Dune World

Star Wars - Fate of the Jedi - Omen

Christie Golden2009

While Luke Skywalker searches for the cause of his nephew's fall to the dark side, a new Sith threat emerges from a long-isolated planet.

pace0·prose-1·bleak0

Radiance

Catherynne M. Valente2015

A documentary filmmaker disappears on Venus in an alternate 1980s solar system. The story is told through scripts, interviews, and letters.

tense → dreamlike, still space opera

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Shadow & Claw

Gene Wolfe1983

A torturer travels across a far-future Earth where technology is indistinguishable from magic. He recounts his exile in dense, archaic prose.

tense → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+1

Beelzebub's tales to his grandson

Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff1950

An extraterrestrial being explains the history and strange behaviors of humanity to his grandson during a long space voyage.

tense → meditative, still science fiction

pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

The Kaiju Preservation Society

John Scalzi2022

A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

tense → playful, still science fiction

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Electric Idol

Katee Robert2022

In a modern-day Olympus, Eros is ordered to kill Psyche but chooses to enter a fake marriage with her to protect her from his mother.

tense → playful

pace0·prose-2·bleak-1

All Systems Red

Martha Wells2017

A self-aware security android hacks its own governor module to watch soap operas while protecting a team of scientists on a distant planet.

tense → wry, still space opera

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Skylark DuQuesne

Edward Elmer Smith1966

Two rival geniuses must unite their space fleets to stop an alien threat. It features planet-destroying weapons and faster-than-light travel.

tense → earnest, still space opera

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

All Systems Red

Martha Wells2017

A self-aware security android hacks its own governor module to watch soap operas while protecting a team of scientists on a distant planet.

tense → wry, still space opera

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

The Kaiju Preservation Society

John Scalzi2022

A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

tense → playful, still science fiction

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Invisible Cities

Italo Calvino1972

Marco Polo describes fifty-five imaginary cities to Kublai Khan. The book is a series of short, prose-poem meditations on urban existence.

tense → meditative

pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

The Rise of Endymion

Dan Simmons1997

A man protects a young messiah from a galactic church that uses resurrection to control humanity. It concludes a four-book series.

tense → elegiac, still space opera

pace-1·prose0·bleak+1

Gödel, Escher, Bach

Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

tense → playful

pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1

The Jaunt

Stephen King2009

A father explains the history of teleportation to his family while they wait to travel. He describes the danger of being awake during the trip.

Same tense register, still science fiction

pace0·prose-1·bleak+2

Hellspark

Janet Kagan1988

A linguist travels to a new planet to investigate a murder. She must determine if the local species is sentient while navigating a conspiracy.

Same tense register, still science fiction

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

The Running Man

Richard Bachman

A man enters a deadly reality show to fund medical care for his daughter. He must survive thirty days while the entire world hunts him for money.

tense → propulsive, still science fiction

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2