LitQueuelitqueue

After

Death's End

Liu Cixin2010

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Revelation Space

    Alastair Reynolds2000

    A scientist and a cyborg crew investigate the extinction of an ancient alien race. The tone is cold and the technology is grounded in physics.

    Same cold register, still hard sci-fi

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    cold → dreamlike, still space opera

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak0

  • 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.

    cold → bleak, still hard sci-fi

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

  • 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.

    cold → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

To recover

cold → playful

3 more ↓

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    cold → wry

    pace+1·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.

    cold → wry, still space opera

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Star Nomad

    Lindsay Buroker2016

    A fighter pilot and a small crew of strangers attempt to escape a system-wide war in a freighter. It is a character-driven space adventure.

    cold → playful, still space opera

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Chilling Effect

    Valerie Valdes2019

    A spaceship captain completes dangerous missions to pay off a ransom for her kidnapped sister. The crew includes a pilot who is a sentient plant.

    cold → playful, still space opera

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • The Star Kings

    Edmond Hamilton1949

    A 20th-century man swaps bodies with a prince 200,000 years in the future. He must lead a galactic empire against a tyrant's fleet.

    cold → propulsive, still space opera

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • Project Hail Mary

    Andy Weir2021

    A man wakes up on a spaceship with amnesia and two dead crewmates. He must use scientific experiments to remember his mission and save the sun.

    cold → propulsive, still hard sci-fi

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    cold → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

  • White Mars, or, The mind set free

    Brian W. Aldiss1999

    A group of scientists and thinkers attempts to establish a utopian society on Mars after Earth is cut off by a global catastrophe.

    cold → earnest, still hard sci-fi

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    cold → dreamlike, still cosmic horror

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier

cold → bleak, still hard sci-fi

3 more ↓

  • Consider Phlebas

    Iain Banks1987

    A shape-shifting mercenary works for an alien empire to retrieve a rogue AI during a galactic war. He faces a series of deadly set-pieces.

    cold → bleak, still space opera

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • The Forge of God

    Greg Bear1987

    Scientists and government officials realize Earth is being systematically dismantled by an alien presence.

    cold → elegiac, still hard sci-fi

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1

  • Flood

    Stephen Baxter2008

    The sea level rises globally due to water leaking from the Earth's crust. Four former hostages watch as civilization slowly drowns over decades.

    cold → clinical, still hard sci-fi

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1