Empire of Shadows

Hild

Nicola Griffith2013

The niece of a 7th-century king survives by becoming his seer. She uses observation and logic to predict political shifts and stay alive.

Same tense register, still scifi

pace0·prose-1·bleak0

Operation Bounce House

Matt Dinniman2026

A rancher and his friends defend their planet against corporate mercenaries who treat the extermination of colonists as a remote-controlled game.

Same tense register, still found family

pace0·prose-1·bleak0

Ring Shout

P. Djèlí Clark2020

In 1920s Georgia, resistance fighters hunt Ku Klux Klan members who are transforming into literal monsters. It uses a supernatural lens for history.

Same tense register, still found family

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow ..

Frank Herbert1974

Same tense register, still scifi

pace0·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+1·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+1·bleak0

Artemis

Andy Weir2017

A porter and smuggler on a lunar colony takes a high-stakes sabotage job to pay off a debt. She uses technical knowledge to solve problems.

tense → propulsive, still scifi

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

tense → playful

pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

Artemis

Andy Weir2017

A porter and smuggler on a lunar colony takes a high-stakes sabotage job to pay off a debt. She uses technical knowledge to solve problems.

tense → propulsive, still scifi

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

tense → propulsive

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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+1·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+1·bleak-1

The Fifth Science

Exurb1a2019

Twelve stories trace the rise and fall of a human empire through the discovery of a science of the mind. It spans 100,000 years of history.

tense → elegiac, still scifi

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

The children's blizzard

David Laskin2004

A reconstruction of the 1888 blizzard that killed hundreds of settlers in the Dakotas. It tracks the storm's path and the families it trapped.

tense → elegiac, still history

pace-1·prose0·bleak+1