r/printSF

I interviewed Rebecca Thorne about her new book Moss'd in Space, and during the conversation, she said she wants cozy sci-fi to become a sub-genre like cozy fantasy is. I love the idea of more sci-fi books in general, but also especially with a cozy feel to them.

I have to assume that some are already published, and I either don't think of them as "cozy" (which is subjective) or I just don't know about them.

So I guess my question is, what are some "cozy sci-fi" books?

I've found a few self-published ones, but they can be pretty hit or miss for me.

I’ve been parsing science fiction award data for my own reading list, and today I put together a small site to make it easier to browse:

It is not official, commercial, or meant as a big launch post. Just a reader-made tool for looking through award-recognized science fiction books and maybe finding something new to read.

The science fiction data currently covers award years from 1953-2025. The award categories included are:

• Arthur C. Clarke Award

• British SF Association Awards: Novel

• Goodreads Choice Awards: Science Fiction

• Hugo Awards: Novel

• Locus Awards: Science Fiction Novel

• Nebula Awards: Novel

• Philip K. Dick Award

You can filter by award, year, winner/finalist status, subgenre, Goodreads rating, and ratings count. The book list can also be sorted by title, year, awards, wins, rating, ratings count, or subgenres.

There is also a CSV download on the site if anyone wants the science fiction award list as a spreadsheet.

I made this because I found it annoying to jump between award pages and Goodreads when browsing older SF award lists. This puts the award-recognized books in one sortable place, then adds Goodreads details where available: rating, ratings count, review count, publication details, page count, format, series info, and subgenre tags.

Sharing here in case it helps anyone else find a book they had missed. If you notice something that looks wrong, especially Goodreads editions or award/category oddities, I’d be grateful to know.

Changelog, June 7:

• Book data cleanup and edition corrections.

• Added Le Guin Prize to the website award data/reference.

• Removed duplicate Goodreads Choice Awards entry.

• Removed award grouping; awards now show as one clear list.

• Made award filters genre-aware for Fantasy / Science Fiction.

• Compact recognition display into Winner / Nominated rows.

• Added expandable detail content for richer recognition context.

• Added rating-count filter for better rating-based sorting.

• Improved top toolbar sizing so sort labels fit better.

• Added intro link to the #awards section.

• Updated generated CSV download files.

I've also added an MCP server! You can find more info on how to use it here: .
If you end up trying it out, I'd absolutely love to hear your feedback.

A lot of sci-fi stories end with humanity surviving, winning the war, escaping extinction, or at least finding a way forward.

But I'm curious about the opposite.

What's a sci-fi book where, if you look at the situation objectively, humanity basically lost... yet the ending didn't feel completely bleak?

Maybe Earth was abandoned. Maybe humans became something else entirely. Maybe another species inherited the future. Maybe civilization collapsed and never recovered. The important part is that the outcome wasn't really a "victory" in the traditional sense.

I'm not necessarily looking for happy endings. More the kind of ending where you close the book and think, "Well, that didn't go well for us... but maybe that's okay."

The best examples for me are the ones where the loss forces a change in perspective rather than just serving as a tragedy.

Any recommendations? Obviously spoilers are unavoidable, but please hide details when possible.