After
Echopraxia
Peter Watts2014
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
4 of 6 directions open — nothing heavier, nothing denser
More like it
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
Beyond the Aquila Rift
Alastair Reynolds2001
A spaceship crew wakes from cold sleep to find they have overshot their destination by light-years. They must face the reality of their location.
Same bleak register, still hard sci-fi
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Purple Cloud
M. P. Shiel1901
After becoming the first man to reach the North Pole, a sailor returns to find a toxic cloud has killed everyone else on Earth.
Same bleak register, still cosmic horror
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Perdido Street Station
China Miéville2000
A scientist in a sprawling, industrial city agrees to help a winged refugee fly again. His research accidentally unleashes a psychic predator.
Same bleak register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Proxima
Stephen Baxter2013
Convicts are sent to colonize a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri and discover ancient, artificial structures. It covers decades of expansion.
Same bleak register, still hard sci-fi
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
Black Leopard, Red Wolf
Marlon James2019
A hunter with a supernatural sense of smell joins a group to find a missing child. The journey through mythical Africa is violent and hallucinatory.
Same bleak register
pace0·prose0·bleak0
To recover
- pace+1prose-3bleak-3
Redshirts
John Scalzi2012
Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.
bleak → playful
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-3
- pace+2prose-3bleak-3
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown2003
A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.
bleak → propulsive
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-3bleak-3
Love Comes Softly
Janette Oke1979
A widow on the 19th-century frontier enters a marriage of convenience with a widower to survive the winter and care for his daughter.
bleak → tender
pace0·prose-3·bleak-3
- pace+1prose-3bleak-3
The perfect Christmas
Debbie Macomber2009
A woman hires a grumpy matchmaker to find a husband. He assigns her three tasks to complete before he will introduce her to his chosen candidate.
bleak → warm
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-3
- pace+1prose-3bleak-3
Danger in the Shadows
Dee Henderson2002
A woman in witness protection hides from a kidnapper while a FBI agent works to keep her safe. The story incorporates elements of Christian faith.
bleak → earnest
pace+1·prose-3·bleak-3
Faster
- pace+2prose-2bleak-3
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir2021
A man wakes up on a spaceship with amnesia and two dead crewmates. He must use scientific experiments to remember his mission and save the sun.
bleak → propulsive, still hard sci-fi
pace+2·prose-2·bleak-3
- pace+2prose-3bleak-3
Ready Player One
Ernest Cline2008
A teenager in a dystopian future hunts for a digital easter egg inside a massive simulation. The quest relies on 1980s pop culture trivia.
bleak → propulsive
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+2prose-3bleak-3
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.
bleak → wry
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-3
- pace+2prose-3bleak-2
Skin Game
Jim Butcher2014
Wizard Harry Dresden joins a team of villains to rob a vault in the Underworld. It is a fast-paced heist set in a modern fantasy Chicago.
bleak → propulsive
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-2
- pace+2prose-3bleak-3
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.
bleak → playful
pace+2·prose-3·bleak-3
Slower
- pace-1prose0bleak-1
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.
bleak → dreamlike
pace-1·prose0·bleak-1
- pace-1prose-1bleak-3
White Mars, or, The mind set free
Brian W. Aldiss1999
A group of scientists and thinkers attempts to establish a utopian society on Mars after Earth is cut off by a global catastrophe.
bleak → earnest, still hard sci-fi
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-3
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose0bleak-2
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.
bleak → meditative
pace-1·prose0·bleak-2
- pace-1prose0bleak-2
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.
bleak → meditative
pace-1·prose0·bleak-2
- pace-1prose0bleak-1
Night Land
William Hope Hodgson2014
In the distant future, a man leaves the last human stronghold to find a woman across a sunless, monster-filled wasteland.
bleak → dreamlike, still cosmic horror
pace-1·prose0·bleak-1
