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After

Nimrod Hunt

Charles Sheffield1986

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

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  • Deathworld 1

    Harry Harrison1960

    A psychic gambler travels to a planet where every life form has evolved to kill humans. He tries to survive the world's hostile environment.

    Same propulsive register, still hard scifi

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    propulsive → sardonic

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+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.

    propulsive → meditative

    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.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

Same propulsive register, still techno-thriller

3 more ↓

  • The Kaiju Preservation Society

    John Scalzi2022

    A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

    propulsive → playful

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Smokin' Seventeen

    Janet Evanovich2011

    A bounty hunter investigates bodies found in her boss's lot while choosing between three suitors. The story follows her daily mishaps in New Jersey.

    propulsive → playful

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    propulsive → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

Same propulsive register, still techno-thriller

3 more ↓

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    propulsive → 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.

    Same propulsive register

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-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.

    propulsive → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

    propulsive → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • His Master's Voice

    Stanisław Lem2018

    A mathematician works at a secret facility to decode a neutrino signal from space. The book is a philosophical essay disguised as a memoir.

    propulsive → clinical, still hard scifi

    pace-2·prose+2·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.

    propulsive → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Maelstrom

    Peter Watts2001

    A bio-engineered virus spreads through the global network while a woman navigates a flooded, post-apocalyptic landscape.

    propulsive → bleak, still hard scifi

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Fiasco

    Stanisław Lem1986

    Humans on a spaceship attempt to force communication with an alien civilization that refuses to respond. It ends in a total failure of logic.

    propulsive → clinical, still hard scifi

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • The White Plague

    Frank Herbert1982

    A molecular biologist creates a gender-targeted plague to kill every woman on Earth after his family dies in a bombing.

    propulsive → bleak, still techno-thriller

    pace0·prose0·bleak+2