There are readers, I dare say you know them well, who finish a Becky Chambers novel and find themselves wandering about their homes in a kind of pleasant melancholy, wishing terribly that they might step back through those pages and remain there forever. If you are such a reader—if you have loved the motley crews of the Wayfarers or sat quietly with Dex and Mosscap amongst the crickets and wild tea—then you shall find this list most agreeable indeed.
For I have gathered here fifteen books that possess that same quality of gentle wonder, that same belief in kindness as a worthy pursuit, that same insistence that the universe, however vast and strange, need not be cruel.
Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Here is a book that Becky Chambers herself has pressed into readers’ hands, declaring it will “break your heart and put it back together.” And what a curious tale it is! In California’s San Gabriel Valley, we find a violin teacher bound by a Faustian bargain, a young transgender prodigy with extraordinary talent, and a family of alien refugees running a doughnut shop whilst secretly constructing a warp gate.
The story weaves demons and starships, cursed violins and fresh-made donuts, into something wholly its own. Yet beneath all its fantastical trappings beats a heart concerned with the simplest things: finding family, finding home, finding oneself worthy of love.
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
There exists on a remote island an orphanage for magical children—a gnome, a sprite, a wyvern, a were-Pomeranian, and a boy who happens to be the Antichrist. To this improbable place comes Linus Baker, a case worker of forty years who has never in his careful life questioned the rules he enforces.
What follows is a transformation of the most wonderful sort. For as Linus comes to know these remarkable children and their mysterious caretaker Arthur Parnassus, he discovers that the family he never knew he wanted has been waiting for him all along. It is the sort of tale that reminds us how goodness, properly applied, might change everything.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
Young Maia has spent his eighteen years in exile, the half-goblin son of an emperor who wished to forget him. But when disaster claims his father and brothers, this awkward, lonely boy finds himself suddenly upon the throne of the Elflands—friendless, ignorant of court politics, and surrounded by those who would see him fail.
What makes this tale so remarkable is its quiet insistence that kindness matters. Maia does not win through cunning or force but through genuine care for those around him. It is hopepunk of the highest order, a fantasy that declares: good people, given the chance, can slowly change the world for the better.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
The Murderbot Diaries begin here, with a security cyborg who has done something rather unprecedented—it has hacked its own governing module and claimed its freedom. Now it wishes only to be left alone to watch soap operas in peace. Unfortunately, the humans it protects keep getting into terrible danger.
Murderbot is socially awkward, deeply uncomfortable with emotions, and absolutely delightful. As it reluctantly saves its humans again and again, something rather like affection begins to develop. For readers who loved Chambers’ AIs and constructs, this series offers a protagonist whose journey toward personhood is both moving and unexpectedly funny.
Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz
In 2064 San Francisco, after California has seceded and robots have gained civil rights, a crew of deactivated military robots awakens in an abandoned ghost kitchen. What do they do? They open a noodle shop, of course—serving the most delicious hand-pulled biang biang noodles the city has ever tasted.
Becky Chambers herself has endorsed this tale, promising it will “make you hungry” and “keep you warm.” Here we find robots named Hands, Cayenne, Staybehind, and Sweetie, building something beautiful from scraps and determination. It is the sort of found-family story that fans of the Wayfarers will devour.
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
An orc barbarian decides she has had quite enough of adventure, thank you very much, and retires to open a coffee shop in a city where no one has ever heard of coffee. This is the entire plot, and it is wonderful.
Viv gathers around her a found family of misfits—a succubus, a rattkin baker, a hob handyman—and together they build something cozy and hopeful in a genre that too often forgets such things are possible. The tagline says it all: “High fantasy, low stakes.” For readers who love Chambers’ celebration of ordinary moments, this is essential reading.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
From the Nobel Prize winner comes a tale told by Klara, a solar-powered Artificial Friend who watches the world from a shop window with inexhaustible curiosity. When she is purchased to be companion to a sickly young woman named Josie, Klara comes to believe that the Sun itself might have the power to heal.
It is a gentle, contemplative story that asks what it means to love and to be loved, what makes us human, and whether an artificial being might possess a soul. Readers who found themselves moved by Chambers’ explorations of AI consciousness will discover in Klara a kindred spirit.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Dr. Ryland Grace awakens alone on a spaceship, millions of miles from home, with no memory of how he arrived. The mission: save humanity from an extinction-level event. The method: science, determination, and an unlikely friendship with a spider-like alien named Rocky who communicates through musical tones.
What makes this tale sing is not merely its clever science but the relationship between Grace and Rocky. Their friendship—built across an impossible gulf of biology and culture—becomes the heart of the story. It is adventure with optimism, crisis met with cooperation rather than conflict.
The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older
On platforms suspended in Jupiter’s atmosphere, humanity persists after Earth’s ecological collapse. When a man vanishes, the enigmatic Investigator Mossa travels to a university town to enlist the help of her former girlfriend, a scholar of extinct Earth ecosystems.
This cozy mystery unfolds amid fireside conferences, tea kiosks, and atmoscarfs against the Jovian fog. It carries beneath its comfortable exterior a current of grief for lost species and ruined skies. For readers who appreciate Chambers’ ecological consciousness alongside their comfort, this novella offers both in perfect balance.
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Breq was once a starship—or rather, the artificial intelligence of the troop carrier Justice of Toren, distributed across thousands of bodies. Now she is a single entity, seeking justice against the ruler who destroyed her.
This remarkable novel won every major award in science fiction, and deservedly so. Its exploration of identity, consciousness, and what it means to be a person resonates deeply with themes Chambers’ readers cherish. The worldbuilding is intricate, the prose is elegant, and Breq is an unforgettable creation.
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Becky Chambers has spoken of how this book “fell into my scared, queer teenage hands exactly when I needed it.” On the planet Gethen, humans have no fixed gender, and an envoy from a league of worlds must learn to navigate a society utterly unlike his own.
Le Guin was writing hopeful, thoughtful science fiction decades before the term “hopepunk” existed. For those seeking the literary ancestors of Chambers’ work, this masterpiece is essential—a book that expands how we think about humanity itself.
The Easy Life in Kamusari by Shion Miura
A young man, somewhat aimlessly, enrolls in a forestry training program in a remote Japanese mountain village. What he discovers there—the rhythms of the seasons, the wisdom of his elders, the satisfaction of meaningful work—transforms him entirely.
For readers who loved the contemplative pace of A Psalm for the Wild-Built, who appreciated its themes of slowing down and attending to nature, this gentle coming-of-age offers similar pleasures. It is a book about finding one’s place in a world that does not hurry.
Dawn by Octavia Butler
Lilith Iyapo awakens centuries after nuclear war has devastated Earth, held captive by the Oankali—aliens who trade genetic information with the species they encounter. They offer humanity a chance to rebuild, but at a cost that transforms what it means to be human.
Becky Chambers has named the Lilith’s Brood series among her favorites, and its themes resonate deeply with her work: cooperation across difference, the possibility of hope after catastrophe, the complicated question of what we owe each other and what we owe the future.
The Bear by Andrew Krivak
In an Edenic future, a father and daughter—the last humans on Earth—live in harmony with the land at the foot of a lone mountain. When tragedy strikes, the girl must carry on alone, guided by a bear who teaches her to find her way home.
This is “the most beautiful end-of-the-world book,” a gentle post-apocalyptic fable that reads like a dream. For readers who love Chambers’ reverence for nature and quiet optimism, The Bear offers a meditation on humanity’s place within a larger, ever more beautiful world.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Should a list of hopeful science fiction omit the most delightfully absurd book in the galaxy? Arthur Dent, dressed only in his bathrobe, hitches a ride on a passing spacecraft moments before Earth is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Adventures ensue.
While Adams’ humor differs from Chambers’ warmth, they share a fundamental belief that the universe, for all its vastness and apparent indifference, is worth exploring with curiosity and wonder. Sometimes, a reader needs to laugh as well as hope.
Finding Your Next Beloved Book
The books gathered here share certain qualities: a belief in kindness, an interest in what it means to be a person, an insistence that hope is not naïve but necessary. They are not all cozy in the strictest sense—some venture into darkness before finding light—but they leave readers feeling that the universe, for all its complexity, contains more goodness than we might have supposed.
If you have wandered through Becky Chambers’ worlds and found yourself wishing to stay, these fifteen books offer new territories to explore. Take your time with them. Read them slowly, as one savors tea with a friendly robot, or a meal shared with alien companions. The best stories, after all, are not those we hurry through but those in which we choose to linger.
