LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Proteus Operation

James P. Hogan1985

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus

    Orson Scott Card

    Future scientists use time-viewing technology to observe the past. They decide to intervene in 1492 to prevent global colonization.

    Same earnest register, still alternate history

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • All Those Vanished Engines

    Paul Park2014

    Three linked stories follow the Park family through an alternate history where the American Civil War ended in a two-nation settlement.

    earnest → dreamlike, still alternate history

    pace-1·prose+2·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

  • 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.

    earnest → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Split Infinity

    Piers Anthony1980

    A man travels between a high-tech world of games and a parallel world of magic. He must master both systems to avoid being assassinated.

    earnest → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon

    Kimberly Lemming2021

    A spice trader saves a demon while intoxicated and joins his quest to kill a witch. The story features frequent sexual content and humor.

    earnest → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Stainless Steel Rat

    Harry Harrison1961

    A futuristic con man is caught by the Special Corps and forced to use his criminal skills to catch other lawbreakers.

    earnest → playful

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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

  • 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.

    earnest → 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.

    earnest → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    earnest → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • Hav

    Jan Morris2006

    A travel writer describes the culture and history of a fictional Mediterranean city-state before and after a massive political upheaval.

    earnest → elegiac, still alternate history

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    earnest → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    earnest → bleak, still time travel

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • 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.

    earnest → bleak, still time travel

    pace-1·prose0·bleak+2

  • Maelstrom

    Peter Watts2001

    A bio-engineered virus spreads through the global network while a woman navigates a flooded, post-apocalyptic landscape.

    earnest → bleak, still hard scifi

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2