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After

Of Monsters and Mainframes

Barbara Truelove2025

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

Same tense register, still space opera

1 more ↓

  • Slow Gods

    Catherine Webb2025

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Empty Space

    M. John Harrison2012

    Three interlocking timelines follow a widow in London, a detective in a neon city, and a pilot in deep space. The prose is dense and surreal.

    tense → dreamlike, still space opera

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak0

  • 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+3·bleak0

  • 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.

    tense → meditative

    pace-1·prose+3·bleak0

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Station Eternity

    Mur Lafferty2022

    A woman who is a magnet for murders flees to an alien space station, only to find herself investigating a new death among the residents.

    tense → playful, still space opera

    pace0·prose+1·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.

    tense → wry, still space opera

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-2

  • Ecce and Old Earth

    Jack Vance1991

    Glawen Clattuc travels to Earth to find a lost charter that protects a planet from development. The focus is on bureaucracy and social customs.

    tense → wry, still space opera

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Red Rising

    Pierce Brown2014

    A laborer on Mars discovers his caste is being lied to and undergoes surgery to infiltrate the ruling elite. He joins a brutal war games academy.

    tense → propulsive, still space opera

    pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

  • The Stars My Destination

    Alfred Bester1956

    Gully Foyle is left for dead in space and spends years seeking revenge. He travels a future where humans can teleport using their minds.

    tense → propulsive, still space opera

    pace+1·prose+2·bleak-1

  • The Android's Dream

    John Scalzi2006

    A diplomat must find a specific, genetically engineered sheep to prevent an interstellar war. The story is a fast-paced, irreverent space comedy.

    tense → playful, still space opera

    pace+1·prose0·bleak-2

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.

    tense → meditative

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak-1

  • Blood on the dining-room floor

    Gertrude Stein1948

    A repetitive, circular narrative about a death in a country house. It uses experimental prose to obscure the facts of a traditional mystery.

    tense → playful, still mystery

    pace-2·prose+3·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.

    tense → playful

    pace-2·prose+3·bleak-2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • The Gap Into Conflict: The Real Story

    Stephen R. Donaldson

    A space pirate, a victim, and a police officer are trapped in a cycle of abuse and betrayal. The narrative shifts perspectives to reveal lies.

    tense → bleak, still space opera

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

  • The Doomsday Book

    Joel Levy2006

    This nonfiction guide analyzes various global catastrophe scenarios, from nuclear war to pandemics, and calculates the probability of each.

    Same tense register, still mystery

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    tense → propulsive, still space opera

    pace0·prose+2·bleak+1