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After

Timescape

Gregory Benford1980

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Invisible Planets

    Ken Liu2016

    An anthology of contemporary Chinese science fiction stories ranging from hard physics to social allegory and cyberpunk.

    Same meditative register, still hard sci-fi

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Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    Same meditative register

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • Shadow & Claw

    Gene Wolfe1983

    A torturer travels across a far-future Earth where technology is indistinguishable from magic. He recounts his exile in dense, archaic prose.

    Same meditative register

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    meditative → dreamlike

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To recover

3 more ↓

  • Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus

    John Gray1992

    A guide to heterosexual relationships that attributes communication conflicts to inherent psychological differences between men and women.

    meditative → earnest

    pace0·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Wildfire

    Hannah Grace2023

    Two college students who had a one-night stand discover they are working as counselors at the same summer camp.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Love Her or Lose Her

    Tessa Bailey2020

    A woman enrolls her distant, ex-soldier husband in a marriage boot camp to save their relationship and pursue her dream of opening a restaurant.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

Faster

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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.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    meditative → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

    Same meditative register

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • White Mars, or, The mind set free

    Brian W. Aldiss1999

    A group of scientists and thinkers attempts to establish a utopian society on Mars after Earth is cut off by a global catastrophe.

    meditative → earnest, still hard sci-fi

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-2

  • 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.

    meditative → elegiac

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-2

Heavier

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  • The Sheep Look Up

    John Brunner1972

    The United States collapses under total environmental toxicity and corporate greed. It follows several characters through a series of disasters.

    meditative → bleak, still cli-fi

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Flood

    Stephen Baxter2008

    The sea level rises globally due to water leaking from the Earth's crust. Four former hostages watch as civilization slowly drowns over decades.

    meditative → clinical, still hard sci-fi

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    meditative → bleak, still time travel

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1