LitQueuelitqueue

After

Shadow's End

Sheri S. Tepper1994

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Brain Child

    George Turner1991

    A man discovers he is the result of a secret experiment that created genetically engineered geniuses. He uncovers a conspiracy about human destiny.

    Same clinical register, still science fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • Nova Express

    William S. Burroughs1964

    An experimental narrative uses the cut-up technique to depict a war between intergalactic criminals and the police. It is a collage of imagery.

    clinical → sardonic, still science fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • Rakesfall

    Vajra Chandrasekera2024

    Two souls reincarnate across centuries of Sri Lankan history and a distant future. The narrative shifts through different bodies and realities.

    clinical → dreamlike

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • Embassytown

    China Miéville2011

    On a distant planet, humans coexist with aliens whose language is literal truth. A new arrival threatens the fragile linguistic balance.

    clinical → meditative, still science fiction

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

clinical → playful, still science fiction

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    clinical → meditative, still science fiction

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    clinical → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    clinical → sardonic, still science fiction

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-2

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    clinical → tense, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    clinical → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    clinical → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    clinical → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    clinical → earnest, still science fiction

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-2

  • 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.

    clinical → playful

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    clinical → tense, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose0·bleak+1

  • 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.

    clinical → propulsive, still science fiction

    pace+2·prose-1·bleak+1

  • 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.

    clinical → elegiac, still science fiction

    pace0·prose0·bleak+1