Posted January 31, 2014
I love sci-fi of all mediums, I've read/watched/played more of it than any other genre. As far as literature, my favorites are pretty standard for the most part. Asimov, Bradbury, Phillip K Dick, Herbert, Card, 1984 and A Brave New World, and so on.
The problem with bright, cheery futures is that it tends not to be very interesting or dramatic. That and authors going out to address problems in modern society through the genre is probably why a lot of the best stuff is cynical. As others have mentioned, Asimov and Clarke are usually fairly upbeat. Foundation is fantastic, but a lot of it is about building that future. If you're looking for fun, I'd probably recommend his robot series before Foundation. Particularly his detecive stories, like The Caves of Steel. Exciting adventure but not overly serious. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy kind of goes without saying when it comes to sci-fi comedy. Some series end up being pretty positive but take a while to get to that point. The Ender series comes to mind.
Star Trek novels would tend to be some of the most blatantly "positive about humanity" sci-fi novels, but I wouldn't recommend most of them to people who aren't already familiar with the various Star Trek series.
Someone mentioned Wells being dystopic, I have to disagree with that. People like CS Lewis (his Space Trilogy is actually really good sci-fi too) wrote novels in response to Wells' various utopian paradise novels (like "A Modern Utopia"). As far early sci-fi in general, a lot of it is fun and feels fresh before some of the formulas grew stale.
Since nobody has really mentioned him, Ray Bradbury is one I'd highly recommend. Obviously he has dystopic stuff, but his writing is very enjoyable and easy to read. Guys like Asimov and Clarke have dry writing styles, so Bradbury's more poetic prose is a very welcome change of pace. The Martian Chronicles remains one of my favorites.
The problem with bright, cheery futures is that it tends not to be very interesting or dramatic. That and authors going out to address problems in modern society through the genre is probably why a lot of the best stuff is cynical. As others have mentioned, Asimov and Clarke are usually fairly upbeat. Foundation is fantastic, but a lot of it is about building that future. If you're looking for fun, I'd probably recommend his robot series before Foundation. Particularly his detecive stories, like The Caves of Steel. Exciting adventure but not overly serious. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy kind of goes without saying when it comes to sci-fi comedy. Some series end up being pretty positive but take a while to get to that point. The Ender series comes to mind.
Star Trek novels would tend to be some of the most blatantly "positive about humanity" sci-fi novels, but I wouldn't recommend most of them to people who aren't already familiar with the various Star Trek series.
Someone mentioned Wells being dystopic, I have to disagree with that. People like CS Lewis (his Space Trilogy is actually really good sci-fi too) wrote novels in response to Wells' various utopian paradise novels (like "A Modern Utopia"). As far early sci-fi in general, a lot of it is fun and feels fresh before some of the formulas grew stale.
Since nobody has really mentioned him, Ray Bradbury is one I'd highly recommend. Obviously he has dystopic stuff, but his writing is very enjoyable and easy to read. Guys like Asimov and Clarke have dry writing styles, so Bradbury's more poetic prose is a very welcome change of pace. The Martian Chronicles remains one of my favorites.
Post edited January 31, 2014 by rockyfan4
