Maître du monde

Ante la bandera (Face au drapeau)

Jules Verne1897

A pirate kidnaps a mad scientist and his attendant to secure a powerful explosive. The attendant attempts to alert the world from a secret island.

tense → propulsive, still proto-sf

pace0·prose0·bleak0

White Devils

Paul J. McAuley2004

An investigator in the Congo is attacked by genetically engineered creatures. He uncovers a corporate conspiracy involving illegal experiments.

Same tense register, still mad scientist

pace0·prose0·bleak+1

The Other Emily

Dean Koontz2021

A writer meets a woman who looks exactly like his girlfriend who disappeared ten years ago. He follows her into a billionaire's estate.

Same tense register, still mad scientist

pace0·prose0·bleak0

They found Atlantis

Dennis Wheatley1935

A group of explorers uses a specialized diving bell to search the ocean floor. They discover a surviving civilization in the ruins of Atlantis.

Same tense register, still adventure

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Too Like the Lightning

Ada Palmer2016

In a 25th-century utopia, a convict narrates the discovery of a boy who can perform miracles. The prose uses 18th-century styles and gender terms.

tense → sardonic

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+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.

tense → meditative

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown2009

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

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Walking Disaster

Jamie McGuire2013

This novel retells the events of 'Beautiful Disaster' from the perspective of Travis Maddox. It follows his college years and obsession with Abby.

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

The Martian

Andy Weir2011

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

tense → wry

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-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.

tense → propulsive

pace+1·prose-1·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.

tense → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

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.

tense → meditative

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

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.

tense → cold

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

Doomsday Book

Connie Willis1992

A student travels to 14th-century England while a virus spreads in the present. She arrives during the Black Death due to a technical error.

tense → bleak

pace-1·prose0·bleak+2