War Dogs

Earth Afire

Orson Scott Card2013

During an alien invasion, a mechanic tries to warn Earth while a soldier joins a specialized police unit to fight back.

Same tense register, still military sci-fi

pace0·prose0·bleak0

The Light Brigade

Kameron Hurley2019

Soldiers are turned into light to be beamed to the front lines of an interplanetary war, but one recruit experiences the missions out of order.

Same tense register, still military sci-fi

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Lines of Departure

Marko Kloos2014

An officer fights an interstellar war against alien giants while Earth collapses into poverty. It follows military campaigns across space.

Same tense register, still military sci-fi

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

On My Way to Paradise

Dave Wolverton1989

A pharmacist in a future Panama joins a mercenary army to pay for his escape from a war-torn Earth.

tense → bleak, still military 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.

tense → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

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.

tense → sardonic, still unreliable narrator

pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Phule's Company

Robert Lynn Asprin1990

A wealthy captain is court-martialed and sent to lead a group of military misfits on a remote frontier planet.

tense → playful, still military sci-fi

pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

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.

tense → playful

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Lines of Departure

Marko Kloos2014

An officer fights an interstellar war against alien giants while Earth collapses into poverty. It follows military campaigns across space.

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Hell Divers

Nicholas Sansbury Smith2016

Skydivers jump from massive airships to a ruined Earth to scavenge parts for humanity's survival. One team is stranded in a hostile zone.

pace+1·prose-1·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.

tense → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

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.

tense → meditative

pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Kaleidoscope Century

John Barnes1995

A mercenary wakes every ten years to a new body and a changing world. He uncovers his own history of atrocities across the 21st century.

tense → bleak, still military sci-fi

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Dark Age

Pierce Brown2019

An outlawed revolutionary fights a losing war on Mercury while an exiled heir attempts to reclaim a space empire. It is a violent military epic.

tense → propulsive, still military sci-fi

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1