After
Dogs of War
Adrian Tchaikovsky2017
- pace
- prose
- structure
- bleakness
6 of 6 directions open
More like it
Same earnest register, still military sci-fi
- pace0prose0bleak0
Light of Impossible Stars
Gareth L. Powell2020
A sentient warship and its crew flee into a reality-warping region of space to escape an invincible armada.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Orphanage
Robert Buettner2004
After aliens attack Earth from Ganymede, a young orphan joins a desperate military mission to invade Jupiter's moon using improvised technology.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
Barrayar
Lois McMaster Bujold1991
A pregnant woman navigates a civil war and an assassination plot on a regressive military planet. She fights to protect her unborn son.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
- pace0prose0bleak0
On Basilisk Station
David Weber1993
A naval officer is exiled to a remote outpost with a single ship. She must manage a hostile crew and uncover a smuggling conspiracy.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
1 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose0bleak0
The Guns of the South
Harry Turtledove1992
Time travelers from the future supply Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army with AK-47s, changing the course of the American Civil War.
pace0·prose0·bleak0
Denser prose
- pace0prose+2bleak+1
Seven Surrenders
Ada Palmer2017
The leaders of global Hives struggle to maintain a centuries-long peace as secrets emerge. The narrator is biased and uses archaic language.
earnest → sardonic
pace0·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Valis
Philip K. Dick1981
A man experiences a beam of pink light that imparts vast information. The narrative explores his mental breakdown and search for God in California.
earnest → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
Shadow & Claw
Gene Wolfe1983
A torturer travels across a far-future Earth where technology is indistinguishable from magic. He recounts his exile in dense, archaic prose.
earnest → meditative
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-1prose+2bleak+1
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.
earnest → dreamlike
pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1
To recover
earnest → playful
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Apprentice to the Villain
Hannah Nicole Maehrer2024
Evie Sage assists an evil overlord while a magical threat endangers their kingdom. The story follows their workplace dynamic and a looming siege.
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Redshirts
John Scalzi2012
Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
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.
earnest → propulsive
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
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.
earnest → wry
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace0prose-1bleak-1
Fearless Fourteen
Janet Evanovich2008
A bounty hunter searches for a missing bank robber while a stoner guards a cop's house. The plot involves a hidden nine-million-dollar fortune.
pace0·prose-1·bleak-1
Faster
earnest → tense, still military sci-fi
- pace+1prose-1bleak+1
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+1·prose-1·bleak+1
- pace+1prose0bleak+1
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+1·prose0·bleak+1
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
The Martian
Andy Weir2011
A man does arithmetic to stay alive on Mars. Problem, attempt, result, repeat.
earnest → wry
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
earnest → propulsive
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
- pace+1prose-1bleak-1
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.
earnest → wry, still found family
pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1
Slower
- pace-2prose+2bleak+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.
earnest → dreamlike
pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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-2·prose+2·bleak0
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
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.
earnest → meditative
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
- pace-2prose+2bleak-1
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-2·prose+2·bleak-1
- pace-2prose+2bleak0
Ulysses
James Joyce1914
Three characters wander through Dublin on a single day in 1904. Each chapter uses a different literary style to mimic thoughts and sensations.
earnest → playful
pace-2·prose+2·bleak0
Heavier
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
Maelstrom
Peter Watts2001
A bio-engineered virus spreads through the global network while a woman navigates a flooded, post-apocalyptic landscape.
earnest → bleak, still biopunk
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace0prose0bleak+2
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.
earnest → bleak, still military sci-fi
pace0·prose0·bleak+2
3 more ↓ ↑
- pace0prose+1bleak+2
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.
earnest → propulsive, still military sci-fi
pace0·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
Pump Six and Other Stories
Paolo Bacigalupi2008
Eleven short stories depict futures shaped by genetic engineering and environmental collapse. The focus is on human survival in ruined worlds.
earnest → bleak, still biopunk
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
- pace-1prose+1bleak+2
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood1985
In a totalitarian state with a plummeting birth rate, a woman is enslaved as a reproductive vessel. She records her daily life and memories.
earnest → cold
pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2
