After
Mindbridge
Joe Haldeman1976
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
- pace0prose0bleak0
Voyagers
Ben Bova1981
A physicist detects an alien craft approaching Earth. He struggles against Cold War governments that want to keep the discovery secret.
clinical → earnest, still hard scifi
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Factoring Humanity
Robert J. Sawyer1998
A scientist decodes a message from Alpha Centauri while her husband explores the nature of human consciousness. It focuses on SETI and AI.
clinical → earnest, still hard scifi
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Einstein's Bridge
John G. Cramer1997
Physicists at the Superconducting Super Collider detect a signal from another universe. This contact triggers an encounter with a predatory species.
clinical → earnest, still hard scifi
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace-1prose+1bleak0
An Alien Light
Nancy Kress1988
Aliens establish a walled city on a planet where two human factions are at war. They observe the humans to learn why they are so violent.
Same clinical register, still hard scifi
pace-1·prose+1·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak-1
Dragon's Egg
Robert L. Forward1980
Human scientists monitor the rapid evolution of a species on a neutron star where time moves millions of times faster than on Earth.
clinical → earnest, still hard scifi
pace0·prose0·bleak-1
Denser prose
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
VAS
Steve Tomasula2002
A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.
Same clinical register
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
clinical → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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.
clinical → sardonic
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Valis
Philip K. Dick1981
A man experiences a beam of pink light that imparts vast information. The narrative explores his mental breakdown and search for God in California.
clinical → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Shadow & Claw
Gene Wolfe1983
A torturer travels across a far-future Earth where technology is indistinguishable from magic. He recounts his exile in dense, archaic prose.
clinical → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Surrounded by Idiots
Thomas Erikson2014
A guide to a four-color personality model designed to help readers categorize and communicate with different behavioral types in the workplace.
clinical → wry
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Wallbanger
Alice Clayton2012
Caroline is kept awake by her neighbor's loud sexual encounters. She confronts him, leading to a relationship built on banter and frustration.
clinical → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose-1bleak-1
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
John Gray1992
A guide to heterosexual relationships that attributes communication conflicts to inherent psychological differences between men and women.
clinical → earnest
pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Wildfire
Hannah Grace2023
Two college students who had a one-night stand discover they are working as counselors at the same summer camp.
clinical → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Love Her or Lose Her
Tessa Bailey2020
A woman enrolls her distant, ex-soldier husband in a marriage boot camp to save their relationship and pursue her dream of opening a restaurant.
clinical → playful
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
clinical → wry, still epistolary
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
clinical → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-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.
clinical → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak0
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.
clinical → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak0
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
clinical → playful
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
clinical → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+1
His Master's Voice
Stanisław Lem2018
A mathematician works at a secret facility to decode a neutrino signal from space. The book is a philosophical essay disguised as a memoir.
Same clinical register, still hard scifi
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
clinical → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
clinical → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+1bleak-1
Dandelion Wine
Ray Bradbury1946
A twelve-year-old boy experiences a series of vignettes over one summer in 1928 Illinois. The chapters focus on small-town life and aging.
clinical → elegiac
pace-2·prose+1·bleak-1
Heavier
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
Fiasco
Stanisław Lem1986
Humans on a spaceship attempt to force communication with an alien civilization that refuses to respond. It ends in a total failure of logic.
Same clinical register, still hard scifi
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
Titan
Stephen Baxter1997
A crew of astronauts embarks on a one-way mission to Saturn's moon. The narrative details the technical and psychological decay of the mission.
clinical → cold, still hard scifi
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
The Sparrow
Mary Doria Russell1996
A Jesuit priest joins a mission to a newly discovered planet. The story is told in flashbacks after he returns as the sole, traumatized survivor.
clinical → elegiac, still first contact
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
Maelstrom
Peter Watts2001
A bio-engineered virus spreads through the global network while a woman navigates a flooded, post-apocalyptic landscape.
clinical → bleak, still hard scifi
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
Salt
Adam Roberts2000
Two groups of colonists with opposing ideologies settle on a salt-covered planet, leading to a total breakdown of their society.
clinical → bleak, still hard scifi
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
