Home Fires

Ancillary Mercy

Ann Leckie2015

A former warship in a human body protects a space station from an imperial civil war. It is the final book in the Imperial Radch trilogy.

Same wry register, still space opera

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The Man Who Saw Seconds

Alexander Boldizar2024

wry → tense, still space opera

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The State of the Art

Iain M. Banks1989

A collection of short stories and a novella. In the title story, an advanced spacefaring society visits Earth in 1977 to decide its fate.

Same wry register, still space opera

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Ecce and Old Earth

Jack Vance1991

Glawen Clattuc travels to Earth to find a lost charter that protects a planet from development. The focus is on bureaucracy and social customs.

Same wry register, still space opera

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.

wry → dreamlike, still space opera

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

In Green's Jungles

Gene Wolfe2000

A narrator travels to different worlds while his physical form and memories shift. He recounts past voyages to prove his identity to his companions.

wry → elegiac, still unreliable narrator

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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.

Same wry register, still space opera

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Truly, Madly

Heather Webber2010

A woman with the psychic ability to find lost objects takes over her family's matchmaking business. She teams up with a cynical private investigator.

wry → playful, still mystery

pace+1·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.

Same wry register, still space opera

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

wry → playful, still space opera

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-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.

wry → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator

pace-1·prose+1·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.

wry → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

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.

wry → bleak, still space opera

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2

An Exchange of Hostages

Susan R. Matthews1997

A surgeon is drafted into a space empire's corps of torturers. He tries to maintain his ethics while being trained to inflict pain.

wry → clinical, still space opera

pace0·prose0·bleak+2