Earth Afire

A Day for Damnation

David Gerrold1984

Humanity fights back against the Chtorr, a biological invasion of alien flora and fauna. The focus is on military strategy and ecological war.

Same tense register, still military sci-fi

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Orphanage

Robert Buettner2004

After aliens attack Earth from Ganymede, a young orphan joins a desperate military mission to invade Jupiter's moon using improvised technology.

tense → earnest, still military sci-fi

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

War Dogs

Greg Bear2014

Soldiers are deployed to Mars to fight an alien threat on behalf of another species. The narrator recounts the mission from a hospital bed.

Same tense register, still military sci-fi

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Lines of Departure

Marko Kloos2014

An officer fights an interstellar war against alien giants while Earth collapses into poverty. It follows military campaigns across space.

Same tense register, still military sci-fi

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Dhalgren

Samuel R. Delany1975

An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.

tense → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

Too Like the Lightning

Ada Palmer2016

In a 25th-century utopia, a convict narrates the discovery of a boy who can perform miracles. The prose uses 18th-century styles and gender terms.

tense → sardonic

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Odessa Sea

Clive Cussler2016

Dirk Pitt investigates a ghost ship in the Black Sea and discovers a conspiracy involving a lost Romanov secret. It is a high-speed adventure.

tense → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

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

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Lines of Departure

Marko Kloos2014

An officer fights an interstellar war against alien giants while Earth collapses into poverty. It follows military campaigns across space.

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Hell Divers

Nicholas Sansbury Smith2016

Skydivers jump from massive airships to a ruined Earth to scavenge parts for humanity's survival. One team is stranded in a hostile zone.

pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Dhalgren

Samuel R. Delany1975

An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.

tense → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

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+2·bleak-1

Kaleidoscope Century

John Barnes1995

A mercenary wakes every ten years to a new body and a changing world. He uncovers his own history of atrocities across the 21st century.

tense → bleak, still military sci-fi

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Dark Age

Pierce Brown2019

An outlawed revolutionary fights a losing war on Mercury while an exiled heir attempts to reclaim a space empire. It is a violent military epic.

tense → propulsive, still military sci-fi

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1