LitQueuelitqueue

After

Venus of Dreams

Pamela Sargent1986

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Purgatory Mount

    Adam Roberts2021

    A crew investigates a massive alien structure shaped like a mountain. The narrative shifts between the expedition and a future dystopia on Earth.

    earnest → sardonic, still hard sci-fi

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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

    pace0·prose+1·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.

    earnest → meditative

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    earnest → meditative

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Marriage Mistake

    Jennifer Probst2012

    After a one-night stand is discovered by family, a businessman and his friend's sister enter a forced marriage to satisfy Italian tradition.

    earnest → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • All Lined Up

    Cora Carmack2014

    The daughter of a college football coach starts a secret relationship with the team's new star player.

    Same earnest register

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

  • The Heartbreaker

    Carly Phillips

    A small-town journalist protects a senator's daughter during a political scandal. He seeks a career-making story while keeping her safe.

    earnest → playful

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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+2·prose-2·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+2·prose-2·bleak0

  • The Kaiju Preservation Society

    John Scalzi2022

    A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

    earnest → playful

    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.

    earnest → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    Same earnest register, still hard sci-fi

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

  • 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-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    earnest → bleak, still hard sci-fi

    pace0·prose+1·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.

    earnest → bleak, still hard sci-fi

    pace+1·prose0·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.

    earnest → bleak, still hard sci-fi

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2