Furious Gulf

Vast

Linda Nagata1998

A small crew on a living starship flees a cult and a microscopic plague. They search for the origin of a galaxy-wide extinction event.

Same tense register, still hard sci-fi

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Pushing Ice

Alastair Reynolds2005

A commercial mining ship chases a moon that has left its orbit. The crew faces a physics-based journey that spans centuries of human development.

Same tense register, still hard sci-fi

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Anvil of Stars

Greg Bear1992

The children of a destroyed Earth pilot a sentient starship to find and execute the aliens responsible. It is a slow study of justice and grief.

tense → elegiac, still hard sci-fi

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Tripoint

C. J. Cherryh1994

A young man serves on a family merchant ship while navigating a feud with a rival captain who is also his father. It is a dense space procedural.

Same tense register, still hard sci-fi

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

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

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Perhaps the Stars

Ada Palmer2021

A global war between ideological factions reaches its conclusion. The story is told through a dense, 18th-century style narrative voice.

tense → meditative, still space opera

pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

Smokin' Seventeen

Janet Evanovich2011

A bounty hunter investigates bodies found in her boss's lot while choosing between three suitors. The story follows her daily mishaps in New Jersey.

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Body Movers

Stephanie Bond2006

A department store employee joins a body-transport service for a trip to Florida that involves a missing socialite and a loan shark.

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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+2·prose-2·bleak-2

The Android's Dream

John Scalzi2006

A diplomat must find a specific, genetically engineered sheep to prevent an interstellar war. The story is a fast-paced, irreverent space comedy.

tense → playful, still space opera

pace+2·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-1·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-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Consider Phlebas

Iain Banks1987

A shape-shifting mercenary works for an alien empire to retrieve a rogue AI during a galactic war. He faces a series of deadly set-pieces.

tense → bleak, still space opera

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

The Forge of God

Greg Bear1987

Scientists and government officials realize Earth is being systematically dismantled by an alien presence.

tense → elegiac, still hard sci-fi

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1