Ethan of Athos

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory

Martha Wells

A security android that hacked its own governor module helps a friend navigate a legal dispute. It deals with personhood and social anxiety.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Sentinels from Space

Eric Frank Russell1953

A man with telepathic powers works to prevent a war between Earth and its colonies on Mars and Venus. He hides his true nature from humanity.

pace0·prose0·bleak0

The Collapsing Empire

John Scalzi2017

An interstellar empire relies on a dimension called the Flow that is beginning to disappear. Three people race to manage the impending collapse.

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

Expendable

James Alan Gardner1997

In a future where only 'expendable' people are sent to dangerous planets, an explorer investigates a high-fatality mission. It is a space opera.

pace0·prose0·bleak+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.

wry → dreamlike, still space opera

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+2

Perhaps the Stars

Ada Palmer2021

A global war between ideological factions reaches its conclusion. The story is told through a dense, 18th-century style narrative voice.

wry → meditative, still space opera

pace0·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.

Same wry register, still space opera

pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

The Star Wars Trilogy

George Lucas2018

A farm boy joins a rebellion against a galactic empire. He learns to use a mystical force under the guidance of an exiled knight.

wry → earnest, still space opera

pace+1·prose0·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.

wry → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+2

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.

wry → meditative

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

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.

wry → bleak, still space opera

pace0·prose+1·bleak+3

An Exchange of Hostages

Susan R. Matthews1997

A surgeon is drafted into a space empire's corps of torturers. He tries to maintain his ethics while being trained to inflict pain.

wry → clinical, still space opera

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+3