The Coming

Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir2021

A man wakes up on a spaceship with amnesia and two dead crewmates. He must use scientific experiments to remember his mission and save the sun.

pace+1·prose0·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.

propulsive → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+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.

propulsive → sardonic

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+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.

propulsive → meditative

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir2021

A man wakes up on a spaceship with amnesia and two dead crewmates. He must use scientific experiments to remember his mission and save the sun.

Same propulsive register, still hard sci-fi

pace+1·prose0·bleak-1

Contact

Carl Sagan1985

A radio astronomer detects a signal from Vega containing blueprints for a machine. Scientists work to decode the message and build the device.

propulsive → earnest, still hard sci-fi

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

The long earth

Terry Pratchett2012

Humans discover they can 'step' into an infinite series of parallel Earths. The story follows a pioneer and an AI exploring these empty worlds.

propulsive → meditative, still hard sci-fi

pace-1·prose0·bleak-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.

Same propulsive register

pace+1·prose-1·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.

propulsive → wry

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

Same propulsive register

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.

propulsive → meditative

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

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.

propulsive → meditative

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

The Gods Themselves

Isaac Asimov1972

A three-part story about the exchange of energy between Earth and a parallel universe. It follows a physicist, an alien triad, and lunar settlers.

propulsive → clinical, still hard sci-fi

pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Echopraxia

Peter Watts2014

A biologist is caught on a mission toward the sun alongside a pilot and a group of transhuman monks. It explores consciousness and evolution.

propulsive → bleak, still hard sci-fi

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

Beyond the Aquila Rift

Alastair Reynolds2001

A spaceship crew wakes from cold sleep to find they have overshot their destination by light-years. They must face the reality of their location.

propulsive → bleak, still hard sci-fi

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

The Killing Star

Charles R. Pellegrino1995

Relativistic missiles destroy Earth without warning. The few human survivors in the solar system are hunted by an alien species using logic.

propulsive → bleak, still hard sci-fi

pace0·prose0·bleak+2