I gotta admit—I really struggle with dark, morally gray stories with heavy, bleak endings. I have to ration those kinds of books, limiting myself to one every 4 or 6 months. Most of it is because of depression, my constant shadow—past experience tells me that I’ll take on all those heavy emotions, and it’ll make for a pretty unpleasant week or so afterward. The rest? Personal preference for the shinier side of life.
Don’t get me wrong, I do think darker stories are important, especially as a way of processing trauma and addressing big issues. And hell, some people just like them! That’s cool. You do you. For me, though, I want to leave a book feeling like the world isn’t so bad, like there’s hope for us all if we can just keep going. And so, this list was born!
Let me clarify, though—these books aren’t shiny happy rainbows all the time. There’s betrayal. There’s death. There’s confict. But what really matters in a Book That Leaves You With Hope For Humanity is the attitude of the main characters and the overall tone of the work. Does each moment drip with existential dread and mounting hopelessness as obstacle after obstacle destroys the good guys? Nope, disqualified. Is there persistence in the face of hardship, a hopeful ending, and characters who are, deep down, Generally Good People? Sign me up.
So whether you deal with mental health issues and need to take care of yourself, or you’re just feeling crushed by The World and All Its Stuff, here are five books I hope will leave you feeling like your soul is filled with stars instead of crushing black holes.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
All you can do, Rosemary—all any of us can do—is work to be something positive instead. That is a choice that every sapient must make every day of their life. The universe is what we make of it. It’s up to you to decide what part you will play.
If this book and its companion novels have been on your TBR for a long time, please let this be the final kick in the ass you need to actually read them. You won’t find action-packed shoot-em-up sci-fi here—remember, this is a book about the long way. What you’ll find instead are characters you will fiercely love and deeply understand, and brilliant commentary on war, the lenses through which we each view the world, and what makes a being worthy of personhood from culture to culture. The book is full of little gems of positive wisdom like the one above, and you’ll leave this book with a renewed sense of your place in the universe and greater respect for the disparate life experiences of the people around you.
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The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet
The Light at the Bottom of the World by London Shah
I believe that any dad who raises his child to believe the world is full of magic, and that there’s always hope no matter what, truly deserves for her to rescue him one day when he needs it.
This book is one of the most unique debuts of 2019, and far too many people have missed out on it. British Muslim protagonist, submarine races in a future where London is completely underwater, a Good Dad who has been mysteriously arrested, and some next level conspiracy stuff. It’s book one of a duology, so you gotta know that there won’t be easy or satisfying answers here yet. What lands this book on the list, though, is the way the theme of hope is woven throughout the book. The quote above is just one example of many. Leyla is a protagonist I’m thrilled to follow along with, because her determination and relentless spirit make me feel more powerful and capable, too. Also, that cover!
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The Light at the Bottom of the World
The Last Namsara by Kristen Ciccarelli
Maybe Greta was right. Maybe everyone did have a song in them—or a story. One all their own. If that were so, Asha had found hers.
And here she stood at the beginning of it.
This one may not scream “hopeful” on the surface. The main character is a dragonslayer girl with a tragic past and a bleak future, forced into a death dealing role she doesn’t want and a marriage she’s repelled by, and living in a world full of slavery and selfish politics. The story, though! The awesome dragons who are lured by the power of storytelling! Lest you be turned off by the idea of hunting and killing dragons, I will give you a very minor spoiler and say that things… evolve over the course of the book. Most importantly, the ending filled me with the exact feeling I’m going for with this list, and the same feeling I try to end all my own books with—that feeling of the world opening up before you, with healing and possibilities and brighter futures and change on the horizon. Best of all, there are two companion novels, and the covers of all three are GORGEOUS gold-flecked additions to your shelf.
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The Last Namsara
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Eason
Courage is the best companion when going into the unknown.
An unusual and unique read with a majorly voicey omniscient narrator. This book gets called “The Princess Bride meets Princess Leia,” and… yeah, actually, that works. It’s a full integration of fairy tale tropes in a spacey science fiction setting. Our hero, Rory, is fiercely smart, has a magical BS meter, and can cook up a political scheme with the best of them. I will never be tired of girls breaking out of the cages they’re born into, and Rory does it with wit, humor, and mountains of courage.
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How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse
Nyxia by Scott Reintgen
You get in there and fight, Emmett. Be worthy. Not in their eyes, but in yours. Break the rules you need to, but never forget who you are and where you come from. When they knock you down, and they will, don’t you quit on me.
This book doesn’t pull punches. There will be deaths that hit you in the feels, and plenty of twists and turns. There’s also powerful social commentary, a fighting spirit, and that relentless drive to do what’s right for family, friends, and humanity. This now-complete trilogy wraps up with plenty of drama, action, and pain, but never loses that feeling that got it on this list to begin with.
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Nyxia
M.K. England is an author and YA librarian who grew up on the Space Coast of Florida and now calls rural Virginia home. When they’re not writing or librarianing, MK can be found drowning in fandom, rolling dice at the D&D table, digging in the garden, or feeding their video game addiction. They love Star Wars with a desperate, heedless passion. It’s best if you never speak of Sherlock Holmes in their presence. You’ll regret it. M.K. is the author of THE DISASTERS (2018) and SPELLHACKER (January 2020), both from Harper Teen.
The Last Namsara and the companions have been some of the best books I’ve read recently and have somehow been flying under the radar in book world. I thought all the world building through folk stories was such a wonderful way to help expand the world beyond the characters you were reading about in the moment. Glad to see it on your list!
I liked Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn about a post collapse society. Most of the people were doing their best to get along and not repeat the mistakes that got their elders into the mess.
Funny, both myself and the majority of people I know that struggle with mental health issues tend to enjoy emotional suffering in our fiction. It provides a healthy outlet for negative emotions that we usually only experience in the context our own crappy lives. Having hope is nice, but not necessary for me to still get that feeling from something. I’ll take a really well written tragedy over a happy ending any day. There is a certain niche of grimdark, the more extreme ones that aren’t written as well as the rest of the genre, that do just bring me down in the way you describe though.
That said, for me my answer to which series does this for me the best is probably the Malazan series. I think Deadhouse Gates in particular is the stand-out in that regard for me, being a flat out hard tragedy in which many Very Bad Things happen, but the series’ themes of compassion and fighting against indifference to the suffering of others help elevate it beyond the cruel fates the characters endure.
Tamora Pierce’s books collectively come to my mind first. They deal with a lot of dark themes — war, slavery, murder, sexual violence, poverty, all kinds of bigotry, horrific things done to children (and adults), and more. But their protagonist casts are full of unshakeably compassionate (and likeable) people, who struggle with their human flaws but successfully pour their courage and intelligence into fighting against those atrocities and causing positive change on every scale of time and space. This applies to not just the central protagonists, but their many friends and colleagues/allies; very seldom does anyone fight alone.
Thank you for these. Much of the newer fantasy I read isn’t grim-dark per-se; but it doesn’t leave you feeling hopeful for the future. Butcher’s Dresden; Hines’ Libromancer; Storss’ Laundry Files all in worlds steadily marching towards a seemingly hopeless future. I mean, sure, the heroes will most likely save the day in the end; but we aren’t at that end and the doom and gloom is getting to me.
I’m going to need to check out several of these! I’ve read (and loved) Becky Chambers’ books but the others are all new to me and sound interesting.
I do not mind books with a darker tone— Karin Lowachee’s Warchild books are my favorite scifi, as an example, and they definitely don’t give you much hope for humanity. So I tend to alternate them with books like those on this list. I recently read Laurie Marks’ quarter starting with Fire Logic, which also left me on balance more hopeful despite the often-horrible experiences its characters dealt with.
One more in the heap:
Shine: An Anthology of Near-Future Optimistic Science Fiction, editted by Jetse de Vries
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy ends on a positive note, which is saying something in light of all the angst and disagreements, politics, uprisings, etc. that occur throughout.
A Canticle For Leibowitz ends on a hopeful note. For humanity, if not for Earth.
@3/DataStriker — I also struggle with depression, and like M. K. England, I find that dark books can send me into a bad place. It’s okay if Dementors exist in the novel, but I need for the protagonists to know that they can overcome them.
I spend a lot of my time with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, and there’s a reason for that; I need that feeling of hope to counter my endogenous depression.
Almost everything Spider Robinson writes.
I personally find Iain M Banks to be quite uplifting and really on net optimistic, despite the many dark things that almost invariably happen in his novels.
I would add The Goblin Emperor to this list. Following Maia as he struggles to be a better ruler and a better person than his father, despite the darkness of his upbringing and the court intrigue around him, and especially how he comes to realize that his relationships are what make this possible. That and my reread of everything Becky Chambers were the best things I read last year.
Station Eleven. By Emily St. John Mandel.
Rather old and obscure now but consider Michael Coney’s Hello, Summer, Goodbye.
Thanks for these recommendations. I look forward to reading them. Also, I’d add Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140. It paints a very plausible yet hopeful picture of a near-future humanity struggling and learning to thrive in the setting of cataclysmically altered climates.
This may not seem obvious (alien technology taking over people, huge asteroids destroying earth, cough cough), but The Expanse is such a heartwarming series. Sure, bad things happen, but people genuinely care for one another and the narrative such a comfortable feeling, even as, you know, millions of people are dying on Eros. The crew of the Rocinante, particularly, are loyal to the death. Even the bad guys have “good” motives, generally. People’s good will and loyalty make this a hope for humanity book.
I would highly recommend The Watchmaker of Filligree St. and Witchmark! Such loyal and dedicated characters. And I enthusiastically agree with anything Becky Chambers writes, The Goblin Emperor and most of the Expanse novels. I am so glad to read this list! There are many to add to my TBR list.
Guy Gavriel Kay’s Tigana is about a small diverse group of people fighting to take their land back from the sorcerers who’ve conquered and divided it, and since I’m putting it on this list it’s no surprise that they do succeed, but it’s a hard struggle. It just gives you hope that people can come together and learn from each other and not give up no matter how long the road is or how your heart may break while you’re getting there. One of the strengths of the book is that even someone you thought was evil can fall to his knees and cry because of how much he loves.
And of course everything Terry Pratchett wrote.
Thanks for starting this list! I enjoy a good tragedy, but also try to leaven the grimdark with hopeful reads regularly. After all, part of why I read is to *escape* the world when it’s crappy.
Josiah Bancroft’s Tower of Babylon is great for this list- the tower might have its fair share of villains, but the main crew is lovable and hopeful. They kind of remind me of Becky Chambers’s bunch, but on an airship instead of a spaceship.
Rachel Aaron’s Nice Dragon urban fantasy series has a charming, pacifist protoganist and his perky mage best friend doing their part to make evil dragons nicer, and succeeding sometimes.
Harry Connolly’s A Key, An Egg, An Unfortunate Remark, also urban fantasy, also features a pacifist protoganist making the world better, except she’s a granny and not a dragon.
Ilona Andrews’s UF protagonists tend to be likeable folks improving the status quo, as are Gail Carriger’s steampunk crew and Max Gladstone’s wizard bureaucrats. And the status quo in their worlds really ain’t that bad, just a bunch of magical shenanigans.
Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga always makes me hopeful for some reason.
Hooray for reading stories about inspiring people doing inspiring things!
Do webcomics count? At least completed ones? Let me point you at Digger, most of whose important characters try to do the right thing most of the time, and some of whom succeed.
Thank you for this list, M.K.. I’ll be looking for several books you mentioned and some from previous commenters. I’ll add my vote for Katherine Addison’s The Goblin Emperor and add a recommendation for Linesman by SK Dunstall.
Almost any Andre Norton.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison might be the most hopeful book I’ve ever read. The protagonist had an awful childhood, and is very affected by it, but hasn’t been turned into a villain by it. Instead he muddles by, trying to figure out what the morally correct thing to do is for all the problems he has to resolve. It’s a fantastic book
@23 kareni, The new Dunstall books, Stars Beyond and Stars Uncharted, are better than the Linesman books, which I also enjoyed. And have a positive view of humanity along with some interesting ideas.
@26 Kate, I read Stars Beyond some time ago and am awaiting the library’s copy of Stars Uncharted. Thanks for the favorable review!
You’re talking specifically to me. :) Okay, I promise, as soon as I finish the trilogy I’m on now…