Missing Man

Ralph 124C 41+

Hugo Gernsback1925

A genius inventor in the year 2660 uses futuristic technology to rescue a woman from space and protect her from a rival suitor.

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

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.

earnest → sardonic, still science fiction

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Light

M. John Harrison2002

Three timelines follow a serial killer in 1999 and two pilots in 2417. They are linked by a region of space where physics breaks down.

earnest → cold, still science fiction

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.

earnest → dreamlike

pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

The Last Question

Isaac Asimov2007

A short story told in seven vignettes spanning billions of years. Humanity asks a supercomputer if the heat death of the universe can be avoided.

earnest → meditative, still science fiction

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Dream Park

Steven Barnes1981

A security chief investigates a real death during a high-stakes holographic role-playing game. The story tracks the game mechanics and the murder.

earnest → propulsive, still science fiction

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Fugitive Telemetry

Martha Wells2021

A security android discovers a dead body on a space station and must work with human authorities to solve the murder without being blamed.

earnest → sardonic, still science fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

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+1·prose0·bleak+1

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+1·prose0·bleak0

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+1·prose0·bleak0

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

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-2·prose0·bleak-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

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+1·prose+1·bleak+2

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+1·prose0·bleak+2

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

pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2