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After

Ball Lightning

Liu Cixin2018

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Gravity dreams

    L. E. Modesitt, Jr.1999

    After nanotechnology alters his body, a religious conservative is exiled to a high-tech society where he trains as a starship pilot.

    Same meditative register, still science fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • City of Saints and Madmen

    Jeff Vandermeer2001

    A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.

    meditative → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

  • Against the Day

    Thomas Pynchon2006

    A massive ensemble cast navigates the globe between the 1893 World's Fair and WWI. The plot spans airships, math, and secret societies.

    meditative → playful

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

  • Nova Express

    William S. Burroughs1964

    An experimental narrative uses the cut-up technique to depict a war between intergalactic criminals and the police. It is a collage of imagery.

    meditative → sardonic, still science fiction

    pace0·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • The Lost Symbol

    Dan Brown2009

    Symbologist Robert Langdon follows a trail of Masonic puzzles through Washington D.C. monuments to save his kidnapped mentor.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

  • This Girl

    Colleen Hoover2013

    A husband retells the story of his early relationship to his wife. It uses dual timelines to revisit events from the first book in the series.

    meditative → earnest

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    meditative → playful

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

    A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.

    meditative → wry

    pace+2·prose-1·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.

    meditative → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-1·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.

    meditative → wry

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-1

  • His Master's Voice

    Stanisław Lem2018

    A mathematician works at a secret facility to decode a neutrino signal from space. The book is a philosophical essay disguised as a memoir.

    meditative → clinical, still hard scifi

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • Gödel, Escher, Bach

    Douglas R. Hofstadter1979

    An exploration of how cognition emerges from hidden neurological patterns. It uses math, art, and music to explain self-referential systems.

    meditative → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Maelstrom

    Peter Watts2001

    A bio-engineered virus spreads through the global network while a woman navigates a flooded, post-apocalyptic landscape.

    meditative → bleak, still hard scifi

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Jaunt

    Stephen King2009

    A father explains the history of teleportation to his family while they wait to travel. He describes the danger of being awake during the trip.

    meditative → tense, still science fiction

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Hellspark

    Janet Kagan1988

    A linguist travels to a new planet to investigate a murder. She must determine if the local species is sentient while navigating a conspiracy.

    meditative → tense, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak+1