious wars in decades/centuries at the beginning of the series.

27 minutes ago, Mandy said:

Yeah I guess you're right lmao  On a sidenote, for some reason I had a calendar reminder that told me Babylon's Ashes came out tomorrow.  I got super excited, went to Amazon and saw the release date is actually November 1.  BIG SADS  

I also thought it was meant to be coming out this month and was disappointed to find out it had been pushed back.

[Altherion]

3 hours ago, Darth Richard II said:

I don't want to spoil but I think certain events in book 5 of the expanse disqualify it for anything remotly considered optimistic.

I know what you mean, but it is not necessarily the case. If you have read the works of Isaac Asimov, in one of the later robot novels, one of the robots determines that, roughly, you can't make an omelet without breaking at least one egg. More specifically (and more of a larger spoiler):

Spoiler

He argues that for humanity to properly expand throughout the galaxy, an event similar in nature to what happens in the 5th Expanse book must take place (albeit in a much slower way and with less casualties -- though ultimately far more final).

 

1 hour ago, Jo498 said:

I am somewhat confused: A lot of the famous science fiction from the late 19th through the mid-20th century is not all that optimistic. Of the four of five most famous HG Wells stories I would not call a single one "optimistic". How many of PK Dicks stories are "optimistic"? Even technocratic space opera is usually not simply optimistic, is it? Part of this might be, that on the one hand, optimistic stories often tend to be trite (one needs some conflict for a story, even if there is a happy ending), on the other hand that SF is almost always a social commentary on current society, exaggerating some conflicts or tendencies.

You are right. The works I was thinking of appear to be specific to the second half of the 20th century. There are communist societies (the Strugatzky books are only one example -- a lot of Soviet science fiction was along these lines), anarcho-libertarian societies (e.g. Heinlein), socialist-libertarian (e.g. Le Guin) and probably some other flavors which I'm forgetting.

Quote

I have not read any Strugatzky yet. Which ones are recommendable?

I think they're most famous for the Noon Universe. My favorite of their works is probably Prisoners of Power (which also happens to be one of the most bizarrely renamed books that I've heard of -- the literal translation from Russian would be Inhabited Island).

1 hour ago, DjourouLoveMe? said:

The only Strugatzky I've read so far is the first 100 pages or so of Hard to Be a God (also: seen the first half hour of the recent adaptation of the film). While I certainly want to get back to both, so far it's not at all optimistic... but then the book was written as a scathing and very ballsy condemnation of the Soviet rule there at the time, among other things, so I can imagine their less directly political SF might have been brighter.

I think practically all of their works address contemporary Soviet society and, to a lesser extent other nations (Japan, Germany, the US). And yes, in that novel and quite a few others where the Earthlings are trying to make other societies a better place, things don't always go well. However, keep in mind that the Earth and its colonies have transcended our problems (not much of a spoiler since the title gives it away) and there's every reason to believe that the societies they interact with will eventually do the same -- it's only accelerating the process that is problematic.

To everyone: thank you for the recommendations, I will take a look.

[Astromech]

You may be interested in Project Hieroglyph: http://hieroglyph.asu.edu/