Harry Potter was a smash hit about a boy discovering he’s a wizard and going to school in a magical world full of wonder and adventure. Twilight didn’t hit quite that high a note, but the story of a teenage girl who learns her classmate is a vampire and falls in love with him did quite well. The Hunger Games popularized the dystopian genre with a bow wielding teenager stepping up to survive death games, have angsty romances, and fight the power.
As far as I can tell, nothing has quite hit that same kind of high since and it may be awhile until the next truly big wave. But if it were up to you, what would the next big thing be about?
We’ve done so much dystopian. I’d like to see more upbeat futurism. Not necessarily utopian, and not “Jetsons”-style shiny futures. Future-realism? Something like that. Heroes that are “makers”, skilled various science & engineering disciplines.
As for the conflict, that can come from lots of places. Quests and competitions, character conflicts, etc. Suppose their society has been confined to a small area for a long time. The story begins when the gates are opened and people are free to return to whatever has become of outside.
Personally I like the idea of post-post-apocalyptic, where at least part of the story involves finding forgotten places & things from the “apocalypse” stage.
Anyway, that’s what I’d go for.
Solarpunk is what you’re looking for. There’s not a ton of solarpunk books, but they exist, and they have that Star Trek style sense of wonder and exploration, with acknowledgement that not everything’s fixed and that they had to go through an apocalypse to get there