The dark other

The Crystal Crypt

Philip K. Dick2013

On a spaceship fleeing Mars for Earth, Martian authorities search the passengers for three saboteurs who destroyed a city.

Same tense register, still science fiction

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

Speaker for the Dead

Orson Scott Card1986

Decades after a galactic war, a man travels to a colony to investigate the death of a scientist killed by a local alien species.

tense → earnest, still science fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak0

Jurassic Park

Michael Crichton1990

Scientists and children are trapped on an island where cloned dinosaurs have escaped. The story focuses on the failure of complex systems.

Same tense register, still science fiction

pace+1·prose0·bleak0

They'd Rather Be Right

Mark Clifton1957

Two telepaths build a supercomputer capable of giving people eternal youth, but only if they can abandon all their prejudices.

tense → earnest, still science fiction

pace0·prose0·bleak0

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.

tense → sardonic, still science fiction

pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

City of Saints and Madmen

Jeff Vandermeer2001

A collection of stories, histories, and pamphlets about the city of Ambergris. It uses found documents to build a surreal urban history.

tense → dreamlike

pace0·prose+2·bleak+1

The Lost Symbol

Dan Brown2009

Symbologist Robert Langdon follows a trail of Masonic puzzles through Washington D.C. monuments to save his kidnapped mentor.

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

Walking Disaster

Jamie McGuire2013

This novel retells the events of 'Beautiful Disaster' from the perspective of Travis Maddox. It follows his college years and obsession with Abby.

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+2·prose-1·bleak-1

The Lake House

James Patterson

A veterinarian and an FBI agent protect six genetically engineered children who can fly. They are pursued by a global conspiracy.

tense → propulsive, still science fiction

pace+2·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-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.

tense → dreamlike

pace-1·prose+2·bleak+1

Hard to be a god

Аркадий Стругацкий2014

An observer from a technologically advanced Earth lives undercover on a planet stuck in a medieval state. He must watch atrocities without helping.

tense → bleak, still science fiction

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

The Stepford Wives

Ira Levin1972

A photographer moves to a suburb where the wives are unnervingly submissive. She investigates whether the local men are replacing them with robots.

Same tense register, still psychological horror

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2