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Passage

Connie Willis

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Similar in premise + themes

These books are ranked using the premise + themes labels extracted for Passage. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Premise labels used: near-death experiences, medical mystery, scientific investigation, afterlife inquiry, drug-induced experience, brain science, hospital research

Themes labels used: death and dying, life after death, grief, memory, consciousness, science versus faith, mortality, meaning making, loneliness, survival, human fragility, truth and belief

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their premise + themes embeddings are close.

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Les Thanatonautes

Bernard Werber · 1994 · Cycle des Anges

Two childhood friends lead a science-driven inquiry into what lies beyond death, and the search changes everything.

Why this is here

Premise labels: afterlife exploration · death investigation · near-death experience · scientific experiment · postmortem journey · continent of the dead

Themes labels: death · life after death · religion · philosophy · morality · curiosity · scientific ethics · life meaning · tolerance · consumerism · human nature · mystery

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1161

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The Museum of Human History

Rebekah Bergman · 2023

A comatose girl who never ages draws scientists, family, and seekers into an interwoven mystery about time, memory, and youth.

Why this is here

Premise labels: coma mystery · anti-aging drug · time and memory · interwoven lives · family tragedy · biotech ethics · preserved youth · medical breakthrough · mystery cult

Themes labels: time · memory · aging · mortality · grief · loss · pain · preservation · human condition · impermanence · identity · self-improvement · youth obsession · medical ethics · biotech ethics · dementia · forgetting · connection · family · death · trauma · humanity · history · meaning of life · ethics · resilience · endurance

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1533

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Observer

Robert Lanza, Nancy Kress · 2023

A disgraced neurosurgeon joins a secret Caribbean research project that may let minds alter reality itself.

Why this is here

Premise labels: observer effect · consciousness and reality · brain implant · alternate realities · life after death · immortality · medical research · secret project · science-driven hook · social-media fallout

Themes labels: consciousness · nature of reality · observer effect · life and death · mortality · grief · loss · afterlife · free will · perception · truth and belief · science versus belief · misuse of technology · ethics of science · human connectedness · trauma · social media backlash · sexual misconduct · cancel culture · hope · existentialism

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1595

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A.D.: After Death

Scott Snyder · 2017 · A.D. After Death

In a post-death future, a man’s search for truth forces him to question immortality, memory, and identity.

Why this is here

Premise labels: cure for death · immortality · memory loss · mortality crisis · existential journey · post-death society · questioning immortality · search for truth

Themes labels: Mortality · Immortality · Memory · Identity · Existential dread · Meaning of life · Loss · Grief · Human nature · Fear of death · Fear of life · Free will · Morality · Time · Connection · Loneliness · Self-worth · Escapism · Regret · Continuity of self · Death as meaning

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1626

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The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror

William Sloane · 2015

Two 1930s novellas unite science, mystery, and dread as brilliant men confront deaths, secrets, and the unknown.

Why this is here

Premise labels: cosmic horror · scientific mystery · forbidden knowledge · investigation · locked-room death · communication with the dead · scientific experiment · otherworldly intrusion · grief-driven obsession · unexplained phenomenon

Themes labels: human limits · forbidden knowledge · death and the soul · grief · loss · obsession · epistemic uncertainty · human insignificance · science versus the unknown · realism versus the irrational · moral judgment · knowledge at a cost

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1631

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Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

David Eagleman · 2008

Forty brief afterlife vignettes turn death into a set of witty, unsettling thought experiments about life and self.

Why this is here

Premise labels: afterlife variations · post-death scenarios · thought experiments · what if

Themes labels: mortality · meaning of life · identity · selfhood · free will · regret · memory · belief · faith · creation · equality · human condition · consciousness · time · finitude · existential reflection

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1679

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নিষাদ

Humayun Ahmed · 1989 · মিসির আলি

A quiet young man brings a baffling multi-life mystery to Misir Ali, who tries to explain an unsolved case spanning realities.

Why this is here

Premise labels: mystery inquiry · parallel worlds · multiple lives · unsolved case · intriguing stranger

Themes labels: identity · fate · possibility · loss · grief · truth · belief and doubt · science and faith · memory · loneliness · human longing · reality vs imagination

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1739

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Exhalation

Ted Chiang · 2009

A scientist in a sealed mechanical world investigates memory and the mind, uncovering a truth that reshapes existence itself.

Why this is here

Premise labels: self-discovery · scientific inquiry · existential crisis · closed world · failing civilization · memory mystery · thought experiment · cosmic analogy

Themes labels: existence · self-awareness · consciousness · memory · entropy · heat death · equilibrium · mortality · death · free will · human condition · personhood · curiosity · legacy · hope · meaning of life

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1749

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God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. · 2001

A satirical set of afterlife interviews sends a reporter back from Heaven to question the dead, the famous, and the forgotten.

Why this is here

Premise labels: afterlife interviews · near-death journey · fictional reporter · death and meaning · imaginary conversations · public radio conceit · postmortem encounters · heavenly interview

Themes labels: humanism · mortality · afterlife · life meaning · ethics · good citizenship · common decency · religion · justice · war criticism · political critique · compassion · memory · legacy · guilt · civil rights · euthanasia · absurdity

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1765

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هناك

Ibraheem Abbas, إبراهيم عباس · 2014

A young man wakes in a strange alternate realm where near-death becomes a journey of love, lessons, and reality-bending discovery.

Why this is here

Premise labels: near-death journey · alternate world · dream realm · life lessons · wish fulfillment · hidden potential · reality questioning

Themes labels: life and death · death anxiety · self-belief · hidden potential · personal growth · fate and agency · truth and reality · dreams and goals · motivation · meaning of life · love · hope

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1769

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العنكبوت

Mostafa Mahmoud, مصطفى محمود

A doctor pursues a baffling patient and uncovers a speculative mystery about the soul, memory, and past lives.

Why this is here

Premise labels: soul transmigration · life after death · immortality · human consciousness · mind powers · scientific mystery · medical mystery · hidden knowledge · body-soul separation · reincarnation question

Themes labels: identity · soul · mortality · immortality · knowledge limits · truth-seeking · consciousness · memory · time · human limitation · science and faith · existential questions · afterlife · reincarnation

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1791

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The Strange Case of Jane O.

Karen Thompson Walker · 2025

A psychiatrist and a new mother untangle a strange case of missing time, uncanny memories, and reality-bending doubts.

Why this is here

Premise labels: mysterious illness · memory loss · psychological mystery · psychiatric case · unreliable mind · missing time · premonitions · hallucinations · dissociative fugue · single motherhood · postpartum crisis · hyperthymesia · hidden trauma · reality questioning · disappearing protagonist

Themes labels: memory · identity · fate · reality · consciousness · trauma · motherhood · loneliness · loss · grief · time · free will · precognition · truth and perception · limits of diagnosis · mental illness · reliability · love · pandemic

Semantic match: ranked by premise + themes

Distance: 0.1825

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