Angels of Darkness

War Dogs

Greg Bear2014

Soldiers are deployed to Mars to fight an alien threat on behalf of another species. The narrator recounts the mission from a hospital bed.

Same tense register, still military sci-fi

pace+1·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

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Grimspace

Ann Aguirre

A navigator with a rare brain mutation is forced out of prison to guide a ship through dangerous dimensions for a corporate conglomerate.

Same tense register, still grimdark

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Planetfall

Emma Newman2015

A woman hides a secret about the founding of a space colony. As the settlement's structure fails, her mental stability and the truth emerge.

Same tense register, still unreliable narrator

pace0·prose0·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.

tense → dreamlike

pace0·prose+2·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-1·prose+2·bleak0

Dark Lover

J. R. Ward2005

A vampire king seeks revenge against the slayers who killed his parents while protecting a woman discovering her own supernatural heritage.

tense → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Hot mahogany

Stuart Woods2008

A lawyer guards a former spy with amnesia who restores antique furniture. They uncover a conspiracy linked to the man's service in Vietnam.

tense → wry

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

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+2·prose-1·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.

pace+2·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-1·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-1·prose+2·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 grimdark

pace+1·prose+1·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

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1