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Robert J. Sawyer

5 of 6 directions open — nothing to recover from

More like it

Same earnest register, still hard sci-fi

1 more ↓

  • Star Trek Discovery - The Way to the Stars

    Una McCormack2019

    A sixteen-year-old Sylvia Tilly navigates life at a high-pressure academy before the events of the television series.

    Same earnest register, still coming of age

    pace-1·prose0·bleak0

Denser prose

3 more ↓

  • 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+2

  • 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+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.

    earnest → bleak, still hard sci-fi

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3

Faster

3 more ↓

  • Akira, Vol. 1

    Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984

    In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.

    earnest → propulsive, still cyberpunk

    pace+1·prose-1·bleak+2

  • 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.

    earnest → propulsive, still hard sci-fi

    pace+1·prose0·bleak0

  • 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·bleak0

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·bleak+1

  • White Mars, or, The mind set free

    Brian W. Aldiss1999

    A group of scientists and thinkers attempts to establish a utopian society on Mars after Earth is cut off by a global catastrophe.

    Same earnest register, still hard sci-fi

    pace-2·prose+1·bleak0

  • 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.

    earnest → playful

    pace-2·prose+2·bleak0

Heavier

3 more ↓

  • 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.

    earnest → clinical, still hard sci-fi

    pace0·prose0·bleak+3

  • 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.

    earnest → bleak, still hard sci-fi

    pace-1·prose+2·bleak+3

  • 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.

    earnest → bleak, still hard sci-fi

    pace0·prose+1·bleak+3