Voyage

Survival

Julie E. Czerneda2004

A salmon biologist is recruited by an alien to investigate the disappearance of several species. It is a slow-paced first-contact procedural.

Same earnest register, still hard sci-fi

pace0·prose0·bleak0

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-1·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

pace0·prose+2·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+2·bleak+1

The Hating Game

Sally Thorne2016

Two executive assistants at a publishing house compete for a single promotion through a series of psychological games and mutual sabotage.

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

The Score

Elle Kennedy2016

A college senior has a one-night stand with a hockey player to get over a breakup. They continue the arrangement as graduation approaches.

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

The Spanish Love Deception

Elena Armas2021

A woman convinces a colleague she dislikes to fly to Spain and pose as her boyfriend for a wedding. They have four weeks to prepare the ruse.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Accelerando

Charles Stross2005

Three generations of a family navigate the rapid evolution of technology toward a singularity. The pace accelerates as humanity is outpaced by AI.

earnest → wry, still hard sci-fi

pace+2·prose+1·bleak0

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-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+2·prose-1·bleak0

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+2·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·prose+1·bleak-1

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-1·prose+1·bleak0

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+2·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·prose+1·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·prose0·bleak+2