Void Star

Mountain in the Sea

Ray Nayler2022

A scientist studies a hyper-intelligent octopus species on a corporate-owned island. The book explores the nature of consciousness and AI.

Same meditative register, still cyberpunk

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Solitaire

Kelley Eskridge2002

A woman groomed for global leadership is framed for a crime and sentenced to years of solitary confinement in a virtual reality cell.

Same meditative register, still cyberpunk

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Empire of Bones

Liz Williams2002

Aliens return to India to reclaim a species they genetically seeded. They search for a 'Receiver' who can hear their communications.

Same meditative register, still post-cyberpunk

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Dreamfall

Joan D. Vinge1996

A telepath travels to a water world to study an indigenous species. He navigates corporate interests and his own psychological instability.

Same meditative register, still cyberpunk

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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.

Same meditative register

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The Fractal Prince

Hannu Rajaniemi2012

A post-human thief is sent to Earth to steal a memory from a city made of digital ghosts. The prose uses dense, unexplained jargon.

meditative → dreamlike, still post-cyberpunk

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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, still cyberpunk

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On a Pale Horse

Piers Anthony1983

After accidentally killing the personification of Death, a man must take over the office. He navigates the bureaucracy of the afterlife.

meditative → playful

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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.

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Akira, Vol. 1

Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984

In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.

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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.

meditative → dreamlike

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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.

Same meditative register

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Dr. Adder

K. W. Jeter1984

In a broken future Los Angeles, a surgeon performs extreme genital modifications for a subculture of outcasts.

meditative → cynical, still cyberpunk

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Market Forces

Richard K. Morgan2004

In a future where executives duel in armored cars for promotions, Chris Faulkner joins a firm that profits from civil wars. It is a corporate satire.

meditative → sardonic, still cyberpunk

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