Star Wars - The Last Jedi

Dune

Frank Herbert1965

A young nobleman moves to a desert planet to manage the universe's most valuable resource. He must survive a coup and join the native population.

pace0·prose+1·bleak0

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, still science fiction

pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

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.

tense → sardonic, still science fiction

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

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+2·bleak+1

The Stainless Steel Rat

Harry Harrison1961

A futuristic con man is caught by the Special Corps and forced to use his criminal skills to catch other lawbreakers.

tense → playful, still space opera

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

Hot mahogany

Stuart Woods2008

A lawyer guards a former spy with amnesia who restores antique furniture. They uncover a conspiracy linked to the man's service in Vietnam.

tense → wry

pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

Sergei

Roxie Rivera2013

A Russian mob enforcer protects a woman from his own world while trying to keep his romantic interest in her a secret.

Same tense register

pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Skylark DuQuesne

Edward Elmer Smith1966

Two rival geniuses must unite their space fleets to stop an alien threat. It features planet-destroying weapons and faster-than-light travel.

tense → earnest, still space opera

pace+1·prose0·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.

tense → wry, still space opera

pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

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.

tense → playful, still science fiction

pace+1·prose-1·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 Rise of Endymion

Dan Simmons1997

A man protects a young messiah from a galactic church that uses resurrection to control humanity. It concludes a four-book series.

tense → elegiac, still space opera

pace-1·prose+1·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+2·bleak-1

The Jaunt

Stephen King2009

A father explains the history of teleportation to his family while they wait to travel. He describes the danger of being awake during the trip.

Same tense register, still science fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak+2

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.

Same tense register, 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.

tense → propulsive, still science fiction

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2