LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Calculating Stars

Mary Robinette Kowal2018

6 of 6 directions open

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Semiosis

    Sue Burke2018

    Generations of colonists struggle to survive on a planet where the plants are sentient. They must learn to communicate with a predatory ecosystem.

    Same earnest register, still hard scifi

    pace0·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

earnest → dreamlike, still alternate history

3 more ↓

  • Schild's Ladder

    Greg Egan2002

    Physicists in the far future attempt to stop an expanding vacuum bubble that threatens to consume the universe. It focuses on theoretical physics.

    earnest → meditative, still hard scifi

    pace-1·prose+2·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.

    earnest → dreamlike

    pace-2·prose+2·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

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

To recover

earnest → playful

3 more ↓

  • The Martian

    Andy Weir2011

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

    earnest → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Love on the Brain

    Ali Hazelwood2022

    A neuroscientist must co-lead a NASA project with a man she believes has hated her since grad school.

    pace0·prose-1·bleak-1

  • The Comfort Book

    Matt Haig2021

    A collection of short reflections, lists, and anecdotes intended to provide mental support. It is a non-linear book of philosophy and memoir.

    earnest → warm

    pace-1·prose-1·bleak-1

Faster

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    earnest → wry

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak-1

  • Skin Game

    Jim Butcher2014

    Wizard Harry Dresden joins a team of villains to rob a vault in the Underworld. It is a fast-paced heist set in a modern fantasy Chicago.

    earnest → propulsive

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak0

  • 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.

    earnest → playful

    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.

    earnest → meditative

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

  • Hav

    Jan Morris2006

    A travel writer describes the culture and history of a fictional Mediterranean city-state before and after a massive political upheaval.

    earnest → elegiac, still alternate history

    pace-2·prose+1·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.

    earnest → clinical, still hard scifi

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak+1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • Elvissey

    Jack Womack1993

    Travelers from a corporate dystopia visit an alternate 1954 to kidnap Elvis Presley. They find a version of him that is dangerous and unstable.

    earnest → bleak, still alternate history

    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.

    earnest → clinical, still hard scifi

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2

  • Salt

    Adam Roberts2000

    Two groups of colonists with opposing ideologies settle on a salt-covered planet, leading to a total breakdown of their society.

    earnest → bleak, still hard scifi

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak+2