Challenge: Positive Sci-Fi? Where is it?

Neal Stephenson's stuff is very optimistic. The Diamond Age especially (it also happens to be one of my favorite books).

I thought the Diamond Age was a downer, and put it down partway through. I liked his Anathem and Snow Crash, though. The opening pages of Snow Crash are hilarious.

Dryad said:

I thought the Diamond Age was a downer, and put it down partway through. I liked his Anathem and Snow Crash, though. The opening pages of Snow Crash are hilarious.

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I remember it changing in the second half. In the end, I ended up enjoying it, though I struggled at first. I was reading it for a college science fiction class, though, so I pushed through the parts I didn't like as much.

Well, umm, a shameful plug here, but my Planet Janitor portrays very realistic science in a positive manner with some pretty good explanations about what is possible and doable against what is nebulous and far-fetched. I delve into space flight preparation, launch, telemetry and other subjects which I try to simplify and make accessible to the average reader who might recoil and the very thought of cracking the spine on a science fiction tale. I would classify it as space opera. I'm no physics professor or engineer, but I take a stab at it.

tri

Star Trek novels. I haven't read any recent ones, mind. But I remember Star Trek as a largely positive sci-fi universe and most of the novels I've read reflected that.

I have to admit, I'm struggling to recall many others beside Star Trek, probably one of the reasons I have been drifting closer to fantasy. I'm not a fan of distopias or grim worlds and maybe that's why very little new sci-fi is catching my eye.

A few suggestions from longest to shortest...

Zahrah the Windseeker - Nnedi Okorafor. Young adult novel set on a jungle planet with plant technology.

Barry's Tale - Lawrence M. Schoen. Novella set on a ranch planet. Also, tiny buffalo.

Sauerkraut Station - Ferrett Steinmetz. Novelette about a girl living on a small space station during a war. Despite the war and peril, it's upbeat overall, so might work for your friend.

In a shameless plug moment, one of the shorts I have online is about augmented reality games and society isn't evil: Through the Hoops

Arthur C. Clarke's most significant novels (Childhood's End, The City and The Stars, even 2001) are, in their endings, quite optimistic, if a little bittersweet.

caw

Dryad said:

I thought the Diamond Age was a downer, and put it down partway through. I liked his Anathem and Snow Crash, though. The opening pages of Snow Crash are hilarious.

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Funny, I couldn't put The Diamond Age down. It is dark for some of the characters involved, Nell especially. But that's what makes her triumph at the end so great.
When I posted I was more thinking in terms of technology used for good. I mean in the world presented they have essentially eliminated hunger and raised the base standard of living for everyone on the planet through nanotechnology. Obviously this doesn't eliminate conflict, as people are still still people, but a step in the right direction.

Plus, a personal virtual interactive teaching tool (The Young Women's Illustrated Primer)! That is something I would love to see.