The children of time

Last Year

Robert Charles Wilson2016

In a future where doorways open to alternate 19th-century timelines, a security agent protects a luxury resort from modern-day exploitation.

tense → elegiac, still science fiction

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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.

tense → meditative, still science fiction

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Light

M. John Harrison2002

Three timelines follow a serial killer in 1999 and two pilots in 2417. They are linked by a region of space where physics breaks down.

tense → cold, still science fiction

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Nova Express

William S. Burroughs1964

An experimental narrative uses the cut-up technique to depict a war between intergalactic criminals and the police. It is a collage of imagery.

tense → sardonic, still science fiction

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The Last Question

Isaac Asimov2007

A short story told in seven vignettes spanning billions of years. Humanity asks a supercomputer if the heat death of the universe can be avoided.

tense → meditative, still science fiction

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Dream Park

Steven Barnes1981

A security chief investigates a real death during a high-stakes holographic role-playing game. The story tracks the game mechanics and the murder.

tense → propulsive, still science fiction

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The Butterfly Kid

Chester Anderson1967

Hippie protagonists in Greenwich Village discover that a new drug allows them to manifest hallucinations into reality to fight an alien invasion.

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The Lake House

James Patterson

A veterinarian and an FBI agent protect six genetically engineered children who can fly. They are pursued by a global conspiracy.

tense → propulsive, still science fiction

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The Martian

Andy Weir2011

A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

tense → wry

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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.

tense → propulsive

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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.

tense → dreamlike

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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.

tense → elegiac

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For Us, the Living

Robert A. Heinlein2003

A 1930s pilot wakes up in the year 2086. The book consists of long dialogues explaining the social, economic, and sexual norms of the future.

tense → earnest

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Behold the Man

Michael Moorcock1968

A man uses a time machine to travel to 28 AD to meet Jesus. Finding only a disabled man who cannot fulfill the gospels, he takes the role himself.

tense → bleak, still time travel

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The Year of the Quiet Sun

Wilson Tucker1970

A social scientist travels forward in time to document the collapse of the United States through racial conflict and nuclear war.

tense → bleak, still time travel

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The Jaunt

Stephen King2009

A father explains the history of teleportation to his family while they wait to travel. He describes the danger of being awake during the trip.

Same tense register, still science fiction

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