Recommend ‘cosy’ sci-fi?

[Aecor]

Sci-if or fantasy have never been my taste at all, so I’m completely ignorant of them, apart from Ursula LeGuin. I happened to pick up someone else’s copy of Becky Chambers’ The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in an emergency (ran out of reading material AND Kindle charge stuck in an airport) and, unexpectedly, liked it, and have read all of her work.

There must be more intelligently-written, character-driven sci-fi/fantasy which isn’t hard-boiled, very plotty or overly invested in the hard science of its own world-building, but which is basically warm and mildly feel-good, and in good prose?

All recommendations welcome!

(I keep seeing people recommend Lois McMaster Bujold, but not sure if that’s a whole different type of thing…?)

Ann McCaffery!

I suppose they are technically post apocalyptic cozy murder mysteries but Carrie Vaughn’s Bannerless and it’s sequel The Wild Dead fit the bill perfectly.
Over one holiday, where I badly sprained my ankle on the second day and could do nothing but elevate it for a week, I read the first three Becky Chambers books, both Carrie Vaugn books and The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard. They all have a very similar mood and I still struggle to separate them in my head.

I have read this! Oddly (or maybe not) in the same scenario — picked up someone else’s copy in extremis. I liked it, despite her having some odd ideas about Oxford that didn’t seem explainable via handwaving about it being ‘the future’ or an alternative universe, but haven’t liked any of her others — Blackout…?

Thank you to those who suggested Becky Chambers.. I've just started the small angry planet and I'm loving it... the characters are great!

@HenryTilneyBestBoy thanks for the Jo Walton suggestion. I've actually read the WWII trilogy and I've enjoyed alternative history novels like Fatherland and Dominion without thinking of them as sci-fi I suppose. They're not too far away from RL if that makes sense. I'll have a look at Tooth and Claw too.

I feel there might be a whole swathe of good books I'm missing out on because I'm not sure where to start.

Also came to recommend Becky Chambers! I wish there were more Wayfarers books. I hope she returns to that universe.

You could try China Mieville. His books aren’t cosy, but they are quite character-driven and full of interesting ideas about societies.

Yes, this is exactly it. I’m well-versed in contemporary and past literary fiction in several languages, but am totally ignorant about contemporary genre fiction because I don’t know anything about it. If someone says a novel name, I don’t know whether it’s the sci-fi equivalent of Ulysses or an obscure silver fork novel.

I tend to avoid crime for the same reason I avoid violent/horror films — I’m easily upset by violence or gore. I once picked up a Val McDermid novel on a recommendation, but didn’t get very far. She’s way too graphic for me. Then someone recommended Elly Griffiths, but the prose seemed very chick-litty. I like PD James, despite the insufferable Adam Dalgliesh, but have read them all countless times.

I think my fussiness about decent prose and lack of graphic violence is key!

Thanks for all recommendations on the thread. I’m about to try Shards of Honour again, and also the first Murderbot book, and possibly the Rivers of London series, and I will definitely at least look at the Amazon sample of everything someone has mentioned. (So if anyone thinks something they’ve recommended as brilliant is I’ll-served by the first few pages, please say!)

I’ve only read The City and the City, which was a brilliant concept, and well-written, but gave me a violent headache holding the setting in my head! I think I also started UnLunDun…

@Aecor as you're allowing un-cosy recommendations now 😉 As a linguist you may enjoy Miéville's Embassytown and Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others (includes the novella on which the film Arrival was based).

An alternative entry point to the Vorkosigan saga would be The Warrior's Apprentice followed by the short story The Mountains of Mourning, starring Cordelia's son, Miles, who is the protagonist for most of the series. Though admittedly neither they nor the early Cordelia books are particularly brilliant in themselves - much of it is reflected glow from the later entries. For me the sequence peaks with screwball comedy of manners A Civil Campaign (don't @ me, Mirror Dance / Memory / Komarr devotees), which is really only 3 books in if you read the collected editions!

@highlandcoo for more literary SFF that I didn't recommend earlier for not meeting all of @Aecor 's criteria:

Guy Gavriel Kay (except the dull Tolkeinesque Fionavar trilogy): further along the fantasy side of alternative history, far too lofty and epic for cosiness but well written and character-focused (although expect at least 2 cringey sex scenes per book). I particularly like the Sarantine Mosaic duology (Byzantium), The Lions of Al-Rassan (medieval Spain) and Under Heaven (Tang China).

Nicola Griffith, Hild: more fantastical than historical novelisation of the early life of St Hilda of Whitby, not at all feel-good but brilliant.

Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and The Ladies of Grace Adieu Actually quite cosy, perhaps owing to the pitch-perfect Regency voice and faux-scholarly footnotes, though possibly too much world-building for Aecor. If you admired the style but wondered what the point of Piranesi was, these are far better.

Cat Valente, The Orphan's Tales (1001 nights with feminist twists, beautifully wrought. The stories soon start intertwining so this is a novel in the end.)
Patricia McKillip also writes beautifully in the fairy tale vein.
And Angela Carter, ofc, if she's not too mainstream literary.

Another Jo Walton: Among Others which is the perfect meta-read for literary folk who don't really get SFF but may want to.

For context, all of the above are popular/lauded in SFF circles. I will refrain from the more obscure recommendations, having probably delighted quite enough 😅

@HenryTilneyBestBoy (intrigued by your username, as have always been by Henry Tilney and his interest in women’s fashion, hairstyles, novels and and diaries — in his eyes, my total ignorance of sci-fi should make me terribly attractive on the subject, such is my desire for instruction!)

Am I allowing non-cosy now? Is it fair to say that the more a work’s literary qualities, the less likely it is to be ‘cosy’? I suspect that’s true. Though I always recommend Laurie Colwin (RIP) to Austen fans, and think she should be far better known, as witty, clever and light-hearted. If anyone doesn’t know her work, her novel Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object begins with the sudden death of her 27 year old protagonist’s husband, and is still a light-hearted, blithe, but clever novel. Her settings in UMC Manhattan are strangely timeless — only a reference to a 30 something character in A Big Storm Knocked It Over having been in the Vietnam war locates it at all. )

I have read and liked the Ted Chiang story on which Arrival is based — thank you for reminding me.

I tried Dr Strange and Mr Norrell to no avail when it was published, and definitely have an unread copy of The Ladies somewhere — but might try again. You’re right. From what I remember I found the world building too obstructive, though I suspect this is me not understanding genre norms, and is the equivalent of someone complaining about the lack of car chases in Virginia Woolf.

I have read all of Angela Carter down the years, though found myself getting mildly irritated by and the bloody clowns last time I taught Nights At the Circus.

I love the idea of a novel about Hilda of Whitby.