After

Murderbot Diaries

Martha Wells2023

pace
prose
structure
bleakness

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

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Saturn's Children
Charles Stross2008
In a future where humans are extinct, an android courier transports a package across the solar system while being hunted by rival factions.
Same sardonic register, still space opera
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
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Artificial Condition
Martha Wells2018
A security robot and a research vessel travel to a mining facility to investigate the robot's history of mass murder.
Same sardonic register, still space opera
pace0·prose+1·bleak0
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Schismatrix
Bruce Sterling1985
Abelard Lindsay travels the solar system as humanity splits into warring factions of cybernetic Mechanists and genetic Shapers.
Same sardonic register, still space opera
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Persephone Station
Stina Leicht2021
A crew of female mercenaries is hired to protect an indigenous population on a planet targeted by a greedy corporation.
sardonic → earnest, still space opera
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1 more ↓

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Star Nomad
Lindsay Buroker2016
A fighter pilot and a small crew of strangers attempt to escape a system-wide war in a freighter. It is a character-driven space adventure.
sardonic → playful, still space opera
pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

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VAS
Steve Tomasula2002
A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.
sardonic → clinical, still cyberpunk
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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.
sardonic → dreamlike, still space opera
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

3 more ↓

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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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
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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.
sardonic → meditative, still space opera
pace0·prose+3·bleak+2
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Rakesfall
Vajra Chandrasekera2024
Two souls reincarnate across centuries of Sri Lankan history and a distant future. The narrative shifts through different bodies and realities.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+3·bleak+2

Faster

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The Stars My Destination
Alfred Bester1956
Gully Foyle is left for dead in space and spends years seeking revenge. He travels a future where humans can teleport using their minds.
sardonic → propulsive, still space opera
pace+1·prose+2·bleak+1
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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.
sardonic → wry, still space opera
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3 more ↓

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The Star Wars Trilogy
George Lucas2018
A farm boy joins a rebellion against a galactic empire. He learns to use a mystical force under the guidance of an exiled knight.
sardonic → earnest, still space opera
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1
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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.
sardonic → propulsive, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose0·bleak0
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Red Rising
Pierce Brown2014
A laborer on Mars discovers his caste is being lied to and undergoes surgery to infiltrate the ruling elite. He joins a brutal war games academy.
sardonic → propulsive, still space opera
pace+1·prose+1·bleak+2

Slower

pace-2prose+3bleak+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.
sardonic → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+2
pace-2prose+3bleak+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.
sardonic → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

3 more ↓

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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.
sardonic → meditative
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1
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Gödel, Escher, Bach
Douglas R. Hofstadter1979
An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.
sardonic → playful
pace-2·prose+3·bleak0
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Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
sardonic → playful
pace-2·prose+3·bleak+1

Heavier

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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.
sardonic → bleak, still space opera
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
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Dr. Adder
K. W. Jeter1984
In a broken future Los Angeles, a surgeon performs extreme genital modifications for a subculture of outcasts.
sardonic → cynical, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3

3 more ↓

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Market Forces
Richard K. Morgan2004
In a future where executives duel in armored cars for promotions, Chris Faulkner joins a firm that profits from civil wars. It is a corporate satire.
Same sardonic register, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose+1·bleak+3
pace0prose+2bleak+3
Random Acts of Senseless Violence
Jack Womack1994
A twelve-year-old girl records her life in a diary as New York City collapses into riots and hyperinflation. Her family falls into poverty.
sardonic → bleak, still cyberpunk
pace0·prose+2·bleak+3
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Hellspark
Janet Kagan1988
A linguist travels to a new planet to investigate a murder. She must determine if the local species is sentient while navigating a conspiracy.
sardonic → tense, still cyberpunk
pace+1·prose+2·bleak+3