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Voyager in Night

C. J. Cherryh1984

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  • Wheelers

    Ian Stewart2000

    Scientists discover wheel-shaped lifeforms on Jupiter while a comet threatens to collide with Earth.

    cold → meditative, still hard scifi

    pace0·prose0·bleak-1

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • In Green's Jungles

    Gene Wolfe2000

    A narrator travels to different worlds while his physical form and memories shift. He recounts past voyages to prove his identity to his companions.

    cold → elegiac

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    cold → meditative, still hard scifi

    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.

    cold → clinical

    pace0·prose+1·bleak0

To recover

cold → playful

3 more ↓

  • Mile High

    Liz Tomforde2023

    A professional hockey player and a flight attendant clash on the team's private plane during a season-long road trip.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • Behind the Net

    Stephanie Archer2024

    A former musician becomes the live-in assistant for a professional hockey goalie she knew in high school.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

  • She Went All the Way

    Meg Cabot2002

    A screenwriter and an actor survive a helicopter crash in the Alaskan wilderness and must hike to safety while being pursued by a killer.

    pace+1·prose-2·bleak-2

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.

    cold → wry

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

  • 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.

    cold → propulsive

    pace+2·prose-2·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.

    cold → playful

    pace+2·prose-2·bleak-2

Slower

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    cold → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    cold → meditative

    pace-1·prose+1·bleak-1

  • 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.

    cold → elegiac

    pace-1·prose0·bleak-2

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream

    Harlan Ellison2009

    A sentient supercomputer keeps the last five humans alive to torture them eternally. It is a short story about absolute power and spite.

    cold → bleak, still psychological horror

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Negative Space

    B.R. Yeager2020

    Four teenagers in a decaying New Hampshire town use a drug made from local parasites. They navigate hallucinations and a string of suicides.

    cold → bleak, still psychological horror

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1

  • Maelstrom

    Peter Watts2001

    A bio-engineered virus spreads through the global network while a woman navigates a flooded, post-apocalyptic landscape.

    cold → bleak, still hard scifi

    pace+1·prose0·bleak+1