Recs if you like A Prayer for the Crown-Shy...
the quiet side of tomorrow
Not all science fiction is laser battles and intergalactic warfare! This list is aiming for the softer side of sci-fi. The kind where the stars hum quietly, the characters pause to breathe, and discoveries are found within. ✨
I’m attempting to cultivate a collection of books that are low stakes, cozy sci-fi, filled with found family, gentle exploration, and quiet wonder. 😌
If you have recommendations, please leave them in the comments! 📝
Dig Your Toes into the Dirt: Solarpunk Futures
"We’re solarpunks because the only other options are denial or despair” - Adam Flynn Solarpunk is a genre of sci-fi that has emerged as a response to modern problems: climate change, technofascism, and rising individualism at the expense of community. Solarpunk is inherently optimistic and envisions the future I would want to live in.
Two and Through
Duologies. Duologies! A list full of duologies. This has a collection of titles I'm interested in and some recommended to me. To save you the trouble, I made sure to put both books in a duology in this list. Enjoy! 💐
quick reads for your untethered soul
Being human is hard! This list is for shorter stories/books/novellas that can help ground us, offer connection, and remind us of what truly matters in this dumpster fire of a world.
Please share your recs in the comments! Let's keep this list growing!
Positive post-capitalist books
Someone made a post about this and I thought it was a great list idea. I know I really need books that have more positivity and hope for the future, so hopefully this will help someone else too.
Let me know if I get anything wrong. Please comment recommendations!
They are just trans okay
Books with trans characters that are not just about being trans
I gotta finish my reading challenge 🏃🏻🏃🏻♀️🏃
Short books that you can read in a sitting, to help you achieve your yearly reading goal 🤭🥳 Feel free to mention anything else from the list, I'm so glad to add & check them out 😁
Friendly Futures
when you want to imagine this might all work out okay in the end after all; books set in utopian or at least semi-functional futures. suggestions always welcome!
Solarpunk Sci-Fi
I did some digging for a bookclub and gathered some solarpunk books, and why not share them here? (I haven't read them all) If you have more suggestions I'll add them😊
Solarpunk is a sci-fi subgenre that envisions futures build on renewable energy, greentech and community. It is mostly meant to offer a positive alternative to dystopian visions of the future. The punk aspect is usually seen as the vision of the positive future, which is considered radical and rebellious itself.
But WAIT. There’s hope. ✨FICTION✨
Straight from the Solarpunk Manifesto, “We are solarpunks because the only other options are denial or despair.”
What if there’s more to our future? What if we were optimistic?
Below are the fiction books that have made it to O.E. Tearmann’s Open List of Positive and Hopeful Futures
I’ll make another list for the nonfiction and for the anthologies. Feel free to suggest any recs!
low stakes & low stress
my ideal bedtime read because I will stay up until 3 am if I get too invested in or anxious/stressed about a plot
Books From a Nonhuman POV
Animals, Aliens, Robots, and Monsters! Books to get you out of your human skin and into something with different instincts and senses
coze-maxxing: fantasy style
it's a cozy fantasy kind of winter (bonus points if its sapphic)
Books that healed my robot heart
There will be a time after big tech
Solar Punk 🌞🌿🏙
A working list of books under the "solar punk" aesthetic. Open to suggestions ✨️
Solarpunk is a literary, artistic, and social movement, that envisions and works toward actualizing a sustainable future interconnected with nature and community 🫶
Under 10 hours - Short, workday audiobooks
Audiobooks that are less than 10 hours long and are safe for work AKA not aiming to get you (too) horned up at your desk (no guarantees that you won't cry or get the creeps though). Recommendations welcome!
Short and/or Quick to Read for Neurodiverse Brains
All are very welcome to this list, but I've geared it towards my fellow neurospicy folk with busy Brains who need some high dopamine sparks from their books...and for it to not take forever for us to read a book and we lose our interest/hyperfocus 🤣🥰
Adult non-binary stories
Adult novels, novellas, short stories, and graphic novels prominently featuring non-binary characters across genres. Many stories lean horror and/or erotic 🔞🔞🔞
Recommendations welcome!
✦ I have not read all of these books - if you notice anything that seems to be mis-labeled/mis-placed on this list, please let me know! ✦
Solarpunk reads
A lil collection of books that envisions collective futures that are vibrant with life, as well as the actions, policies, and technologies that make them real. A good mixture of fiction and non-fiction!
All solarpunk should be anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, and anti-imperialist.
robots you’ll want to put in your pocket
alternatively: robots and androids murderbot would begrudgingly and unintentionally befriend.
OR
robots and androids who teach us a little more about humanity, friendship, and the human condition. and also sarcasm and sardonic humour, on occasion.
