Authority

The Islanders

Christopher Priest2011

A gazetteer describes the geography and culture of an endless archipelago. It is a collection of entries that form a non-linear narrative.

Same clinical register, still unreliable narrator

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Empty Space

M. John Harrison2012

Three interlocking timelines follow a widow in London, a detective in a neon city, and a pilot in deep space. The prose is dense and surreal.

clinical → dreamlike, still weird fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

Star Maker

Olaf Stapledon1937

A narrator travels through space and time to observe the birth and death of civilizations across the universe.

clinical → elegiac, still cosmic horror

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.

clinical → dreamlike, still unreliable narrator

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

This Man

Jodi Ellen Malpas2013

An interior designer begins an affair with a wealthy client who demands total control over her life and schedule.

clinical → tense

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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

Real Murders

Charlaine Harris1990

A librarian in a small Georgia town belongs to a club that studies famous crimes. A real murder occurs that mimics a historical case.

clinical → wry

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

clinical → wry

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

clinical → propulsive

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

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.

clinical → playful

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

clinical → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

Night Land

William Hope Hodgson2014

In the distant future, a man leaves the last human stronghold to find a woman across a sunless, monster-filled wasteland.

clinical → dreamlike, still cosmic horror

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Dandelion Wine

Ray Bradbury1946

A twelve-year-old boy experiences a series of vignettes over one summer in 1928 Illinois. The chapters focus on small-town life and aging.

clinical → elegiac

pace-1·prose0·bleak-2

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.

clinical → bleak, still cosmic horror

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

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.

clinical → bleak, still cosmic horror

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

Negative Space

B.R. Yeager2020

Four teenagers in a decaying New Hampshire town use a drug made from local parasites. They navigate hallucinations and a string of suicides.

clinical → bleak, still cosmic horror

pace+1·prose0·bleak+1