# Any good "hard" SF that isn't depressing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2018, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-hard-sf-that-isnt-depressing/822948 "2018-10-14T20:50:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 46
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2018, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-hard-sf-that-isnt-depressing/822948/46 "2018-10-16T04:53:06Z")
I would recommend Poul Anderson’s _The High Crusade_. Medieval Englishmen take on an interstellar empire. There are some humorous bits and an upbeat ending. Anderson wrote some stories that are upbeat and/or pretty funny and some that were tragic. His short story “Day of Burning” gives Chee Lan some funny lines and is pretty good. That story uses FTL travel, but _Tau Zero_ was firmly grounded in the hard science of the early 1970’s and has a great ending. I recently read Connie Willis’ _The Domesday Book_, and while parts are grim, it does have an ending as upbeat as can be about the Black Death. Highly recommended. Fritz Leiber’s novel _The Silver Eggheads_ is hilarious and has a great ending. Someone mentioned P.J. Farmer’s Riverworld series. Try _The Maker of Universes_, the first and best of the World of Tiers series. I agree that Heinlein, Niven, and Asimov were generally upbeat. Pournelle and Niven’s _Lucifer’s Hammer_ has an optimistic ending although much of the world gets destroyed. Someone mentioned Arthur C. Clarke and I would try _Childhood’s End_ and _The Sands of Mars_. Also recommended are Zelazy’s _Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Darkness_, and “The Doors of his Eyes, the Lamps of his Mouth.” --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-good-hard-sf-that-isnt-depressing/822948)._