The Hercules Text

Infinity Beach

Jack McDevitt2000

In a universe where humans have found no other life, a scientist discovers evidence of a secret mission and a possible alien encounter.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Steal Across the Sky

Nancy Kress2009

Aliens take twenty-one humans to various planets to witness the consequences of an ancient genetic crime. It focuses on the ethical fallout.

pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Emprise

Michael P. Kube-McDowell1985

Following a global collapse, scientists secretly rebuild technology to respond to an alien signal. It spans decades of political struggle.

pace-1·prose0·bleak0

The Tranquillity Alternative

Allen Steele1996

In an alternate 1995, the US space program prepares a final mission to the moon to decommission nuclear missiles.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

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.

earnest → meditative

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Incandescence

Greg Egan2008

Two parallel stories follow a galactic traveler and a primitive society living inside a rock. They use physics to understand their environment.

earnest → meditative, still hard sci-fi

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown2009

Symbologist Robert Langdon follows a trail of Masonic puzzles through Washington D.C. monuments to save his kidnapped mentor.

earnest → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

Neil deGrasse Tyson2017

A summary of the origin of the universe, the laws of physics, and the nature of space and time.

earnest → playful

pace+1·prose-1·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.

earnest → propulsive, 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.

earnest → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·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.

earnest → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+2·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.

earnest → meditative

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

Blindsight

Peter Watts2006

A crew of specialists, including a vampire and a linguist, investigates an alien presence at the edge of the solar system.

earnest → cold, still hard sci-fi

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+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.

earnest → elegiac, still first contact

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2