OWM: Most depressing sci-fi universe ?

[Emmanuel]

This universe is depressing.

Permanent war, Colonists used as bait, soldiers with no idea of what's going on…

Is this the most depressing sci-fi universe ? What do you think are the saddest visions of our future in novel ?

[[deleted user]]

Emmanuel wrote: "This universe is depressing.

Permanent war, Colonists used as bait, soldiers with no idea of what's going on…

Is this the most depressing sci-fi universe ? What do you think are the saddest visio..."

Childhood's End shows the most depressing future for me.

[Ender]

I agree with Evgeny, Childhood's End is very depressing. Although my pick would probably be The Road. That's for the world itself. Most depressive book I remember reading would probably be Hal Duncan's Vellum (not 100% sure if it's 'sci-fi'). I couldn't finish it back then, I plan to try it again soon along with the second book.

[Emmanuel]

If we go to movies I guess I'd say the Terminator series, or is there worst ?

[Emmanuel]

Or in comics, Universal War One : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universa...

[Emmanuel]

There's an Asimov novel where aliens come to Earth to rescue us, only to find that we've already left on primitive spaceships. On their way to get us, the alien say that we may be a species of great engineers, bad at everything else, and the novel ends with something like "History proved them wrong", which always made me smile.

Sometimes I wonder if the aim of SciFi is just Dystopia...

[Sky]

1984 is pretty depressing by definition, even if it's a look at a future that happens to be in our past.

Or the entire Hunger Games trilogy, not only for being a depressing setting but for being depressing books as well. My take away from those was, "If your life sucks, don't try to change anything. You'll only make it worse for everyone, especially the people you care about."

[Ryne]

Future War's was pretty pessimistic and depressing, but 1984 is fairly bleak as well.

[Joe Informatico]

Brave New World is more depressing than 1984 for me. While 1984 looks less and less likely every year that passes, our world is already starting to look like Huxley's.

For tabletop gaming? Warhammer 40K.

[Dara]

Ender wrote: "I agree with Evgeny, Childhood's End is very depressing. Although my pick would probably be The Road. That's for the world itself. Most depressive book I remember reading would probably be Hal Dunc..."

I agree with The Road. That book was so bleak and melancholy.

[Emmanuel]

I agree with you about 1984. It feels more than a cautionary tale than a vision of the future.

[Rick]

OMW isn't depressing at all. It's realistic for values of real where lots of aliens exist in the galaxy, they're at about our level of technology and they can both use the same environments as us for colonies and have the colonizing drive.*

In many ways it mirrors world history where great powers colonized areas of the earth and fought over them and their resources.

* If anything this is the hurdle to get over in terms of disbelief - the idea that there are lots of aliens at roughly our level of tech and who share our motivations and can live in environmental conditions that we also find favorable. However, you can't really have space opera without most of this, so...

[Emmanuel]

In many ways it mirrors world history

That's what I find depressing. Years in the future, amazing technology, and it's still the same old thing, but with aliens.

Also, it's too bad that the Earth is cut off from the rest of the universe, used as breeding grounds.

[Rick]

But I don't expect human nature to change in the future just because of technology. Expecting a fundamental alteration in what we are for the better is a bit utopian and to me OMW sits in the middle of a spectrum with dystopian on one side and utopian on the other. It's effectively realist fiction in that sense.

[Phil]

Stephen Donaldson's Gap series is pretty depressing just like his Thomas Covenant series is the most depressing fantasy I've ever read. Both series are extremely well written, just massive downers.

[Matthew Anderson]

I always found the Sprawl to be pretty bleak and fucked up.

[kvon]

In Scalzi's universe there's the hope of settling down to a new life on an alien colony planet, which sounds pretty cool (just avoid the unspeakable worm plagues). The Road was the most gray and depressing world I've seen in a long time. I would also hate to live in the Handmaid's Tale.

[Scott]

Phil wrote: "Stephen Donaldson's Gap series is pretty depressing just like his Thomas Covenant series is the most depressing fantasy I've ever read. Both series are extremely well written, just massive downers."

I second this. I would say that the Thomas Covenant series is more frustrating than depressing, though. That said, both series are sitting in my re-read pile.

[Joseph]

Has anyone mentioned Stephen Baxter's Titan? Now that is one grim book.

[Andrew]

Lies, Inc by PKD was depressing for me just by the fact that not only is there something called "syn-cof" (synthesized coffee) but there's, "imitation syn-cof"

[Leesa]

I thought The Forever War was pretty depressing.

[Joshua]

In Perdido Street Station by China Miéville it feels like everyone loses. Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison is pretty high up there and the drag-o-meter. It is the book that Soylent Green is based on. I know I wouldn't want to live in a universe where Soylent Green is is people.

[Joshua]

Also Pride and Prejudice with out zombies is quite depressing.

[Leesa]

Oh, right. Perdido Street Station. I was so depressed reading that book.

[Dwayne]

Phil wrote: "Stephen Donaldson's Gap series is pretty depressing just like his Thomas Covenant series is the most depressing fantasy I've ever read. Both series are extremely well written, just massive downers."

Well I guess when your protagonist is a leper, there's no place left to go but down. :P

[Mapleson]

"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison

[Scott]

Mapleson wrote: ""I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison"

Oh, wow, good call!
I would add HE's "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman and A Boy And His Dog to the list, too. Ellison has a knack for creating bleak scenarios in few words.

[Joseph]

The Killing Star by Charles R. Pellegrino and George Zebrowski is also a fun one.

[Lee]

I don't think happy cheery science fiction would be read anymore. A lot has changed since Asimov's Foundation space cowboys.

[Firstname]

Joseph wrote: "Has anyone mentioned Stephen Baxter's Titan? Now that is one grim book."

Heh, that's one I consider 'hopeful'.

[Firstname]

Dwayne wrote: "Phil wrote: "Stephen Donaldson's Gap series is pretty depressing just like his Thomas Covenant series is the most depressing fantasy I've ever read. Both series are extremely well written, just mas..."

And a rapist...

[[deleted user]]

I would like to change this question: can anybody name any recent sci-fi book with bright future? It seems to me lately sci-fi writers have an unofficial competition of creating the most depressing future possible.

[Rick]

Evgeny - Yes, which is one reason I read pretty select stuff in SF now. Dystopias bore me, it's the emo goth of SF.

Now, I don't find OMW to be depressing - as the other Rick put it, it's the universe you'd expect given the conditions he cites (and one more, scarce colonizable planets). In fact, I find it kind of hopeful - rather than destroying ourselves it's a universe where we've advanced, we're still around and while there are and have been problems, none of the emo goth, er, dystopian futures have occurred.

[Thomas]

I think the future in which David Weber's Safehold books take place is about as bad as it can get. Mankind wiped out by an mysterious alien race at the beginning and all that is left is a colony ship that fled.

Then these last holdouts of humanity get far far away only to brutaly fight among themselves when the scientists conflict with the military. Hundreds of years later only one person remembers the threat to mankind that is still out there, and they are not even alive, but a recording of a memory inside of an android body.

Love that stuff -- this is all just from the first few pages of the series of books.

I will second Killing Star as well. Damn scary book, the inescapable logic is terrifying.

[John]

I admit I only had a chance to read the first few chapters, but Ryan Boudinot's Blueprints of the Afterlife seemed pretty damn depressing.

[George]

My answer: Huxley's Brave New World, because I think it's more likely than not to actually happen. Egad.

[Rick]

Ha, was just listening to an NPR story on which world, Brave New World or 1984 was more likely to happen...

[Trike]

Emmanuel wrote: "Is this the most depressing sci-fi universe ?"

If you think Old Man's War is depressing, you need to stay in more. And read. Look at the books listed here. Some of them are slit-your-wrists levels of bummer.