Now and then, reading rebels like to change things up and try a different type of story. Because the same desire to change things applies to this blog, this month we’re sampling cozy science fiction and fantasy books.
Writers are often told that the first lines or paragraphs of a story must hook the reader (particularly if that reader is an editor.) Implied is that the editor will not buy the book if the first line isn’t great. But the editor is a single person with an opinion, often based on significant experience in selecting books. It’s one opinion. However the opinion that counts is that of the reader. This monthly series hopes to inspire writers and point readers to books they want to read.
What is Cozy Science Fiction?
There isn’t an official definition of cozy science fiction, but according to readers, it is a low-tension, comfort read. However, Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell, published in 2007, is cited by some as the first intentional cozy science fiction novel. These cozy science fiction and fantasy stories typically focus on relationships, particularly on found family and finding one’s place in the world. And the story’s stakes involve problems whose solutions get solved without a lot of death or destruction in them. The changes change the character’s world from within rather than changes that shatter or save the entire world.
For some, the story expresses a trend toward stability, the space to live as one wishes to live. The story’s theme is something along the lines of we can’t save the world, but we can save each other. And perhaps most importantly, the story has a heartwarming ending.
How Readers Find Cozy SF & F
While there is no official classification “cozy” for science fiction or fantasy, you can use cozy as a search term and find more titles than the ones listed here.
Call me Ishmael. Yeah, I know, but in this case, it’s really my name. Ishmael Horatio Wang. My parents had an unfortunate sense of humor. If they had known what I’d wind up doing with my life, they might have picked a different one – Richard Henry Dana, perhaps. Exactly why they picked Ishmael. Horatio is a long, and not terribly interesting, story that starts with the fact that mom was an ancient lit professor, and ends with my being saddled with these non sequitur monitors.
That particular story was over 18 stanyers before the two Neris Company security guards showed up at my door with long faces and low voices.
Quarter Share,
A Trader’s Tale from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, Book 1
by Nathan Lowell
In an old and lonely forest, far away from almost everything, sat a curious dwelling.
At the base of a grove of massive trees was a small, square building made of brick, overtaken b ivy and moss. Who it belonged to was anyone’s guess, but from the looks of it, it had been abandoned long ago. It wasn’t until a man named Giovanni Lawson (who wasn’t actually a man at all) came across it while making his way through the forest that it was remembered with any purpose.
He stood in front of his strange find, listening as the birds sang in the branches high above. “What is this? he asked. “Where did you come from?”
In the Lives of Puppets
by TJ Klune
Reyna stalked the edges of the gilded crowd, watching the assassin creep ever closer to Queen Tilaine.
The party was lively, the royal orchestra working hard to fill the cavernous ballroom with their sovereigns favorite scores. Even with the open windows, the brisk evening air smelled of sweat and perfume. Court folk clad in colorful Silke attire danced with nobility from every corner of the queendom. Servers with golden trays and matching smiles flitted between them, offering shrimp, chocolates, champagne—all imported from Shepard for the Arcandor, their absent guest of honor.
It was a bold place to attempt an assassination.
Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea, Tomes & Tea
by Rebecca Thorne
In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.
Sophie Hatter was the eldest of three sisters. She was not even the child of a poor woodcutter, which might have given her some chance of success! Her parents were well to do and kept a ladies’ hat shop in the prosperous town of Market Chipping. True, her own mother died when Sophie was two years old and her sister Lettie was one year old, and their father married his youngest shop assistant, a pretty blonde girl named Fanny.
Howl’s Moving Castle
by Diana Wynne Jones
Shh…
Yes, it hurt. It was definitely not just a bruise. Yes, she was scared. Her throat was raw from screaming.
Cautiously, Katrina Nguyen felt under her bed.
Girl clothes. Boy clothes. Money. Birth certificate. Social security card. Toothbrush. Spare glasses. Backup batter. Makeup. Estradiol. Spironolactone.
Katrina had made an escape bag the first time her father threatened to kill her.
At first, the bag seemed an “in case of emergency,” a glass that one would never break.
But after tonight…
Light From Uncommon Stars
by Ryka Aoki
Joos startles awake when the escape pod jerks. Blinking her eyes open, she stares blearily at the ceiling and notes Choclet’s familiar weight across her legs, still asleep.
Joos debates using the pod’s limited power to open the porthole, but the increase in the subtle pressure of the pod’s wall on her back tells her all they need to know.
They are being pulled in.
Joos shakes Choclet’s shoulders. “Cho. Cho, wake up. Rescue.”
“Wha?” Choclet pushes herself up, rubbing her eyes.
“A ship caught us! I knew someone would. We’re lucky like that.”
What’s A Little Piracy Between Friends?
GT Tales,
by Gwen Tolios
The snake, apparently, had conveyed with the ship.
Frankie stumbled upon little Minnie as the pale giant reptile was recharging—basking, if another snake were doing it—under the grow lights in the starship’s garden room. She’d come in for a spring of mint, but that thought vanished under the weight of her surprise. She slowly knelt by the long, soft nest that had seen better days. Old Peters had made Minnie a new nest but she hadn’t taken to it, so now that one was serving as a cushion up in the rec space.
Cargo Trouble,
Frankie’s Journeys, Book 1
by Nicky Penttila
Clarification
There are no affiliate links in this post. I don’t make a cent off of the books listed on this page. Usually I pull these titles at random. They are from Amazon, my personal library, my area public library, or other online booksellers.
Reviews Don’t Have to be Difficult
No matter what book you’re reading, leave a a few words on the website where you bought it, a readers site, or the author’s site. You don’t have to say anything profound or fancy. Say the kind of thing you would tell a friend about it. Reviews are always appreciated by writer and readers alike. They help sell more books to the readers who will love them. And they help the author write more books.
Do You Want to Read More?
Do these cozy science fiction and fantasy first lines hook you? Want to read more? They are here for your enjoyment. And to entice you to buy more books.
Last month’s first lines post.
Where you can read more first lines posts.
Were you reading cozy SF & F before you read this post, or is this a new-to-you subgenre?
