• China Miéville. 'The last days of New Paris' or the fight between Nazis and Surrealists.

It is not at all unusual that the Hugo and Nébula awards for the best novel fall some year in the same work. Sometimes, editorial inertia has these things. In 2018, for example, the two most prestigious awards in the field of fantastic literature and science fiction rewarded NK Jemisin's Stone Heaven. The same happened in 2014 with Auxiliary Justice of Ann Leckie and in 2012 with Among strangers of Jo Walton. It is something that can be curious, but not unheard of.

That is why no one was surprised that, in their recent editions of 2019, both literary awards fell on the novel by Mary Robinette Kowal The calculating stars , a very well-laid out Ukrainian story that takes as a starting point the devastating consequences that it causes on the planet The impact of a meteorite. However, there was something that caught the attention of many in that awards show, and it was the large number of critics and specialized forums that highlighted such a fact as the first great recognition of the industry to Hopepunk literature.

We have all heard on occasion of cyberpunk , steampunk , dieselpunk , even solarpunk ... But what is hopepunk ? This is such a recent concept that for a large part of the public it is still an enigma. The term was coined by writer Alexandra Rowland in July 2017 to refer to a new subgenre within fantastic literature. A new narrative trend born by opposition to the prevailing trend of recent years; that which is based on the approach of dark stories, about dark scenarios, with dark characters moved by dark intentions and acting according to their dark principles: the grimdark .

Alexandra Rowland wrote: "The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk ." Shortly after he wanted to deepen the meaning of his statement and ended up publishing a short essay entitled One atom of justice, one molecule of mercy and the empire of unsheathed knives , which has practically become the founding manifesto of the Hopepunk movement. In just two years, the term has gone from being an imprecise label used by very few to become a well-defined concept and used by professional critics - especially in the Anglo-Saxon world - to refer to a new literary genre.

Although, strictly speaking, hopepunk would not be as much a subgenre of fantastic literature as a new approach to it. A new proposal as to how to set the plot. For some time now, the grimdark has wanted to be a more adult version of the heroic fantasy - and the fantasy genre in general. Hence, the low passions of his characters always manifest themselves in such an obvious way . They are all traitors. Everyone is selfish. All are greedy. All are cowards. They live in a world that collapses and do nothing to prevent it or contribute to its collapse. This is the case, for example, of the novels by Dan Abnett or George RR Martin; especially, the saga Song of Ice and Fire .

Hopepunk is the current tendency of fantasy literature novels to lead their argument to the opposite side. And we are not talking - at least, not in any case - of the typical scheme of the hero, known as noblebright , where one is sacrificed for the rest. Neither of idyllic stories nor happy endings in which, as if by magic, as in a Disney movie, everything ends well. The background of hopepunk is still dystopia.

Your world is still a hostile and unfortunate place. But their characters, instead of being mean and disloyal, instead of being swept away by an anti-utopian scenario, choose to do the right thing . They choose to fight to change it. Although it is impossible. They are not moved by ruinness, but by the nobility. Hopepunk proposes hope as a narrative engine.

Not so long ago, in an article for the Wall Street Journal, literary critic Ellen Gamerman explained: hopepunk is the alternative to the usual darkness of the fantasy genre . A reflection that connects with those foundational words of Alexandra Rowland of 2017: «Goodness is not necessarily passive (...). Hopepunk says that goodness is not equal to weakness, and in this world of brutal cynicism and nihilism being good is a political act. An act of rebellion ».

And it seems that the idea has penetrated. The hopepunk current is imposed in novels such as The Long Journey to a Small, Wrathful Planet (Unusual Editorial, 2018) by Becky Chambers . O The stars are legion (Runes, 2017) by Kameron Hurley . O All the birds in the sky (Unusual Editorial, 2018) by Charlie Jane Anders .

Alexandra Rowland herself has published A choir of lies on September 10. And critics start highlighting titles like The library of the unwritten , published by AJ Hackwith on October 1. Who knows, maybe the Hugo and Nébula awards for the best fantasy literature novel will be put back in 2020 on the side of hopepunk .

Or they may have always been. After all, and in spite of the current trend, a new label serves to delimit something that already existed before. And few more hopepunk stories occur to me than that of Gandalf, Frodo, Aragorn and Sam . Perhaps hopepunk , as with almost all things, has always been there. Long before the grimdark . He just needed to be named ... Or even that.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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