The Stars Are Also Fire

Anvil of Stars

Greg Bear1992

The children of a destroyed Earth pilot a sentient starship to find and execute the aliens responsible. It is a slow study of justice and grief.

Same elegiac register, still hard sci-fi

pace0·prose0·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.

elegiac → dreamlike, still space opera

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

VAS

Steve Tomasula2002

A man considers a vasectomy while the book uses diagrams and varied typography to explore the history of eugenics and biotechnology.

elegiac → clinical

pace0·prose+1·bleak+1

The Fractal Prince

Hannu Rajaniemi2012

A post-human thief is sent to Earth to steal a memory from a city made of digital ghosts. The prose uses dense, unexplained jargon.

elegiac → dreamlike, still hard sci-fi

pace+1·prose+1·bleak0

Star Nomad

Lindsay Buroker2016

A fighter pilot and a small crew of strangers attempt to escape a system-wide war in a freighter. It is a character-driven space adventure.

pace+1·prose-2·bleak-1

The Witches of Karres

James H. Schmitz1966

A space captain rescues three young girls with psychic powers, only to find himself a fugitive from multiple galactic empires.

pace+1·prose-1·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.

elegiac → wry, still space opera

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Chilling Effect

Valerie Valdes2019

A spaceship captain completes dangerous missions to pay off a ransom for her kidnapped sister. The crew includes a pilot who is a sentient plant.

elegiac → playful, still space opera

pace+2·prose-2·bleak-1

Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir2021

A man wakes up on a spaceship with amnesia and two dead crewmates. He must use scientific experiments to remember his mission and save the sun.

elegiac → propulsive, still hard sci-fi

pace+2·prose-1·bleak-1

The Star Kings

Edmond Hamilton1949

A 20th-century man swaps bodies with a prince 200,000 years in the future. He must lead a galactic empire against a tyrant's fleet.

elegiac → propulsive, still space opera

pace+2·prose-2·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.

elegiac → meditative

pace-1·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.

elegiac → meditative

pace-1·prose+1·bleak0

Dandelion Wine

Ray Bradbury1946

A twelve-year-old boy experiences a series of vignettes over one summer in 1928 Illinois. The chapters focus on small-town life and aging.

Same elegiac register

pace-1·prose0·bleak-1

Flood

Stephen Baxter2008

The sea level rises globally due to water leaking from the Earth's crust. Four former hostages watch as civilization slowly drowns over decades.

elegiac → clinical, still hard sci-fi

pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2

Echopraxia

Peter Watts2014

A biologist is caught on a mission toward the sun alongside a pilot and a group of transhuman monks. It explores consciousness and evolution.

elegiac → bleak, still hard sci-fi

pace0·prose+1·bleak+2

Beyond the Aquila Rift

Alastair Reynolds2001

A spaceship crew wakes from cold sleep to find they have overshot their destination by light-years. They must face the reality of their location.

elegiac → bleak, still hard sci-fi

pace+1·prose0·bleak+2