What treats help keep your spirits up?

[petra]

In this time of empty restaurants and closed stores, what little things do you plan so you can look forward to them?

Comments

[mific]

Okay! Well, some of these you might have read, but here goes.
For pure sci-fi:
The 'Children of Time' series by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Brilliant, and I love that he always, always surprises me.
The novels in 'The Expanse' series by James S. A. Corey. I love the TV show and the novels are richer and more detailed, with vastly more and different content. Treat the TV show as a fanwork of the novels, as they differ quite a bit.

Then, my zombie apocalypse recs - I know it's been done to death (!) in movies and TV, but these are all seriously good.
'The Girl With All the Gifts' and 'The Boy on the Bridge' by M. R. Carey. Zombie apocalypse, but done so incredibly well and with an ultimately hopeful ending. The second book's mostly a prequel, but also an epilogue.
'World War Z' by Max Brooks, especially the audiobook which is amazingly well done, with multiple readers voicing the various accounts. It's not new, but if you've never listened to it I hugely recommend it. Forget the crap movie, which had barely anything to do with the book. The horror's bearable as it's made up of accounts after the war's been won.
And the 'Newsflesh' series by Mira Grant. A superb fusion of near-future worldbuilding with newsfeeds eclipsing print media, in a world after the Rising. Again, the horror's more bearable as the world's been vastly altered, but not destroyed.

Like you, I don't enjoy books that are ultimately bleak and tragic, or where I don't like any of the characters. All these are really engaging, with excellent characterisation.
If you've read most of those let me know, and I'll see what else I can think of. :)

[fred_mouse]

Thank you!

You've managed to pick a whole lot I've not read. I've ordered two of the Corey because the series is on the ballot for the Hugos this year, so that encourages me. The Tchaikovsky looks interesting - not an author I know anything about. And I don't read much in the zombie genre, so knowing what is good gives me hope -I tried Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and was rather scathing about it, but for reasons that weren't the zombies. The only other zombie book I remember reading is Justina Ireland's 'Dread Nation', which is amazing, and I have the sequel lined up to read when I've finished some other reading!

[mific]

Oh yeah - I just got Dread Nation and the sequel. :)

You might find the Tchaikovsky a little slow at the start as he sets up the situation, but the series is so great it's really worth persisting until you get to characters who are a bit more likeable. But a warning, his are maybe not the best books if you're spider-phobic!

[fred_mouse]

Spiders are fine. Useful to know that the stories are slow moving.