LitQueuelitqueue

After

Changelings

Anne McCaffrey2005

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

Same earnest register, still science fiction

1 more ↓

  • The moon metal

    Garrett Putman Serviss1900

    A scientist discovers a way to extract a new metal from moonlight after the world's gold supply is destroyed by a mysterious ray.

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Sometimes a Great Notion

    Ken Kesey1964

    A family of independent loggers in Oregon refuses to join a local strike. The perspective shifts rapidly between characters, often mid-paragraph.

    earnest → elegiac

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • 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.

    earnest → sardonic, still science fiction

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+2

  • 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+2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Logan's run

    William F. Nolan1967

    In a future where everyone is executed at age 21, an enforcer becomes a fugitive. He attempts to reach a rumored sanctuary.

    earnest → tense, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose0·bleak+2

  • Influx

    Daniel Suarez2014

    A physicist invents a gravity-reflecting device and is imprisoned by a secret agency that suppresses technology. He plots a high-tech escape.

    earnest → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose0·bleak+1

  • Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens

    Alan Dean Foster2001

    A scavenger and a defecting soldier join the fight against a new galactic power. They search for a missing hero from the previous generation.

    earnest → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose0·bleak+1

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.

    earnest → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • Looking Backward, 2000-1887

    Edward Bellamy1888

    A man falls into a hypnotic sleep in 1887 and wakes up in the year 2000 to find the United States transformed into a socialist utopia.

    Same earnest register, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose0·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.

    earnest → playful

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    earnest → tense, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose+1·bleak+3

  • The Running Man

    Richard Bachman

    A man enters a deadly reality show to fund medical care for his daughter. He must survive thirty days while the entire world hunts him for money.

    earnest → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose0·bleak+3

  • Strangers

    Gardner Dozois1978

    An artist living among the alien Cian on a distant planet falls in love with a local woman and attempts to navigate their incompatible biology.

    earnest → elegiac, still science fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+3