Recommend ‘cosy’ sci-fi?

Bujold, Bujold, Bujold.

Her books are well-written and character-driven, funny and thoughtful. The Vorkosigan saga has a bit of everything: thriller, mystery, military, romance, comedy, social satire.

Read a sample of Shards of Honor and see if it is your thing. Someone on here told me to do that, and before I had even finished the sample, I had ordered the whole book.

@highlandcoo if you like Trollope, consider giving Jo Walton a go. Especially Tooth and Claw which posits a world in which the conventions of Trollopian fiction are biological imperatives, for dragons. Her WWII alternative history trilogy starting with Ha'penny is also v good.

Station 11 - Emily St John Mandel. Maybe a little close to home with its pandemic plot, but a good tale, well told

The Stone Man - Luke Smitherd. It's a series of 3. Maybe a little dark

The first 15 lives of Harry August - Claire North

Anything by Jasper Forde - he takes a different angle on the world. A good laugh

The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch - not so much scifi as fantasy / magic

Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro

the King's Watch series by Mark Hayden - more fantasy / magic than scifi

I adore Terry Pratchett - but could be a bit marmite. Don't necessarily start with the first book - go for The Night Watch books or The Witches ones to get the hang of the humour

Huge 2nd for the Murderbot diaries.

Cat Valente's Space Opera: Eurovision, in spaaaace.

The Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold may also fit the bill. Start with Shards of Honour.

I find Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch quite cosy but it is also fairly high-concept.

The Ketty Jay series by Chris Wooding is very Firefly-like (if you watched the show) though less well-written.

Fantasy: The Goblin Emperor by Kate Addison (now has a sequel which I've yet to read)

@Aecor interesting thread - I've sometimes wondered if I'm missing out on something really good by not trying more sci-fi.

I enjoyed His Dark Materials (persuaded by my teenage son) and read
The Hitchhiker's Guide when everyone else was doing so at university.

I tried the Gods one by Neil Gaiman but didn't love it. And when Iain M Banks died I set out to read all his books (already a fan of his Iain Banks mainstream stuff) but ran out of steam after three or four.

My favourite authors are Jane Austen, George Eliot and Trollope so pretty far removed from sci-fi! I might give Becky Chambers a go though.

The Elizabeth Bear ones are 'Ancestral Night' and 'Machine'

Also some of Elizabeth Bear's books

As soon as I read the thread title I thought of Becky Chambers!

The Salvagers series by Alex White has a similar feel.

I feel similarly to you about fantasy and sci-fi! Becky Chambers is quite unique I think - and fairly divisive - I've seen her work described as "feeling like fanfiction" because you're basically just hanging out with characters rather than there being an overarching narrative, which I quite like TBH.

Anyway this is what I have enjoyed:

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy has a similar feeling to me to Becky Chambers. It does have a plot but it's daft and it doesn't matter if you follow it or not - the characters and world building are fun.

The His Dark Materials series too, technically fantasy, but more character driven. The Sterkarm Handshake.

I don't know if you like YA dystopian stuff - I liked the Divergent series and Allie Condie Matched series. Also The Hunger Games. I think these arw all films now but I liked the books.

Not a book but if you've never watched Dr. Who I would recommend this too as it has similar feelings.

I don't know whether Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman would fit the bill? I've never quite managed to get into them but always hear tham recommended.

Well, was about to start by recommending Becky Chambers Of well known authors, the Murderbot series by Martha Wells would probably be a good next choice.

Less well known, but I really rate Gemsigns and the sequels by Stephanie Saulter.