Cozy sci-fi and why we can't have nice things

June 26, 2025

I usually find most sci-fi things overrated, but I'm currently watching Andor and it's not so bad. However, while watching it, especially during the first few episodes, I started asking my husband how come they don't make "cozy" sci-fi? Sci-fi stories are always so dull, gloomy, apocalyptic, and bleak. Why can't someone imagine a utopia that's bright and positive? Or just something different from the usual sci-fi tropes?

As if the universe was listening, a book I had on hold for a while on Libby suddenly became available - Becky Chambers' A Psalm for the Wild-Built. Before reading her book I actually knew nothing about it other than the fact that she won the Hugo and that people have been talking about her for years. I always had it on my "to read" list but would always put it off since sci-fi is not a prioritized genre for me.

Well anyway, so I read the book in about a day (it was really more like a novella). As I was reading it, I realized that it was in fact a "cozy" sci-fi book. The novel follows a monk who lives in a perfect utopian society. Everyone gets along, people care about nature, and robots/AI and all the things that people fear have been vanquished to the opposite side of the planet to have agency over their own lives.

Despite how seemingly perfect everything is, the protagonist, spurred by a quarter-life crisis, boredom, and general restlessness, sets out to the "human-free" zone for unclear reasons. They then meet up with a robot who offers to assist them. Together, they talk about the relationship between humans and robots, about the planet's history, and whether it's ethical for robots to help humans.

After finishing the last page, I was shocked at how much I hated it. Here it was, the book I was asking for, and I didn't like anything about it.

There was no conflict. There was no character building. The protagonist was so dull and flat, I could never remember their name. The book asked no deep philosophical questions beyond surface level ones, and it didn't even answer those. The complex theme of robots/AI and their place in society, their role to humans, was not answered either. At times, it felt like a book for kids. The entire book just felt like one big "vibe," like a warm cup of tea to enjoy while imagining a better future than the present one.

Even though I like the idea of "cozy", when it comes to books, you should still have a strong story and strong characters. They should never feel like an afterthought or like placeholders for this colorful world that the reader can insert themselves into. I guess I'm just not that kind of reader or I'm expecting something else.

You can have a happy, cozy society and still have complexity. You can still have conflicts. I don't understand this notion that to be "cozy" it should be something akin to a padded cell covered in potted plants and cute decor. Is cozy supposed to be style over substance only? Is it just vibes? Should books be treated like Xanax? To just numb yourself so that you don't have to worry about the complexities of life?

I'm new to this genre, so I'll admit that maybe I don't understand the tropes and expectations, and I know my opinion is an unpopular one. I also understand that more people than ever are looking for ways to escape reality and go to faraway worlds for a while, and they don't want to deal with the usual storytelling tropes of non-stop problems, conflicts, a climax, and then a happily ever after.

But at the same time, don't conflicts make life worth living? Don't they make the satisfaction of good things feel more fulfilling? I don't understand this notion of being dropped into a perfect world just to marinate in it. In the author's defense, the main character does suffer from depression and doesn't understand why they're unhappy when they live in a perfect world. I'm guessing the lesson being that you could live in an idealized reality and still be unhappy and restless with life, but isn't that an obvious thing to say? To build this beautiful world only to hang its message on such a low-hanging branch feels like a waste.

All I know is that a week ago¹ I hypothetically asked the question why cozy sci-fi stories weren't as popular, and I read a book that immediately answered that question for me. It's funny, I have a post sitting in drafts titled, "Getting over pretentiousness and learning to love genre fiction," but it might not be getting published. I have not been liking anything, but I'm trying!

#books