Dystopian stuff makes me miserable. What's the alternative?
Don't think I've ever read one, do they exist? Can't imagine what the plot would be in a Utopian future novel.
The Iain M Banks "Culture" series is utopian-but-not-sickening, and generally excellent.
I'll give it some thought, and share some ideas when we're out next.
A future where all wheel sizes are considered cool and everyone rides Raleigh Choppers, where veterinary care is free at point of use and censorship is no longer required
Don't mention the Culture. It'll make me sad 🙁
Never really viewed the Culture novels that way. Might have to reread a couple. Absolutely brilliant books.
It makes me said because I'm not part of it. I have to go to work in the morning for money, and then I'll die. Probably somewhere out there in the galaxy there is something like it, for real, and I'm stuck down here on Earth.
But most of all, because there won't be any more Culture books 🙁
The Cuckoo's Nest by Clifford Stoll
Iain m. Banks culture novels.. Ohh bugger too late.
Indeed a great loss
Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson. Or some other books by him too - the Mars trilogy is quite Utopian eventually.
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Skyhawk, its actually ecotopia but near enough Utopian
+1 for Ian M Banks
APF
My favourite sci-fi has always been pre space race stuff by the likes of Ray Bradbury and Heinlein. When Mars and Venus were full of life before those nasty Mariner and Venera missions went and spoilt everything by showing us the truth.. Boo!
I'm also a huge fan of sci-fi short stories, (again because of Ray Bradbury's mastery of that art), so I was really excited when I picked up a book of sci-fi short stories from my local library the other day title, Old Venus, edited by George R.R Martin and Gardner Dozois. It's a collection of short stories by modern writers, set on the Venus that we thought existed in the 1950's....swamps and jungles, seething with life. I'm only about 3-4 stories in, but I'm really liking it.
I know it's not set in a Utopian future, but to me 1940-60's sci-fi was the utopia of the genre.....see what I did there! 🙂
C.
p.s. Read Ray Bradbury's, 'The Rocket', if you want a quick bite of feel good sci-fi. I dare you to read it and not come away with a wee smile on your face and a bit of dust in your eye...that's absolutely what happened to me....it was dust!
Just finished reading "All Our Wrong Todays" by Elan Mastai; that may count although it's possibly more about a utopian present, but with a bit of dystopia thrown in for good measure along with all sorts of time travel paradox stuff. See also Arthur C Clark's foundation series, plus as others have said Ian M Banks.
I've not ready them, but I believe Robert Llewellyn's "News from..." books are set in a future utopia?
When Gavin Meckler's light aircraft encounters a mysterious cloud and crashes to earth, he discovers that the eerily quiet landscape in which he has landed is 200 years older than the one from which he took off. In this gentle, peaceful, sustainable new world, it is possible to travel from one side of the globe to the other in a matter of minutes without burning fuel, and everyone is a gardener because that's how they can be sure to eat.Inspired by William Morris's utopian novel News from Nowhere, Robert Llewellyn shows us a future where we don't burn anything to make anything else and which isn't hovering on the brink of disaster; where aliens haven't invaded, meteors haven’t hit and zombies haven’t taken over. In short, a world where humanity eventually gets it right.
All the technology described in the novel has seen the light of day in reality. Llewellyn's future isn't perfect and may not be very likely, but it is entirely possible.
[url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/News-Gardenia-Robert-Llewellyn/dp/1783520094/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1376980790&sr=1-1&keywords=news+from+gardenia+%5Bpaperback%5D ]News from Gardenia[/url]
[url= https://www.amazon.co.uk/News-Squares-Robert-Llewellyn/dp/1783520078/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377793644&sr=1-4 ]News from the Squares[/url]
[url= https://unbound.com/books/news-from-the-clouds ]News from the Clouds[/url]
The bible, and a lot of other religious tracts predict, and talk about, utopian futures for many, but i guess you're really after works of fiction.
Childhood's End is a great novel, lots of other Clarke and Asimov stuff are set in relatively 'mature' futures as well.
Larry Niven's Known Space series.
i think the trouble with utopias is that they're intrinsically boring- it's only when stuff goes wrong that you can tell a tale.
Mostly, utopia is boring- nice to live in, boring to write about, it's why all the culture novels happen right on the edge or outside of the culture rather than on some comfy orbital where the only critical decision is whether you turn into a boy or a girl before spending all day shagging.
<edit, hah, jinx>
Ann Leckie's Ancillary series isn't exactly utopian, it has some pretty grim elements... but it's very [i]interesting[/i], and optimistic, and at least it's a universe where someone has a vision of utopia. It reminds me in a lot of golden age scifi in its matter-of-factness, like "the future cannot fail to be cool".
Am a huge Iain M Banks fan, it's very hard to make a story about a utopia engaging, so most of the characters in the Culture series seem to exist on the fringes of that society. I would recommend the short story "State of the Art", when a Culture ship and crew arrive on 1970s Earth.
The line about the ship sending a postcard to the BBC to request 'Space Oddity' to be played for the ship and crew made me grin.
Childhood's End is a great novel
Agreed - but it's hardly utopian!
Brave New World by Auldous Huxley.
The blurb about it tends to assume its a critique of utopianism. But it seemed fairly utopian to me.
And the Culture novels, obviously.
Foundation series
Foundation series
I loved these....
State of the art? I thought was about the most self indulgent of all the culture novels I have read.
Ann Leckie's Ancillary series isn't exactly utopian,
or particularly good, I thought... (especially if you've read Banks)
1984? The end piece that's often missed off is quite optimistic...
Heinlein has some great utopian stuff. The cat that walks thru walls, the number of the beast etc are set in a very nice future if a bit unrealistic with all the bonking
A lot of golden age ( 50s/60s) stuff is very utopian with a shining bright future
Hitch Hikers Guide. OK so the Earth gets demolished but it's probably for the best.
but i guess you're really after works of fiction.
Must resist pointing out the obvious...
Heinlein - space family stone
a lovely vision of the future with colonies on the moon and in the asteroid belts where you can buy a family spaceship and travel around the solar system
nickc - Memberor particularly good, I thought... (especially if you've read Banks)
I loved it tbh. I liked the feeling of small events in a huge universe, big events in small worlds, I guess that whole scale thing- a ship mind in a single person, a human mind in thousands of bodies... And the traces of crazy grimdark that underly it (like, exactly where the ancillaries come from). It's very human.
And I could totally imagine Special Circumstances sending in a Zakalwe to sort shit out, too.
You could try "Intervention" by Julian May and go from there. If you get hooked then there are four more books in the series...
Robert Llewelyn he of Red Dwarf is a great novelist, check out News from Gardenia for a utopian future, and Sudden Wealth for a very interesting story about rich people being bored and depressed so get the thrill from a major money heist, features cycles and the channel tunnel.
Following on from the News from Gardenia, he has made to further novels that follow on from that making a nice trilogy, all in the future.
A lot of Arthur C Clarke stuff is pretty utopian as well. try " the deep range"