LitQueuelitqueue

After

The Clockwork Rocket

Greg Egan2011

5 of 6 directions open — nothing denser

More like it

1 more ↓

  • Worlds Enough and Time

    Joe Haldeman1992

    The final volume of a trilogy follows colonists on a generation ship. It details the political and biological evolution of a closed society.

    clinical → elegiac, still hard scifi

    pace0·prose-2·bleak+1

To recover

3 more ↓

  • Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make That Sabotage Their Careers

    Lois P. Frankel

    A career coach lists 101 behaviors women use in the workplace that may hinder their advancement. Each entry provides a specific tip for change.

    clinical → earnest

    pace+1·prose-3·bleak-1

  • Redshirts

    John Scalzi2012

    Low-ranking crew members on a starship realize they are disposable characters in a sci-fi television show. They attempt to escape their fate.

    clinical → playful

    pace+1·prose-3·bleak-1

  • The Da Vinci Code

    Dan Brown2003

    A symbologist and a cryptologist flee the police while solving puzzles hidden in art. They search for a secret regarding the Holy Grail.

    clinical → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-3·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.

    clinical → wry

    pace+2·prose-3·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.

    clinical → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-3·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.

    clinical → playful

    pace+2·prose-3·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.

    clinical → meditative

    pace-1·prose0·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.

    Same clinical register, still hard scifi

    pace-1·prose0·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.

    clinical → playful

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    Same clinical register, still hard scifi

    pace0·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.

    clinical → bleak, still hard scifi

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+2

  • The Handmaid's Tale

    Margaret Atwood1985

    In a totalitarian state with a plummeting birth rate, a woman is enslaved as a reproductive vessel. She records her daily life and memories.

    clinical → cold

    pace0·prose-1·bleak+2